Another player enters the sous vide field: Paragon Induction Cooktop

[AlaMoi]

hhmmmm, that might impact the wireless 'thingie'.

 

interesting tidbit - thanks!

[Coogles]

Received an email this morning saying that most of the units have been shipped.  My backerkit confirmation page says mine has shipped but I haven't received an email with tracking yet.  

[rotuts]

very interested to hear what you think.

[Coogles]

I received the Paragon last Wednesday and have been playing around with it for a bit.  First impressions are pretty positive.  The wireless probe is powered with a lithium ion battery and is charged via USB.  They claim the battery has a useful life of about 300 charge/discharge cycles and a single charge can last several days if the probe is left on (or up to 3 months if off).  I don't see any obvious way for an end user to remove and replace the battery once it starts to fail but I haven't really tried to crack the case open so it may be possible.  The cooktop can be run in direct mode with 10 power levels, when synced to the wireless probe there are 2 precision modes (rapid and gentle) available as well.  The rapid precision mode allows for a maximum power level of 10 while gentle mode restricts the maximum power level to 5.  Syncing the probe to the cooktop is simple, just push the button on the side of the probe case until the Bluetooth symbol flashes three times and it wirelessly connects to the cooktop.  My understanding is that the probe is pre-paired to the cooktop at the factory but if the pairing is lost for any reason there is a procedure to re-pair the devices.  My main purpose for buying this was for homebrewing, so I went out and picked up a 22 quart induction ready stockpot to use as a mash tun.  I filled the stockpot with 14 1/2 liters of cold tap water, synced up the probe and set the target temperature to 150°f.  It took 70 minutes to warm up the water in the uncovered pot from 50°f to 150° in rapid precision mode.  There was a little bit of overshoot, if I were using it for sous vide I'd switch to gentle precision once the bath had warmed up to minimize that.  I also noticed that if I measure the temperature of the water using a thermapen the temperature is consistently 2°f higher than what's displayed on the cooktop via the wireless probe.  I'm not sure if there's a way to program in an offset but I'll look in to that later.  The only other thing I've done so far is to use it for deep frying.  I heated up about 6 cups of oil in a 3 quart saucepan and set the target temp to 370°.  With such a small volume of oil the temperature overshot about 8°f, a cheaper pan with a thinner base would probably reduce that considerably.  When I added the hush puppy batter and the oil temperature fell the cooktop immediately kicked in and kept the temp from falling much below 350°f so it does work well as a deep fryer and I can use a small amount of oil instead of having to fill up my 5 liter fryer.  

[Slick]

Seems to me this will be more useful in a small space like an apartment kitchen, Or, for a dedicated job function, a second SV, special function... . I do like the response to deep frying as observed. It has some appealing features. I think they can improve it with a minor additional "gadget" to the product: a hang on the side circulator to make sous vide operation better. I wonder if they considered this. 

 

Interesting item to follow as it matures in the marketplace. It will likely influence other manufacturers. 

 

I like it. Hope they succeed.

[EnriqueB]

In fact El Celler de Can Roca, fist restaurant of the world in some lists and well known for its work in sous-vide, has just launched a home appliance to cook "low temperature" (they always use that term instead of sous-vide in their site) that mimics Paragon: rocook.com 

 

Currently available only in Spain, I think. I am a bit surprised that they followed this type of equipment instead of a circulator. I think it is to foster the "low temperature" part of sous-vide allowing cooking in the pot at a given temp without necessarily using bags.

 

 

[rotuts]

@EnriqueB   

 

very interesting and elegant looking.

 

their intent must be to use this only for quick cooking items, fish, shellfish, very tender meats  or evaporation over hours is going to be a big problem

[TheBoozeBaron]

@EnriqueB That type of device is very surprising and incredibly expensive compared to most circulators. Put it up next to the Joule and I'd be hard pressed to think of a reason to buy a rocook. Can you think of any real benefits?

[rotuts]

I think its for 3 - 4 star restaurants for un-attended cooking of very delicate items  that don't take that long to cook, but the actual temp of the 'stuff' cooking is

 

very very important 

[EnriqueB]

19 hours ago, TheBoozeBaron said:

@EnriqueB That type of device is very surprising and incredibly expensive compared to most circulators. Put it up next to the Joule and I'd be hard pressed to think of a reason to buy a rocook. Can you think of any real benefits?

 

That's exactly what I told them in Twitter. The main benefit I see is not forcing home users to use bags. The only talk "low temperature" and not "sous-vide" on their website, as if that would be less scary for home cooks.

 

Of course they are the #1 restaurant in the world now and all the press is talking marvels about how they are bringing "their" incredible technique to the homes, saying they are the first to do such a thing. As if egullet, Baldwin, Modernist Cuisine, SVS, cheap circulators, etc had never existed. I started to teach sous vide classes to home (and sometimes professional) cooks in Spain some years ago precisely because there was none, but all of a sudden they have invented everything 

[EnriqueB]

16 hours ago, rotuts said:

I think its for 3 - 4 star restaurants for un-attended cooking of very delicate items  that don't take that long to cook, but the actual temp of the 'stuff' cooking is

 

very very important 

 

But it is targeted to home cooks, not 3-4 star restaurants.

[rotuts]

thanks for this thread.   please keep up informed if you see anything new.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Since I seem to have purchased a Paragon last night I'd love to hear of others' experiences.  One question I have:  how high a temperature can you maintain while using the mat for precision temperature control?

 

[Vapre]

1 hour ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

Since I seem to have purchased a Paragon last night I'd love to hear of others' experiences.  One question I have:  how high a temperature can you maintain while using the mat for precision temperature control?

 

 

Not home at the moment but I recall both the probe and mat topping off at 375F. But if you don't use them you can go higher. A couple winters ago I had it running for hours boiling down maple sap for syrup in the carport.

Edited August 10, 2019 by Vapre (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

6 minutes ago, Vapre said:

 

Not home at the moment but I recall both the probe and mat topping off at 375F. But if you don't use them you can go higher. A couple winters ago I had it running for hours boiling down maple sap for syrup in the carport.

 

 

Thanks, I wish it had been higher.

 

Any idea (anyone) what the Paragon Six Pack is?  The page needs a password to log in.

 

[Vapre]

6 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

Thanks, I wish it had been higher.

 

Any idea (anyone) what the Paragon Six Pack is?  The page needs a password to log in.

 

 

That is a bit of a bummer for frying purposes. I do enjoy the feedback aspect of it though as opposed to a standard induction burner.

 

Yeah it's kind of a ghost town over at FirstBuild for the Paragon. I think the Six Pack was an option to order 6 of them.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Amazon lists the Paragon at $299, but delivery is one to three months.  I wonder if $99.99 from RCWilley is a close-out price?

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

On ‎8‎/‎9‎/‎2019 at 8:53 PM, Vapre said:

 

Not home at the moment but I recall both the probe and mat topping off at 375F. But if you don't use them you can go higher. A couple winters ago I had it running for hours boiling down maple sap for syrup in the carport.

 

 

Have you ever tried French fried potatoes?  If the temperature recovers fast enough after dumping in the potatoes, 375F might be high enough for the final fry?  (She asks hopefully.)  Of course one could perform the incineration step on the stovetop.

 

 

[Vapre]

23 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

Have you ever tried French fried potatoes?  If the temperature recovers fast enough after dumping in the potatoes, 375F might be high enough for the final fry?  (She asks hopefully.)  Of course one could perform the incineration step on the stovetop.

 

 

No but I did do buffalo wings via this recipe: https://www.seriouseats.com/2019/04/how-to-make-sous-vide-chicken-wings.html

They called for 400F oil but I just set the probe to the 375 max. Was pretty happy with the recovery time.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

2 hours ago, Vapre said:

No but I did do buffalo wings via this recipe: https://www.seriouseats.com/2019/04/how-to-make-sous-vide-chicken-wings.html

They called for 400F oil but I just set the probe to the 375 max. Was pretty happy with the recovery time.

 

I'm not a wing person.  I'm far too fastidious, sitting here with my white shorts* and mai tai.  I had never seen that sous vide wing method before.  But now I'm interested to see how this might work for chicken thighs or possibly a half poussin.

 

 

*just noticed the zipper's open, and yes Jo's renowned white mai tai:

https://forums.egullet.org/topic/25600-mai-tai-recipes/?do=findComment&comment=1993719

 

[adey73]

$99 !!! 

 

Have Paragon folded with that price?

 

that's a steal just to play with... !

 

I really thought Vollrath would have brought out something with real precision by now.

[chefmd]

I bought it @adey73 “just to play with” 😍

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I suspect they would have done much better had they not marketed the Paragon as a sous vide device.

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

My Paragon was on the doorstep when I got home from work.  The Bluetooth sensor is charging as we speak (I hope).  A charging cable is included -- but no charger.  So far everything seems straightforward.  The iPad app pairs with the sensor but in playing with the app it does not appear the app is required for any of the device's functionality.

 

Recommended pot diameter is 6 inches to 11 inches.  The Paragon is bilingual.  It speaks Celsius and Fahrenheit.  Maximum temperature for precise mode is 375F/190C.  When using direct mode there are 10 power levels.

 

As a first test I measured how fast the unit would boil water.  Using my Fissler stockpot* I brought 2 kg of 26.9C water to a full rolling boil in 12.5 minutes.

 

 

*with the fancy induction bottom.

 

[chefmd]

@JoNorvelleWalker thanks to your (enabling) recommendation, my Paragon will arrive on Monday.  Can’t wait to play with it