Sous Vide °Celsius iOS App

[Mirdad]

This is the philosophy hub of the English-speaking gastronomy world. This is the place where Douglas Baldwin posted his calculations and it is the birthplace of Modernist Cuisine. I bow down respectfully and really mean it. I am also well aware that society member Vengroff created the outstanding Sous Vide Dash. I myself have often used the information provided. As a matter of fact the project that I am about to present wouldn’t be the way it is without the influences mentioned above.

 

On Tuesday November 11th we will release the Sous Vide °Celsius iOS app 3.0. An app with sous vide recommendations, timers and tutorials. Simple. It has been criticised in the past. It was criticised for not being worth its money. That hurt. So we sat down and tried to make it better. 

 

Sous Vide °Celsius is our distillate and experience about what works when using the sous vide technique. Food is never an exact geometrical shape. Waiting for an extra hour for a piece to reach the additional half degree is impractical. We tested sous vide recommendations that work and developed tutorials to make the first steps easy. 

 

The original was written in German. So we really need feedback from the English speaking world. We want this to be a useful app. An app that is worth it. Since its value is based on the content, it is more difficult to judge, but I am sure this is the right place to find out.

 

I hereby would like to offer you the possibility to test the app before the official release. I have no idea how many of you will respond. Please write an email. I will reply with more information and a link to register as a beta-tester. My offer stands until November 10th or until I run out of promocodes to cover your free app after the beta-testing phase. 

Edited November 6, 2014 by Mirdad (log)

[Martin Fisher]

My feedback: Make it available for Android.  

[johnmc]

+ 1

[weedy]

Feedback:

 

Why are some proteins able to be modified, as to their thickness for example, and others not?

 

What if I have an unusually thick, or thinly pounded, duck breast, for example?

[Mirdad]

Hello weedy

 

Thank you for your feedback. We test the suggestions ourselves. That means, we only have a limited amount of personal experiences. So not every product has been listed for all its sizes. We have started to give some product testing to colleagues, but almost every item has gone trough our own hands. Coupled with your feedback this should improve quality over time.

 

I took your suggestion to use a range of sizes for duck breast and put it in the Trello board for app feedback .

Let us know if there are more products that you believe are missing.

 

Thank you and best regards,  

Jonas

[glepore]

Jonas-Useful app. If it were up to me, I'd like to see the Celsius and Fahrenheit temps both displayed without the need to toggle. While I'm at it, the unit of thickness should likely change along with the temp, in an ideal world, although you do supply the ruler. I'll play some more. 

[ElsieD]

Can I change the pre-set temperatures? For fish, for example, I like them cooked sous vide to a higher temperature.

[Mirdad]

Jonas-Useful app. If it were up to me, I'd like to see the Celsius and Fahrenheit temps both displayed without the need to toggle. While I'm at it, the unit of thickness should likely change along with the temp, in an ideal world, although you do supply the ruler. I'll play some more. 

Thanks, glepore. The interaction with changing units in the US version needs to be improved. Looking for an option that is simple and understandable and not listing everything for everyone. Useful comment.

 

Can I change the pre-set temperatures? For fish, for example, I like them cooked sous vide to a higher temperature.

 

I add this to a card on Trello. More temperature/time recommendations for fish at higher temperatures. Thanks!

[Mirdad]

Sous Vide °Celsius iOS app 3.1 has been released. 

 

Features:

- Sous Vide timers (mini-recipes with an alarm). Added content and recommendations. 

- Improved Fahrenheit display, rulers in inches for the US. 

- Remote control the Anova Precision Cooker over Bluetooth (start, stop, set temperature).

 

Screenshots:

   

 

 

 

URL for purchase:  https://itunes.apple.com/app/sous-vide-celsius/id419217101. If you don't want to buy the app, but would like to help improve it, send me an email - I will provide you with free promocodes until they run out. Thanks to the EGullet beta-testers! Public app feedback and ideas for improvement are now on https://sousvidecelsius.uservoice.com. Keep it coming. 

[ElsieD]

Can one now change the pre-set temperatures on the purchased app?

[Matt L]

It's a neat tool. I bought it and would recommend others do too. It's good enough now and cheap enough not to have to rely on free codes.

A few thoughts on the newest iteration.

Bluetooth functionality is great for Anova Precision owners, but of little use to anyone else. The "turn on Bluetooth" pop up each time you switch it on is slightly irritating. As is the dialogue box that pops up (with dimmed buttons) when you click on the temperature setting. This needs reworking a bit to only happen if I have a relevant Bluetooth compatible piece of equipment connected. Could we - like the SVD - set up our default sous vide kit somewhere to avoid this?

The ability to shift preset temperatures on the app (to then change predicted "doneness") would useful as an alternative to choosing doneness and getting a recommended temperature. At the moment it all feels a bit locked down.

Having a ruler down the side of the app is great. But some way of then using this in the settings would be good. At present, for example, the chicken breast setting simply has a "max 30mm" recommendation, rather than the ability (Sous Vide Dash style) to input the thickness of the piece of meat.

Overall, though, a really useful app. I find at the moment I tend to use SVD a bit more as I like the great feeling of user control, but SVD sadly suffers from an annoyingly poor UI. Your app looks and feels much cleaner and slicker (apart from the Bluetooth thing), but needs some more flexibility (whilst not compromising its design).

Edited January 3, 2015 by Matt L (log)

[Mirdad]

It's a neat tool. I bought it and would recommend others do too. It's good enough now and cheap enough not to have to rely on free codes.

Bluetooth functionality is great for Anova Precision owners, but of little use to anyone else. The "turn on Bluetooth" pop up each time you switch it on is slightly irritating. As is the dialogue box that pops up (with dimmed buttons) when you click on the temperature setting. This needs reworking a bit to only happen if I have a relevant Bluetooth compatible piece of equipment connected. Could we - like the SVD - set up our default sous vide kit somewhere to avoid this?

Thank you for your suggestions and for that first line.

Dialogue boxes for bluetooth and temperature setting: True. It shouldn't bother you if you are not using it.

Setting default piece of equipment: I am using various brands and I like the automatic detection. But it could be a necessary step, if SV gear diversifies. 

 

Can one now change the pre-set temperatures on the purchased app?

 

There is no difference between the test and the purchased versions. They are identical. You can change the pre-set on the input pop-up for the Anova. But not in the recommendations themselves. Noted. Suggestions for "user entered variables" and "ability to enter their own recipes" have also come up on UserVoice . 

 

 

The ability to shift preset temperatures on the app (to then change predicted "doneness") would useful as an alternative to choosing doneness and getting a recommended temperature. At the moment it all feels a bit locked down.

Having a ruler down the side of the app is great. But some way of then using this in the settings would be good. At present, for example, the chicken breast setting simply has a "max 30mm" recommendation, rather than the ability (Sous Vide Dash style) to input the thickness of the piece of meat.

This is a need, apparently. It feels too restricted and you both want more freedom. Got it. Thank you!

Edited January 5, 2015 by Mirdad (log)

[Paul Bacino]

Just picked it up..

 

Will get around to cooking and working with it in the next couple months.

 

thanks

 

Paul

[Romain]

just bought the app an allready commented on it through the link you posted.

 

 

https://sousvidecelsius.uservoice.com

seems more adequate to do it there than here.

[Frank Koterba]

I have been looking the same questions.

I am now retired from the kitchen, but I still love to move the needle forward.

I have the smaller Anova unit for personal use. I have a slightly larger Sansaire unit that will handle a larger volume of water.

I have cooked flank steak for 25 in a campground after doing the initial batch cooking with the Sansaire. I reheated the batch in a camp cooler. It was great!

I do a lot of things that would benefit from the chamber vacs ability to seal liquids. I have had a Food saver sealer for years. I actually wore one out in Alaska.

They sent me a new one for $50. It retailed for $300. They make the money on the bags.

I have thought the issue of what is more important. I am really leaning toward the vacum system. I think it is probably more of the crux of the sous vide processthan the circulator.

 

I and my wife have the "scottish jean", that is probably the only reason I haven't taken the plunge.  

But I will!