I know this is a “sponsored” post but anyone know much about that immersion circulator?
I know I want one now.
I did dig this up though: http://www.seriouseats.com/2013/09/equipment-we-test-the-199-sous-vide-circulato.html
ty - that was more critical review than the one I found:
http://www.theblackpeppercorn.com/2013/10/anova-sous-vide-immersion-circulator-product-review/
but both are generally positive. I am very tempted.
I’ve owned the Zojirushi “Neuro Fuzzy” rice cooker for a few years. It is excellent and I highly recommend it to any household that cooks rice (sushi, white, brown, black, mixed), steel cut oats, or quinoa on a regular basis. The cook quality is great and the clean up is easy. The “keep warm” feature for 8-24 hours is my favorite feature for coming back to warm rice to go with last night’s leftovers. My second favorite feature is the timer. I can set brown rice to start cooking at 4:00pm, while at work, and it is ready at about 5:30 when I come home. Or, I can set steel-cut oats to start cooking at 7:00 so they are ready for me when I need breakfast. Excellent product.
The popcorn maker is a giant joke, DON’T BUY IT! It makes precious little popcorn which tastes OK but nothing special. You can not make large amounts, it can’t heat anything but a small amount. Cleanup is a pain, you need to clean the pan, which you can’t immerse, and the whole box surround. I gave it away quickly.
Zojirushi is a good company, no question. For those who either don’t need so many bells & whistles, don’t want the non-stick coating, or need a less expensive choice, I can recommend a nice little Taiwanese option: Tatung 3-cup stainless steel rice cooker
Plus, you can make fresh popcorn in any stove top pan that has a lid. Seriously, it takes 5 minutes. I am baffled by microwave popcorn, which is both inferior and more expensive.
When I saw this ad, the popcorn maker jumped out as an obviously terrible gift and POS. It is a large, single function, kitchen device that is ugly, impractical, and performs an identical function to equipment you already own…
I understood it’s use was for people who had a media room in their house who didn’t want to go all the way to the kitchen. Are you saying that there are normal people with normal sized houses who would put one of these in their house?
I’ve been tempted by that circulator for a while. I’ve been using a Raspberry Pi-controlled crock pot that works accurately even without circulation, but cutting down on cables and the occasional fussiness of the process would be really nice.
I have the 5.5 cup version of the Zojirushi rice cooker, and while its not cheap I am totally happy with my little device. Most of the time I’m only making one or two cups of rice, and it still comes out great. I also have a Zojirushi lunch/bento box and that thing is great too.
Yeah, the Neuro Fuzzy I have is 5.5 cups, we probably have the same thing. I also almost always make 1-2 cups, when not entertaining. Also, you can set it to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star when the rice is done.
I’ve used a Zojirushi induction cooker nearly every other day for the past 6 years. Yeah, it cost me damn near $350 at a time when I could have gotten a cheap one at target for $50 but it’s been worth every penny to not have to replace it over and over (and I see they’re now $100 cheaper on Amazon) .
Get the models that are Made in Japan.
Unitaskers galore! Augh!
Admittedly, the rice cooker is pretty srs shit. Everything else is a joke, though!
An immersion circulator is about as much a unitasker as an oven or a grill. Certainly far less so that a rice cooker. Beyond that Anova is the 2nd largest manufacturer of professional and lab grade circulators after Polyscience, and the unit has been on the market for over a year. Its far less of a joke than most other home focused units, and has a more serious pedigree than its 2 most direct/similar competitors. In fact I’d ague its the only serious piece of cooking equipment on the list. Rice cookers cook rice, something you can do as well or better with a quality pot and faucet. Their most interesting/broadest use is being hacked into doing things other than their man purpose. Like for example being turned into home sous vide machines, or used in place of a slow cooker. The juicer seems to be professional grade, but who the fuck needs a professional grade juicer. Keurigs make drinkable coffee, but they’re messy and break (like a lot my parents are on their 4th in 3 years). Breadmakers are an expensive and large footprint pathway to inferior results. And the Popcorn maker is, as noted by pretty much everyone, total useless.
This is getting to be too much.
I am forced to conclude that Boing Boing is being paid by the Kitchen Counter Extension lobby.
Rice cookers are a special exception. They actually use a multi-tiered cooking technique which is perfect for rice. With a pan on the stove, you have to set a timer to do all the different temperatures manually. For households that eat rice regularly, this is akin to having a coffee maker or kettle for boiling water (either of which could be done in a pot on the stove, too).
Ha, I was about to say REALLY? YOU ARE SUGGESTING PEOPLE DRINK K-CUP COFFEE? ? ? (but then I saw this is a sponsored post, and so we should clearly ignore the advice).
There’s a cool new immersion circulator called the Sansaire that just had a very successful KickStarter. I think they were the highest grossing food-related kickstarter ever. Here’s a good review from serious eats
I very nearly pledged on the Sansaire, but at the time I hadn’t actually tried any sous-vide cooking. I built my own to see if it was worth it (buying a temperature probe and doing a little programming work was a lot cheaper for trying things out), and now I can’t stop raving about it.
Of course, with the Anova and Sansaire so close in price and capabilities based on the reviews I’ve seen, it’s tough to choose one.
