Sous Vide Breaking News: A $179 Sous Vide Circulator from Modernist Cuisine Is Coming Soon!

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I got mine today, but I don't have time to use it right now, and my vacuum sealer is packed anyhow. That will give you guys some time to inspire me.

My first impression though is that the construction is rather cheap on the Sansaire. The ABS plastic is pretty light weight and it just doesn't have the material build one would expect. It is my guess that the Anova has better build quality -- at least from what I read.

k.
 
Interesting. I just unpacked mine and thought it seemed pretty well made for the price. Not sure they could make a quality metal enclosure without it resulting in a decent price increase.
 
WildBoar said:
Interesting. I just unpacked mine and thought it seemed pretty well made for the price. Not sure they could make a quality metal enclosure without it resulting in a decent price increase.
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I don't think it is going to fail or anything, but I think I was partially taken back by a few things. There was a piece of debris under the top sticker that I had fish out with a pocket knife and re-adhere the sticker, and that got me thinking the sticker was rather cheap too. The lower door of the unit fell right off when I unpackaged, and the scotch tape holding it on wasn't that impressive.

After hearing how solidly constructed the Anova was, I guess I had a bit higher expectations. I just read again the Serious Eats review and they had this quote about the Sansaire: "Its all-plastic chassis feels a little fragile. I can imagine the casing cracking with an accidental spill, or perhaps the clips that hold that back panel in place cracking off with normal opening and closing for cleaning. This hasn't happened to me yet, but I can see it happening down the road."

I have that same feeling. Time will tell I guess.

k.
 
After using the Polyscience CREATIVE for my clients for a couple of weeks with many different things, I finally had a chance to play with it on my own at home. All of the things I cooked came out great, and it was interesting to see the results. I post more of those later...

I picked a 5lb chuck roast f/ my local grocery store (nothing special - choice Angus, but very nice) and cut it into four large pieces (about 2" thick steaks). 2 I seasoned with a spice rub I made, vac sealed, sous vide @ 140 for 28 hrs, dried off well and seared in a hot De Buyer about 1 minute per side. The other 2 I braised, traditional method - seared on both sides, mirepoix w/ mixed veg, Guinness, broth, etc, tightly covered @ 250 for 6hrs, strained and reduced liquid for an amazing sauce.

Both were great - but very different. One noticeable difference was the size of the pieces after cooking. The braised pieces had shrunken much more than the sous vide pieces - guessing I'd say 60% vs 75% of total pre-cooked size. It'd be worth while doing this again and weighing each piece before and after to see actual loss.

Tonight I compared the two side by side. To the defense of the braise, I cooked it yesterday and reheated tonight - it was much better fresh from the oven. It was so tender and so moist. Tonight it was still tender, but I heated it too much and it was dry - it needed sauce to bring it back to life.

The sous vide pieces lost quite a bit of liquid in the bags - I was actually surprised how much came out. I strained and reduced it, but it was no where near as good as the reduced braising liquid. These were very tender, but not like the braised pieces which had that stringy quality. The sous vide pieces also had much more moisture in them, and really didn't need any sauce, but was even better with it. It had such a good tender yet toothsome quality I've never achieved any other way. The quality of the fat was much better too - it was soft and unctuous, not falling apart and gooey as the braise.

If I had to pick a winner, it's definitely the sous vide - it was just stellar. One major draw back is there is no braising liquid to reduce for a sauce. I'm more excited about this than I've been about anything cooking-wise in a long time!!!

These shots are at room temp, cut across the grain - sous vide on the left (pre-pan sear), braise on the right. The braised piece is darker throughout, and shorter due to moisture loss (they were roughly the same size pre-cooking). You can also see that the grain of the sous vide is more open, lending a more tender texture.


Beef-chuck_braise-v-sous_vide_02-20-14_1.jpg Beef-chuck_braise-v-sous_vide_02-20-14_2.jpg Beef-chuck_braise-v-sous_vide_02-20-14_3.jpg Beef-chuck_braise-v-sous_vide_02-20-14_4.jpg
 
Great review the M, thanks for taking the time to do this. I notice two main things....one being that you cooked it for 28 hours? and second being that your cut on the braised piece isn't very clean compared to the sous-vide one lol. Cheers
 
Mike personally I like a lower temp like 129 and I do whole 5lb chuck roasts for 72 hours. I think you'll get a lot less moisture loss increasing product overall weight too. Funny everyone is now into sous vide and I'm going back to classic cooking. Don't think I've touched my poly science pro in weeks
 
Last night I used the Sansaire and made some sockeye salmon fillets (with olive oil, little lemon juice, dill, salt, pepper). Did 126 degrees (medium rare--still want to try rare with some sushi grade sometime) for 30 minutes. They were tender and delicious. Also did some glazed carrots and brussel sprouts, which were also nice, but the salmon was the star of the meal. Looking forward to trying out some other things.
 
Mine arrived in the mail yesterday...I did a quick inspection and function test. I was impressed with how quickly it brought 20qts of water to 130F. Like Mr. Drinky, I'm not impressed by build quality...it's not bad...just not impressive. I think it will hold up though.

I'm going to do short-ribs starting today. Also, wanted to do those eggs everyone was talking about a wile back...can anyone point me to that thread or a recipe/process description?

I think I might keep this thing running straight for a couple of weeks!

Should be getting a bonus from work soon...that will go to a chamber vac and vita mix. then I'm done for a while.
 
Mucho Bocho said:
Mike personally I like a lower temp like 129 and I do whole 5lb chuck roasts for 72 hours. I think you'll get a lot less moisture loss increasing product overall weight too. Funny everyone is now into sous vide and I'm going back to classic cooking. Don't think I've touched my poly science pro in weeks
Click to expand...

MB I'm still experimenting w/ different temps and times. Do you have any concerns re: bad bacteria growth at such a low temp for that amount of time? I also did a pork shoulder lower temp for 24 hrs, and I didn't think the fat had cooked through enough and the CT wasn't broken down quite enough. Moisture loss happens around 140, so I think going lower will lead to less loss.

I'm looking at this as another tool in my kit, I'll use it to enhance the classic methods I use. So many things to try!
 
Zwiefel said:
. Also, wanted to do those eggs everyone was talking about a wile back...can anyone point me to that thread or a recipe/process?
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150f for ~1hr is where they get that custard texture people rave about.

One would do well to memorize this whole site...
http://www.douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html#Perfect_Egg

I like the eggs at 146-148 for 45 min. The Mrs won't eat them unless I then drop hers in boiling water for about 90 seconds to firm up the whites.

If you don't have that kind of time, 13 minutes at 165 works pretty well too.
 
mpukas said:
I got my Polyscience Professional CREATIVE unit from Cookingdistrict.com - and they're on sale right for 25% off!!! $300!!! :lol2:

http://cookingdistrict.com/store/SE...&name=Sous Vide Professional™ CREATIVE Series
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Looks like, with some new entrants to the market, this is a broad based attempt by PolyScience to acquire some market share in that ~$300 segment...
Williams Sonoma is also now offering the Creative at $300, for those concerned about post-sale support.
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/prod...ODUCTSEARCH||NoFacet-_-NoFacet-_-NoMerchRules
(Free shipping with "ship4free")
 
I think mine is DOA, when I plug it in it displays reset, but the reset button does not have any tension in it. You can tilt the unit back and forth and the button freely slides in and out. Can anyone check there reset button to see if this is normal?
 
sw2geeks said:
I think mine is DOA, when I plug it in it displays reset, but the reset button does not have any tension in it. You can tilt the unit back and forth and the button freely slides in and out. Can anyone check there reset button to see if this is normal?
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They had something on this in an e-mail update. Here is the section dealing with the resent issue.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

"Returns and Replacements

Every production run of a consumer electronics device will include a certain percentage of defective units. Unfortunately, the Sansaire isn’t immune to these statistical laws, and we’ve heard from several customers who have received nonfunctional units.

The most common problem that’s been reported to us is that the Sansaire will read “RESET” immediately upon powering it up. Despite our rigorous testing process and quality assurance measures at the factory, we weren’t able to catch this issue. Working with the factory, we’ve identified the source of the problem: a loose connection on one of the plugs on a circuit board in the Sansaire. During transit, some of these connectors have come loose, resulting in this message.

There have been a few reports of other problems as well, and we take each one very seriously. We know how long you’ve waited to receive your Sansaire, and how awful it must feel to discover that your unit was defective. We cannot apologize enough for this problem, but we can make it up to you.

If you are experiencing any problems with your Sansaire, please email us at [email protected], and we’ll take care of you. If your unit was defective, we’ll send out a replacement right away, and send you a pre-paid shipping label to return the defective unit to us. Because we’re a small team, it may take us a day or so to get back to you - we appreciate your patience! Show Us."
 
mr drinky said:
They had something on this in an e-mail update. Here is the section dealing with the resent issue.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

"Returns and Replacements

Every production run of a consumer electronics device will include a certain percentage of defective units. Unfortunately, the Sansaire isn’t immune to these statistical laws, and we’ve heard from several customers who have received nonfunctional units.

The most common problem that’s been reported to us is that the Sansaire will read “RESET” immediately upon powering it up. Despite our rigorous testing process and quality assurance measures at the factory, we weren’t able to catch this issue. Working with the factory, we’ve identified the source of the problem: a loose connection on one of the plugs on a circuit board in the Sansaire. During transit, some of these connectors have come loose, resulting in this message.

There have been a few reports of other problems as well, and we take each one very seriously. We know how long you’ve waited to receive your Sansaire, and how awful it must feel to discover that your unit was defective. We cannot apologize enough for this problem, but we can make it up to you.

If you are experiencing any problems with your Sansaire, please email us at [email protected], and we’ll take care of you. If your unit was defective, we’ll send out a replacement right away, and send you a pre-paid shipping label to return the defective unit to us. Because we’re a small team, it may take us a day or so to get back to you - we appreciate your patience! Show Us."
Click to expand...

This happened to me, and they were prompt about responding. Don't have the replacement yet, but hopefully soon.
 
Excellent share Wenus2!

wenus2 said:
150f for ~1hr is where they get that custard texture people rave about.

One would do well to memorize this whole site...
http://www.douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html#Perfect_Egg

I like the eggs at 146-148 for 45 min. The Mrs won't eat them unless I then drop hers in boiling water for about 90 seconds to firm up the whites.

If you don't have that kind of time, 13 minutes at 165 works pretty well too.
Click to expand...
 
Received a unit with a defective LED display that doesn't display anything.

Correspondence with Sansaire has been prompt/courteous and a replacement is forthcoming but it may be a while since the green LED displays are backordered.

:(
 
I've got 9 short ribs going at 130F with a sauce of my devising....72 hours...about 30 hours in at this point. Excited for Weds night!
 
I did pork ribs for 72 hours back in the summer and they were stupendous. I pulled on set of them at 48 hours for a double-blind tasting, and all 3 of my dinners picked the 48-hour ribs...the additional 24 hours makes a difference.

I'm about to go pull the short ribs from the bath and start cooling them down. Going to build a hot fire in the smoker and fast-sear each side, then put them on the far end of the smoker to bring up to eating temp and get some hickory on them. Serving with roasted brussel sprouts and a hot-smoked potato. I'll have pics tomorrow ;)


toddnmd said:
I'm excited to try 72 hour ribs. My SO is dubious, so I'm hoping to prove her wrong.
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Finally tried mine out this morning. Made the 150 deg F egg for my wife. She wasn't too keen on it, as the yolk was too done for her (she could not stir it into the whites). Will try wenus2's 146-148 at 45 minutes next. Also hope to play with some meat this weekend, although all cooking will be done in a baggie or dry in a sealed pouch (my vacuum machine right now is an old Foodsaver). I was really happy with how quickly the water was brought up to temp. The machine worked fine.
 
WildBoar said:
Finally tried mine out this morning. Made the 150 deg F egg for my wife. She wasn't too keen on it, as the yolk was too done for her (she could not stir it into the whites). Will try wenus2's 146-148 at 45 minutes next. Also hope to play with some meat this weekend, although all cooking will be done in a baggie or dry in a sealed pouch (my vacuum machine right now is an old Foodsaver). I was really happy with how quickly the water was brought up to temp. The machine worked fine.
Click to expand...

I don't own a sous vide cooker yet, but I have tried partially freezing liquids I would put into FoodSaver pouch and then vacuum seal the pouch with my FoodSaver while the liquid is semi-solid. You could completely freeze the liquids but I imagine it would be a pain waiting for it to defrost before you throw it in a sous vide cooker otherwise your cook times would be off. I have completely frozen packages and leave them in the fridge to defrost when I leave for work so I can cook them later. I used this method primarily for marinades and it works fairly well. Its a pain in the a** but it does allow you to get liquids in FoodSaver pouch without sucking it all up.

I will probably get a newer Foodsaver that has the stop vacuum and seal function to avoid having to do the above. I believe the lowest model is the V2244 which has this function and can be had for about $70 dollars new on Amazon or less if you buy the damaged box ones.
 
Got my replacement Sansaire today. It works! Got some eggs going; should be done in about 40 minutes.
 
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