New Anova combi oven

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sudsy9977

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Anyone have any thoughts on the new anova oven. Looks pretty cool.
 
Im sure most who are interested in this new oven have already seen Kenji's unboxing video of it, but for those who may have missed it:

 
What’s up. It’s scary to think I’ve been on knife related forums for i don’t even know how long. It’s had to been close to 20 years if not longer. Remember the days of sending money orders to japan. Those were the good old days. Ryan
 
Having read up on CVAP and combi ovens and talked to many professionals who work in commercial kitchens and bakeries, I can say with confidence that there are plenty of valid culinary reasons for an oven to feature steam, forced air convection, and extreme temperature stability. And while I'm not opposed to using lab equipment in the kitchen, I can't imagine that thing having any significant benefits over the offering from Anova. It's less accurate, isn't a proper convection oven, cannot control humidity, and has a narrower operating range of temperatures. It's also ugly, has an inferior control system, and requires 18" of overhead clearance, so good luck setting it under your kitchen cabinets (not that anyone would want to).
 
Having read up on CVAP and combi ovens and talked to many professionals who work in commercial kitchens and bakeries, I can say with confidence that there are plenty of valid culinary reasons for an oven to feature steam, forced air convection, and extreme temperature stability. And while I'm not opposed to using lab equipment in the kitchen, I can't imagine that thing having any significant benefits over the offering from Anova. It's less accurate, isn't a proper convection oven, cannot control humidity, and has a narrower operating range of temperatures. It's also ugly, has an inferior control system, and requires 18" of overhead clearance, so good luck setting it under your kitchen cabinets (not that anyone would want to).


I don't mean to be negative, I just am not into gadgets and gizmos that have little benefit. I understand bread ovens benefit from the steam but bread aside, what would be the advantages of using one of these ovens vs cooking in a heavy walled dutch oven that will offset the temp swings in your existing oven?
 
Loved my steam oven when I had one - awesome for things like chicken curries and so on. Was really getting into it and then we moved...
 
I don't mean to be negative, I just am not into gadgets and gizmos that have little benefit. I understand bread ovens benefit from the steam but bread aside, what would be the advantages of using one of these ovens vs cooking in a heavy walled dutch oven that will offset the temp swings in your existing oven?

The accuracy of a combi oven opens up a range of techniques not available in standard ovens, especially when combined with humidity control. Cooking in an environment with 100% humidity means that moisture will not evaporate from the surface of the meat, so you'll have minimal juice loss (comparable to sous vide). Ovens with humidity control are also useful for holding foods for extended periods of time with minimal loss of quality. This includes things like conventionally cooked proteins, but also harder-to-hold items like fried chicken or tortilla chips. You can, for example, cook a rib roast to a core temperature of 135F and hold it there for several hours to tenderize it before doing a final "oven sear" with drier convection heat. As another example, Kenji's restaurant Wursthall cooks all of their sausages in a CVAP oven at 140 degrees and hold them there during service, pulling them as needed before a final sear on the griddle. (And CVAPs were originally developed for Col. Sanders to help him hold fried chicken without losing quality.) The right combination of temperature and humidity can effectively reverse staling in breads and chips, which is pretty cool. And the ANOVA oven is accurate down to basically room temperature, opening up functionality as a dehydrator, though that has nothing to do with steam. At any rate, I've wanted a combi oven ever since I read about them in Modernist Cuisine, but there hasn't been anything available in a countertop consumer model until now. I really want to try one of these ANOVA ovens, but I've since filled up my kitchen with other gear and there's no way I could hide this thing from my significant other. But one day, it will be mine.... oh yes, it will be mine.
 
I took delivery of an Anova Prevision Oven about a week ago. I was alerted to it by marc4pt0 some months ago and placed my order as soon as it was available. Now I’m a home chef and, like most of us, like a well equipped kitchen. My thought was that there’s no arguing the merits of a Combi oven. Commercial kitchens proved that years ago. Steam ovens are plentiful but more than a little expensive. Not for me! One thing that drives me nuts about my traditional oven is the temperature swings ... as much as 75F. The idea of precision temperature control was very attractive to me.

I have done six sessions with the oven ... no large joints of meat. With my limited experience here are my thoughts. First impression is that the oven is attractive, well engineered, and easy to use. It sits easily on my countertop and in fact sits on my microwave so that the oven window is close to eye level. The control panel is controlled by touch and is mounted in the handle. The controls are easy to use and understand. I’m sure that if you are the sort that doesn’t read manuals you could fumble your way through using the oven, although reading the manual is better. The oven will connect via your home wifi and your smart phone or iPad utilizing a downloadable app. Like most people I spent a couple of hours failing to get my iPhone to talk to the oven through my wifi network. I called it a night and thought it through when I woke fussing about it in the middle of the night. The answer to connecting is that you must make it through the connection setup for procedures without looping back on any step. I erased the app from my iPhone and unplugged the oven. I went straight through the setup procedure and it worked like a charm. The app is very slick. I find it very easy to use and to date without bugs. I’m sure I’ll find some but the app really puts you in control of the cook from your iPhone. There are lots of features that I won’t go into.

I never succumbed to sous vide cooking. I don’t argue with the advantages of sous vide, I just didn’t like all the stuff associated with sous vide that I would have to find a place for in my kitchen. So the most immediate revelation is that it is a sous vide cooker. The idea is that you set the humidity level to 100% and your cook is sous vide. Temperature control is very accurate and limited to a maximum of the boiling point of water. I’ve cooked in sous vide mode a couple of times and look forward to using and learning about it. No vacuum bags or containers of water sitting on my counter.

Of course the most used mode will be as a convection oven with the ability to add steam to the cook. Anova offers a number of recipe’s on their website which introduce you to mixed convection/steam cooking which gives you an idea of how to work with steam in your cooking. Generally I don’t see that any big changes will be required in my recipe’s. There will be adjustments in times and temperatures but learning is part of the fun. The biggest effect may well be on the amount of time I spend on my grills and smokers.

The biggest surprise to me was how little water was consumed in the steam cook. I expected billows of steam everywhere and was happily surprised at how little water was used and how little steam was actually produced. The next biggest surprise was how well the oven reheats. I love leftovers and the ham dinner leftovers from Canadian Thanksgiving reheated perfectly, albeit much more slowly than I could accomplish with the microwave. If there is a downside to the Anova Precision Oven is that cooks take longer. A tray of vegetables takes 40 minutes while my mother could boil the veges to death in the length of time it took to smoke a cigarette. I may find ways to work around the length of time it takes to cook a meal but the quality results are worth it as compared to the mush that I ate as a child.

In summary I have absolutely no complaints with the Anova Precision Oven. To me it is a quality product that will definitely improve my home chef skills and cooking enjoyment. It may not be for you but I find it good value for the money I spent.
 
I don't mean to be negative, I just am not into gadgets and gizmos that have little benefit. I understand bread ovens benefit from the steam but bread aside, what would be the advantages of using one of these ovens vs cooking in a heavy walled dutch oven that will offset the temp swings in your existing oven?
Steam ovens are defenitely not gadgets or gizmos. An airfryer could perhaps be characterized as such but a steam oven, no way.
 
hate to go against "the juice", but there is no way i would do any cooking of one single dish for 100 hours. not including pickles and kimchee.

i never got on the SV train either. my short trips, found that temp is ONE factor, and TIME is another important factor. 100 hours boggles my mind..
 
I'll go against the juice. 100 hours for hanger steak is way too long, and 100 hours is a particularly long cook time for SV. The only thing frequently suggested to be cooked for that length of time are oxtails. 72 hour cooks are much more common, but still much longer than the average SV cooktime. That said, I've cooked for 100 hours (and not infrequently cook for 72) and it's not especially difficult or labor intensive. It very much is a "set it and forget it" sort of thing, and not something to rule out for no good reason.
 
That said, I've cooked for 100 hours (and not infrequently cook for 72) and it's not especially difficult or labor intensive. It very much is a "set it and forget it" sort of thing, and not something to rule out for no good reason.
Exactly, it's not like you have to stand around and watch it 🙃
 
In looking at the Anova recipe’s they have a recipe with a 28hr cook. I suppose that your could do a 72hr or 100hr cook but you might need to add water. The longest cook I’ve done is 18hrs on my smoky mountain cooker for a brisket. Smoked salmon tales 12hrs or less on my Bradley smoker. A big clod of beef would probably run over 24 hours but I can’t imagine what I would cook that would take three days (72hrs) or four days plus (100hrs). Right now I’m doing a four hour sous vide cook on some beef ribs. For the last 2 1/2 hrs the rack has been solid at 140F as my target temperature. The Anova oven internal probe is very convenient and reads the same as my Thermapen. Here’s a pic of my iPhone screen when I started my cook.

741175F2-412E-4AFF-9232-98886E70512A.jpeg
 
Things that get cooked for days typically have a lot of connective tissue that needs to be broken down to become tender. That's the primary reason for cooking longer than, say, 8 hours. The other alternative is to cook these items to higher internal temperatures, which is what is traditionally done with tough cuts of protein. But only with SV/Combi techniques can you achieve tender, medium rare short ribs or beef cheeks or brisket.

And thanks for sharing your Precision Oven experiences so far.
 
Sooooooo .... I dug a small rack (3 ribs) of prime rib roast beef bones out of the freezer. Perfect for my first longer cook sous vide on my Anova Precision Oven. Normally I would smoke these on my Big Green Egg at 250F for 1- 2 hours. I prepped them exactly the same as I would for an Egg smoke. Garlic powder, salt, pepper and my own dry rub. I put it into the Anova under a 4hr sous vide cook at 200F, 100% steam and a 130F target on the probe. I thought ... that will be good for a start. Within 45 minutes the ribs were passing the 130F target so I reset things to a 150F target, 80% steam and left the cooking time at 4 hours. Within 90 minutes total cooking time I had hit the target temperature but the ribs were a bit tough to the Thermapen probe. I left things alone and to my amazement the internal temperature stayed constant at 150F. After 4 hours total cooking time the cook timed out and I let the ribs rest for about an hour. They were at least as tender as would be a slow cook on the Egg. Just before dinner I brought the oven temperature to 375F and used the top burner in the oven to give some crust to the ribs.

Here’s a pic. of the results.


C5EE8790-CF50-4CC1-A458-062FCE97050B.jpeg
83E07CCC-54D5-45F0-87D6-8B207082396A.jpeg


By my standards a complete success. The ribs were much more moist than I would expect from my Egg. Were I more experienced Chef I probably wouldn’t have to go through this learning curve. I would say that the learning curve has been easier than I expected. Early results have been better than I expected. Next up ... a roast of some sort ... maybe a chicken.

Stay tuned!
 
Sooooooo .... I dug a small rack (3 ribs) of prime rib roast beef bones out of the freezer. Perfect for my first longer cook sous vide on my Anova Precision Oven. Normally I would smoke these on my Big Green Egg at 250F for 1- 2 hours. I prepped them exactly the same as I would for an Egg smoke. Garlic powder, salt, pepper and my own dry rub. I put it into the Anova under a 4hr sous vide cook at 200F, 100% steam and a 130F target on the probe. I thought ... that will be good for a start. Within 45 minutes the ribs were passing the 130F target so I reset things to a 150F target, 80% steam and left the cooking time at 4 hours. Within 90 minutes total cooking time I had hit the target temperature but the ribs were a bit tough to the Thermapen probe. I left things alone and to my amazement the internal temperature stayed constant at 150F. After 4 hours total cooking time the cook timed out and I let the ribs rest for about an hour. They were at least as tender as would be a slow cook on the Egg. Just before dinner I brought the oven temperature to 375F and used the top burner in the oven to give some crust to the ribs.

Here’s a pic. of the results.


View attachment 98897View attachment 98898

By my standards a complete success. The ribs were much more moist than I would expect from my Egg. Were I more experienced Chef I probably wouldn’t have to go through this learning curve. I would say that the learning curve has been easier than I expected. Early results have been better than I expected. Next up ... a roast of some sort ... maybe a chicken.

Stay tuned!
Just wondering why you didn’t set the oven temp for your target temp like soups vide? I’m going back and forth on the oven. Looks really interesting but I don’t usually like to get the 1.0 version of something. Are you a bread baker? Interested in using steam for baking bread. Also, how much heat does it give off. It gets really hot where I live so want something that doesn’t heat up the house like the big oven does.
 
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