Anova Sous Vide Precision Cooker – Item of the Day
Price Alert – Bringing this around today because the Nano Version is on sale for 27% off. Most people do not need or even care about the network ability of the more expensive version. So if you have been thinking of adding Sous Vide to your life, now is a great time to do so.
Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is the Anova Sous Vide Precision Cooker. I have talked about Sous Vide Cooking a lot on the show and this is my third cooker to purchase before settling on which to recommend. One worked great until it crapped out in six months and a value model proved to be of little value for consistency.
There are two versions of the Anova to consider, they are,
The difference is you can control the Nano version with your smart phone when in bluetooth range. But the WiFi one becomes a device on your network attached to an account (that is free) with Anova. This means you can control your cooker from anywhere you have signal to your phone. Like the parking lot at your office when you leave work. More on why you may want this in the PS below. To be clear both can also be set manually and truthful most of the time it is what I do. Super simple, dial the temp in, hit start, set a timer.
Sous Vide is a method of cooking that I describe as a dry poaching. Poaching of course is holding a food item in a liquid until it is cooked to your liking. This keeps foods moist and prevents over cooking. It is also simmering in water when you get right to it, for some stuff that is fine.
There are a few primary differences with Sous Vide. First it uses a precision cooker, meaning if you want 137 degrees you get exactly that, if you want 165, and you might, say for chicken, you get EXACTLY THAT. Not 162, not 166, not 163, you get precisely the temperature you want. Most poaching is a best effort process. It also in general uses higher temps say 180 for instance for eggs.
Next Sous Vide is dry, well not exactly dry but the food doesn’t contact the heated liquid, it is instead held inside a food safe bag. This can be done with a quality zip top bag but I prefer to use a vacuum sealed bag. The meat or other item is seasoned as you choose, then cooked to the exact temp you want. After that it is finished with a quick sear, about one minute per side or less.
For steak the results are a perfect cook to your preferred temp, we are talking end to end pink or red or what ever you want. Not perfect in the center and darkening to the outside.
Overall I resisted Sous Vide when I first heard about it. I considered it the realm of hipster types and what have you. I have become a full on convert, in some ways it has changed my life a little bit. I don’t use it every day, I do use it at least once a week though. Over time you find the things that work best for you with this method and the things you prefer to do more conventionally.
I also figured this was sort of a fussy pain in the ass method until I tried it. I was wrong! Compare it to conventional cooking in a real world scenario. Say I want to make steak tonight. We have my grandkids, my wife is busy, I am busy, etc. My daughter-in-law some days has to work late, we don’t usually know that until about 4PM, then we don’t even know how late, late might be some days. Then there is my wife, after a day of taking care of kids she doesn’t want to eat right away when they are gone. We just want some peace and quiet for a while.
So I have to wait until we are both ready. Then fire up the grill, then try to get my steak perfect for me and her’s perfect for her. The entire time dealing with “I’m not really ready to eat just yet”, soon followed by, “well now I am really hungry”. The later it gets the more likely we are to end up eating left overs or something.
Contrast Sous Vide. Toss seasoned steaks in bag, heat pot to 137 (my preferred temp), cook 1 hour, 15 minutes. Remove my steak, turn up heat to 150 (her preferred temp) cook 20 minutes. Turn temp back to 135, throw in a handful or ice to drop the temp. It can now sit there an hour, nothing is going to happen, it can’t over cook. When she is ready, take out steak, heat carbon steal pan, and or grab torch, sear, takes bout 3 minutes tops.
You tell me which way is more fussy and a pain in the ass? So if you have been looking to try sous vide I really can’t recommend the Anova either in WiFi or Bluetooth Nano version enough. Everyone I know that owns one just loves it.
Remember you can always find the TSP Amazon Item of the day by just going to TspAz.com and by shopping at TspAz.com anytime you shop on Amazon you help support TSP and the work we do here no matter what you buy.
P.S. – So why would you want to be able to control your cooker from miles away. Imagine you want to come home and have steak for dinner. Well in the morning you take your vac sealed steak and put it in a pot of cold water and fill it with ice. Your trusty Anova goes in to the pot too.
A one inch steak takes about an hour to cook but still mostly frozen it will take 90-120 minutes. So as you get in your car, you push start. When you get home say 45 minutes later, the steak has about 45 minutes to go. You start your side dish and salad, open the bag when ready, sear and eat. Oh and while you can run Sous Vide too long for a cut of meat, it will NEVER over cook because it can’t, 135 is 135 period. More on this in today’s show.
P.S.S. – Wanted to add a bunch of additional things Sous Vide cookers can do for you. Here we go.
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- Make Yogurt – A follower of mine on facebook today wanted to get a yogurt maker because they are spending so much on yogurt drinks and such. I pointed out you just put water in something, set the sous vide temp to what you want for your yogurt. Set a timer and done. Best part is my follower already has a sous vide cooker, just never thought of using it this way.
~ - Make Cheese – Similar technique but you put your milk in a second container and use the temps and time for your cheese recipe. This can be done for hard aged and pressed cheeses made with rennet and for super quick farm cheeses made with simple vinegar. Here is an example of a quick cheese in a youtube video.
~ - Egg Bites – They are all the rage at coffee houses especially with the explosion of keto and low carb eating. You can make them with sous vide, super easy and super cheap. If you eat these a few times a week a Nano will pay for itself in a month. Here is a video on making them.
~ - Boil Eggs – Let’s stay on eggs for a while. Boiling eggs is tricky especially if you want the yolks perfect, and perfect is a personal choice. With sous vide you can set a specific temp and time, once you get “perfect” as you consider it you have a formula, it will never change and you will always get perfect eggs. Here is a video on that, how ever you like your eggs it will give you a great starting point.
~ - Creme Brulee – Want a bad ass cheffy desert but want it to be super simple, make Creme Brulee. Here is a video on that, are you low carb, well, use Lakonto Sugar and you can have Creme Brulee, just don’t make it a daily habit.
- Make Yogurt – A follower of mine on facebook today wanted to get a yogurt maker because they are spending so much on yogurt drinks and such. I pointed out you just put water in something, set the sous vide temp to what you want for your yogurt. Set a timer and done. Best part is my follower already has a sous vide cooker, just never thought of using it this way.
I love TV Chef Alton Brown and one thing we both really agree on is unitaskers suck unless they are the only thing that works for the intended purpose. Screw yogurt makers etc. The Sous Vide circulator can make boiled eggs to the exact level you want, make cheese, make yogurt, make dessert, make egg bites and still cook a perfect steak. It has become of the single most useful tools in our home. Oh and man you gotta try the cheese.
My Joule hasn’t crapped out on me yet. My Anova seems better built, but takes much longer to heat the water than my Joule. I prefer the Joule’s app, recipes and website experience.
All in all, if I had it to do over again, I’d buy the Anova and download the ChefSteps app and subscribe to their newsletter. Good recipes.
I like having two sous vide machines.
I agree with that, and my Joule may have just been a lemon.
Fast heating with your Anova, heat a full electric kettle to almost boiling and dump in. Takes about 4 minutes for the kettle to boil when full.
Also just hot tap water speeds stuff up a LOT, because you don’t care about hot water heater ick since the water never touches your food.
Have you tried an air fryer yet? Finally figured out why I burnt out on paleo a few years ago (electrolytes! per Ketogains) and am now down 80 lbs with about 20 left to go. Since I have very minimal cooking/cleaning time, I use a lot of store bought pre-cooked meats but would like to get away from that since I don’t consider it the healthiest choice long-term. An air fryer looks like it might be a good choice in meeting my goals.
Personally I see no use for one if you have a convection oven.
Is it weird I just bought this through Tspaz on Sunday?
Can’t wait to try it out. Thanks!
Sadly wasn’t able to get it from Amazon (they only have the 110V USA power supply), but picked it up locally today based on the TSPC recommendation.
Happy Friday Jack,
Do you have a recommendation for a food vacuum sealer?
I did a search on your website and after (not much) digging, I was unable to find any such recommendations. I’m interested in finally taking the plunge on this item of the day, but want to make sure I get a great food vacuum sealer to go along with it. Also, while we’re at it, any recommendations on the refill plastic rolls (food grade, certain thickness, brand, etc.) would be greatly appreciated as well.
Thank you for all you do,
Ramon
I don’t have one on Amazon, this is what I own and I love it, https://www.cabelas.com/product/CABELAS-COMMERCIAL-GRADE-VAC-SEALER/2742410.uts?slotId=0
But you don’t need a vac sealer for sous vide, ziplock works perfectly fine. You can get 99% of the air out like this, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fO_lcL7Ibgo
Aren’t Ziploc less stable than vacuum seal plastic?
When using Ziploc do you recommend Freezer rated over standard?
Kind of annoyed that this unit doesn’t have a start timer. As in, I want it to start 4 hours from now. So dinner is ready when I get home. Or hard boiled eggs are ready in the morning. And, you can’t set timers for it to shut off either. I’d rather it cool down than over cook.
Had I known this I would have spurred for the Wi-Fi.
You really can’t over cook unless you really over cook.
Oh and how long have you had it you can likely return it and exchange it, Amazon is really good about that.
Just wanted to comment that after purchasing this cooker it quit after about the 6th use. Total electrical failure and will not power up. I left a message with Anova, and will follow up if I don’t hear back. I will update this comment so everyone can hear how it plays out. Just wanted to give my honest feedback after having had no issue with any of the other TSPAZ items I have bought over the years.
You should be able to just exchange it on Amazon no questions asked.
Just following up to my comment. I missed the window to return the product through Amazon however, when I contacted Anova they accepted the return. They have a wonderful customer service representative, I don’t say that lightly and have often poor experiences. In summery if you do get a lemon this company will make it right, buy with confidence.
Jack-
I wonder if you could freeze a steak with seasoning and in the vacuum bags…freeze a bunch of them so they are ready to go. Then drop the frozen streak in the bag in the pot of cold water from tap. No need to add ice?
It depends on how long it is going to sit there before it goes on. The add ice think is when you are going to be gone all day, otherwise it can thaw out and start to spoil. It is cheap insurance. There is no reason not to do it. I think you’d be shocked at how fast a totally frozen steak thaws once the circulation starts. I do it all the time, not with turning it on remote since I work from home. But just hey we didn’t take anything out, grab two frozen steaks and put them in the sous vide. A 60 minute cook ends up taking 75-90 minutes it is that fast.
I have even used it set really low like say 70 degrees to defrost things I was not going to sous vide. Even at 70 the moving water will totally defrost a roast in about 40-60 minutes.
I sprung for the wireless version. Totally worth it. I have used the ice water/start it from work method multiple times and come home to meat that was ready.
I’ve also become the hero of Thanksgiving… and Christmas… and Easter. I was already the “meat guy”. But my Anova has made turkey, beef tenderloin, lamb, and chicken for holidays. It comes out perfect every time. Words like “scrumptious” and “divine” typically come back from guests. Family members who never ate a steak less than medium well and always wanted me to cook them more are now buying Anovas and eating meat like it was intended… close to raw. I typically season good meat in the bag for a while (including aromatics like rosemary). When I pull them out of the bag for the finish, I clear away some most of the herbs and use some more fresh on the cast iron. Killer…
If you work away from home or, like me, are responsible for both cooking the meat and last minute trips to the grocery, then spring for the wireless instead of just the bluetooth.
How do you do your turkey?
One thing I’ve been wanting to try Sous Vide is candle making, perfect melting point and no double boiler or wax coated surroundings is the hope.
Corey fantastic idea. Made me realize it would be good for candy making too, ie melting chocolate.
Oh, man, I didn’t even think about chocolate.
I’ve been on the fence about working with melting chocolate too.
Would Tattler lids be good for mason jar sous cooking?
I don’t see why not, but I figured I would ask before ordering some.
Not sure, like you said seems no reason why not but I stopped using them years ago.
That was quick! Got the TSP email 14 minutes ago informing this item of the day is on-sale for $138. Amazon has already popped it back up to $175. Wondering if they are secretly watching Jack’s items-of-the-day and quickly changing prices. 🙂
Yet another reason to get on the telegram channel!
Just finished eating my fantastic ribeye – wow. I’ve never been able to cook a thick steak. I followed your recommendation. 137 degrees 75 min using the sous vide.
Thanks Jack!
Do you recommend buying the Sous Vide container with lid or can you just use a regular stock pot as some of the pictures on Amz show? The container is an extra $70.
I bought a very large and a medium sized container. I sous vide a LOT and some stuff for a long cook, think over night brisket. I also make farm cheese and having one to nest in the other for that is really nice. Day to day though and getting started a pot is fine. You can put a towel over the top to help conservation. I have seen people make a cook container from cheap stryofoam coolers, that words too.
Here is what I own in 12 and 26 quarts. There are other options but since I love cooking I went with the best, what sucks is you have to buy the lids separately. https://amzn.to/3ISzQKd
What sold me on taking the plunge was the cheese making. You can see that here, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmkeRdbCBrw so fast and so easy. I have put a ton of stuff in it like garlic and jalapenos.
So you don’t need to, and if you do you can buy something less expensive but this is what I invested in. I have to say they will likely last forever.
Thanks, Jack. The above comments on cheesemaking, yogurt, melting wax and chocolate made me take plunge. I had no idea. And hope you keep doing your hysteria voice on the podcast. Makes me laugh just thinking about it.
I’ll work a Karen shriek into tomorrows OBWJ just for you tomorrow.