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Sous Vide

Sous Vide Pot Is Just a Pot… For Sous Vide

Sous vide fiends, gadget lovers, and devotees of the perfectly-cooked steak, listen up.

Tuxton Home recently launched their Sous Vide Pot on Kickstarter, which is a pot… that holds your sous vide wands in place. The pot is essentially a large stockpot with a 2.4 inch sous vide adapter hole, which they claim will accommodate most sous vide products on the market — or at least any one that is less than 2.4 inches in diameter. (Which notably excludes the Chefsteps Joule, though the Kickstarter page says they’re developing an adaptor to fit it.)

There are some quantifiable advantages to the Sous Vide Pot. Compared to an open Triply pot, it is 31% faster to reach goal temperature, and it requires less water and energy. The Kickstarter page also touts the silicon-rimmed lid as a replacement for clips you typically need to keep sous vide packages in place. The lid prevents evaporation, so as long as you completely cover the meat (or whatever) you’re cooking with water, you should be good. Tuxton Home also offers a custom-fitted rack to ensure that your food pouches stay fully immersed. Whether or not that makes it worth a buy depends on the frequency you sous vide and how much you value convenience.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2024375030/sous-vide-pot-here-we-cut-the-hole-in-the-lid-for?ref=category_newest&ref=discovery

The cool and not so cool part of this product is that it is basically just a nicely made large pot. Which means it is a versatile piece of kitchen equipment, but also means it’s not especially groundbreaking. But if your kitchen is teeny tiny (like mine), every gadget has to have multiple uses — and the Sous Vide Pot does, at least, seem to be relatively high quality. Though it might have made more sense for Tuxton Home to have designed a variety of sous vide-adaptable lids to fit pots that are already in your kitchen.

Tuxton Home will start shipping Sous Vide pots to early backers in May 2018. Which seems ambitious — but the company is confident they’ll hit their goal ship date. This is because they control every aspect of the production, from design to manufacturing to distribution. Tuxton Home’s parent company Tuxton also has 20 years of experience manufacturing and distributing cookware, so this isn’t their first rodeo.

You can get a Sous Vide pot for $115 with the Early Bird deal. Which is kind of a lot for a glorified stockpot, but if you’re a sous vide fiend who wants to be able to make perfectly-cooked steak slightly more quickly than you already do, it might be worth the investment.

Sansaire Announces It Is Shutting Down

Today Sansaire, one of the first consumer sous vide hardware startups, announced it is shutting down.

Acting company CEO Lukas Svec shared the bad news in an update on the company’s Kickstarter campaign page for the new generation product, the Delta:

“We regret to share that Sansaire will be ceasing development of the Delta and the company will ultimately be closing its doors.  In short, our relationship with the new production facility broke down and has exhausted available funding and manufacturing routes. As we wind down over the next 12 months, Sansaire will be supporting warranties and customer service issues. Kickstarter Backers will be contacted individually regarding next steps.“

Sansaire was one of a handful of companies building sous vide circulators to launch in the 2013 time frame. However, unlike Anova and Nomiku, the company struggled to build its brand in an increasingly competitive consumer sous vide market and was never able to ship its second generation product despite a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2016.

The company was cofounded by Scott Heimendinger, a well known food hacker who tapped into his following to help launch company’s first Kickstarter campaign. However Heimendinger left the company before the launch of Sansaire’s second Kickstarter campaign in 2016 and the company has seen a number of executive departures ever since.

The company’s former COO Valerie Trask left in the middle of the crowdfunding campaign for the Delta. The company named a new CEO in Johnna Hobgood soon afterwards, but she soon left to go work for Amazon in their Amazon Go group. Another executive named Lilac Muller joined as acting CEO last fall, but has since departed the company.

The company raised over $250 thousand for the Delta, its second generation sous vide appliance, in fall of 2016 with a promised spring 2017 ship date. However, as time went on and the executive team turned over, it became increasingly obvious the company was having difficulties.

In one way, Sansaire’s troubles shows the perils of relying on crowdfunded money to bring a hardware product to market. Unless a campaign is wildly successful, the funds raised usually aren’t nearly enough to design, build and bring a product to manufacturing. More often than not, a company requires external investment or a really successful first-gen product (or both) to fund the development of a new product.

With today’s news, it’s apparent that Sansaire didn’t have either.

Update: I caught up with Scott Heimendinger via email to ask him for a comment. He had this to say:

“I’m disappointed, of course, but I processed my grief over Sansaire when I walked away from involvement two years ago. The saddest part is what could have been. Today, the outcomes of Sansaire vs. Anova could not be more stark.

I’m disappointed most for the people who backed the Sansaire Delta on Kickstarter. We built the company originally on the trust and generosity of the Kickstarter community and moved heaven and earth to do right by them throughout. So it’s crushing that the contributors to the Delta campaign in 2016 will be left with their promises unfulfilled.

Although founding and leaving a failed startup leaves some scars, I’m proud to have contributed in some small way to the overall movement of sous vide. I rooted for Sansaire to succeed after I departed, and I’m sure it was a difficult and humbling decision for them to announce the shutdown.”

Suvie Blows Past Kickstarter Goal, Sells out of First Tier Offering

It took less than half a day for Suvie, the multi-zone, connected cooking appliance, to zoom past its initial goal of raising $100,000 on Kickstarter. As of 5:00 p.m. Pacific time, Suvie had raised $323,943 and sold out of its first tier rewards which offered a discounted machine for $429.

As Mike wrote last week, Suvie is part of a new wave of startups that aim to take almost all of the work out of cooking by connecting a smart appliance with a pre-packaged meal service.

The Suvie device itself crams four different cooking methods into one box, including a broiler, steamer, rice maker and sous vide. It will even keep your food cold in the device until your ready to cook.

In addition to the device itself, Suvie will offer a meal kit service that will automatically know how to cook each ingredient at the right temperature and for the right amount of time, so everything is done at the same time.

Elsewhere today, Tovala, a different connected oven-plus-meal service already available, announced that it received an undisclosed investment from food giant Tyson. (Insert your own “this space is heating up” joke here.)

Those interested in Suvie can still pick one up for a reduced rate of $479 with an estimated delivery of December 2018. Once Suvie hits the retail shelves, it will sell for $599.

Suvie, The Four-Zone Cooking Robot, To Sell For $599

I’m usually pretty good at guessing prices for new products, so when I wrote about the forthcoming Suvie last week, I expected the four-zone cooking appliance to come in around a thousand bucks. After all, the cooking box from the founder of Reviewed.com combines a whole bunch of functionality into a single box, including a steam oven, broiler, sous vide device and pasta/rice cooker. To top it all off, the uber-box will have a built in refrigeration compressor to keep food cool.

Based on what I’d learned, my internal price guesstimator pegged the Suvie at between $800-$1000 retail. Certainly high or a countertop cooking appliance, but I didn’t think it was crazy for a first-gen product with lots of functionality. So color me surprised when the price, announced yesterday, will be $599 retail.

If I had to guess, this likely means the pricing for the Kickstarter (Robin Liss, company CEO, indicated the Kickstarter will kick off on Tuesday, February 6th) is probably going to come in around $399-$499. Don’t bank on that though since, as we now know, my internal price guesstimator appears to be on the fritz.

Like another next-gen cooking appliance, Tovala, Suvie likely expects to increase their margins by selling food subscriptions for the box. The Tovala announced recently they will offer a discount of $100 off the full $399 retail for new consumers who commit to four meals, and will price their appliance at $199 for new customers who buy 24 meals.

The June Oven – one of the first smart cooking appliances to ship and a product that does not come with accompanying meal kits – is still priced fairly high at $1,495. If Tovala and Suvie are any indication, it appears companies pairing food delivery with hardware have an opportunity to be more aggressive with pricing since they can make some of it up on the back end.

Want to talk about this story and other foodtech news? Join our foodtech Slack community and jump into the conversation.

A Smart Kitchen Gift Guide for Last-Minute Shoppers

Well, you’ve done it. You’ve waited until the last minute to do your Christmas shopping and now it’s here. But don’t worry! Your friends at The Spoon have you covered. Here’s a Smart Kitchen Gift Guide for your favorite cooking companions packed with items you can still get before the big day.

Sous Vide Wand: The Joule was on our 2016 gift guide, but really either it or the Anova is a wonderful addition to your kitchen cabinets. Sous vide elevates cooking proteins like steak to another level, yet is versatile enough to make a range of foods including pies and cookies.

Hestan Cue System: If you’re like me, you enjoy deliciousness, but aren’t that great a cook. Enter the Hestan Cue system. It’s a combination of induction burner, pan and smartphone app that work together to provide you with guided cooking, so you can turn from average Joe Cook into Julia Child.

Nutribullet Balance: Smoothies are a delectable treat, but they aren’t always as *nutritious* as we’d like to believe. Give the gift of a healthy 2018 with the Nutribullet Balance, a Bluetooth smart blender with companion app that calculates the nutritional value of your smoothie as you add ingredients.

Ember Mug: Disclaimer, we have not tried this $80 coffee mug, but we loved it’s $150 traveling counterpart. The idea of keeping our hot coffee or tea at the perfect temperature is way too tempting. It’s too late to order online, but you can check your local Starbucks to see if it’s in stock.

PicoBrew PICO Model C: Is there a hop head homebrewer in your family? It’s not cheap, but PicoBrew makes it easy to brew beer from the comfort of your own kitchen. The Pico C is available via Amazon and in brick and mortar retailers.

Amazon Key Kit: For the adventurous early adopter, give them the gift of Amazon delivery people entering their unattended home! Snark aside, Amazon Key’s kit includes a cloud connected security camera and lock (hopefully they’ve patched the security hole) and gives users (in select areas) the ability to accept grocery and other Amazon deliveries when they’re away from home.

Dash Egg Cooker: Okay, so this device isn’t “connected,” but it is a smart idea for anyone who likes hard boiled eggs. Forget waiting for a pot of water to boil and timing when the eggs are done. The Dash Egg Cooker has been a game changer in my house, cooking up six hard boiled eggs in around 20 minutes.

Whatever you decide to get friends and family this year, everyone at The Spoon wishes all of you the happiest of holiday seasons.

Enjoy the podcast and make sure to subscribe in Apple podcasts if you haven’t already.

A First Taste of Firstchop’s Sous Vide Meat Delivery Box

I am terrified of cooking meat. I worry so much about giving someone food poisoning that I overcook my chicken or steak until it is leather. Which is why I was so excited to try out firstchop’s chef-prepared meats, and even more thrilled that it produced two of the best meals I’ve eaten in a long while.

Launched this month, firstchop is a meat-box subscription service that sends you a selection of chef-prepared, vacuum-sealed, fully cooked proteins. Store them in your freezer and when you’re ready to cook one, you simply dump the bag into a sous vide bath and re-heat. The company even sends you a sous vide wand in their starter box.

Fist Chop box
Vacuum-sealed frozen meats
All the items in the starter box
Already cooked meat in bags means no touching raw food.
The First Chop sous vide wand is reminiscent of the Anova
The First Chop sous vide wand in action.
Heating time was 45 minutes, but you should budget an hour.
The re-heated beef medallions
After re-heating, there’s no need to sear the meat.
The Osso Bucco lamb was ridiculously delicious
The peppercorn steak was tender and delectable

Firstchop sent me a box to try out earlier this week. Based on that experience, here’s what you can expect.

PACKAGING
The starter box comes with everything you need: a firstchop-branded sous vide wand and a selection of four proteins. All of the meat arrived frozen (which was good because the California wildfires had caused shipping delays) and labeled. The company also offers a larger and smaller box, neither of which come with the sous vide wand.

SOUS VIDE WAND
Smart kitchen aficionados will notice that the firstchop sous vide wand looks a lot like the Anova. Firstchop’s wand, however is not WiFi enabled, so there’s no smartphone app to control it.

THE FOOD
I was sent Spicy Green Curry Chicken, Peruvian Style Chicken Breast, Peppercorn Beef Medallions, and Boneless Osso Bucco Lamb Shoulder with Root Vegetables (you don’t get to pick your proteins). Each were in their own sealed pouch with heating instructions on the paper sleeve. The portions are plenty for two adults.

COOKING
When I initially talked with firstchop, they said the meals were perfect for busy people because they could be prepared in about forty minutes. This is technically true, but there are a few caveats. If you keep your meat frozen, the reheat time is about 45 minutes, however, that doesn’t take into consideration the amount of time it takes to bring the water to temperature. So people using the service should budget in at least an hour if not an hour and half.

The firstchop wand works remarkably well. I actually cooked two proteins at the same time, one with the First Chop wand and one with the Anova. The firstchop was a little wonky in setting the timer, but it was actually a little easier to use than the Anova because of the lack of WiFi. The Anova kept buzzing my phone with temperature notifications because it wanted me to use one of its preset guides.

Once the bath was at temperature, I dropped the food in and let it alone. When the timer beeped, I pulled the bag out of the water and removed the protein. Unlike sous videing raw meat, there wasn’t a need to sear the firstchop meat after. I just sliced it up and served it to my family.

TASTE
I made two proteins: the lamb and the beef, and both were remarkable. Incredible. Fantastic. The meat was tender and perfectly seasoned. At the risk of sounding fanboyish, it was like a restaurant meal from my kitchen. My whole family loved both the beef and the lamb, and we devoured it all.

OVERALL
My first firstchop experience made me a convert. My wife immediately wanted to know how much a box was and how big of a “problem” this was going to be for our family. I can definitely see myself ordering, at the very least, the small box to supplement our weekly routine.

My only complaints right now are around the sourcing of the meat. Firstchop describes their meat as “restaurant quality,” which means nothing to me. I eat and enjoy meat, but am also conscious of where it comes from. The firstchop FAQ says it will roll out grass-fed and organic meats in the future, and I hope they do so soon. I’d pay extra for sustainably and humanely sourced animal products.

A firstchop starter box comes with ten “servings” of meat and a sous vide wand for $79, and there’s no monthly commitment. The company is basically giving the wand away to get you to try the service. And based on my experience, you definitely should.

UPDATE: After we published this article, firstchop changed their pricing. This post has been updated to reflect that change.

Going Beyond The Stick: New Options Emerge For Sous Vide In 2018

While the ultra-early sous vide enthusiasts among us started their precision cooking journeys with water ovens like the Sous Vide Supreme, the last few years in home sous vide have been all about “the stick.”

That’s right, as sous vide enters the zeitgeist, immersion circulators from the likes of from Anova, Nomiku, and ChefSteps are the default option for everyone from Modernist Cuisine types to those dipping their toe into the precision heated water for the very first time.

But, as 2017 draws to a close, there are some new sous vide products coming to market that gives consumers an option beyond ‘the stick.’

Here’s my look at some of these new products:

Mellow Smart Sous Vide

After a long delay, the Mellow smart sous vide machine is shipping. This unique-looking cooking machine, which features a cooling system that allows you put your bag inside throughout the day, is now available for general purchase on the company’s website for $399 ($299 through cyber Monday!).

I’ve been testing the Mellow for the last few weeks, and I must say this: If anything, the Mellow is by far the most interesting looking sous vide appliance. That’s because unlike sous vide immersion circulators, with the Mellow you drop your plastic bag into the large transparent tank which allows you to watch your food suspended in water while it cooks. While it may seem strange to say it, watching a ribeye cook in a water bath can be surprisingly mesmerizing.

Here’s a video I took of the Mellow cooking a ribeye:

Like the immersion circulators mentioned above, the Mellow has an app that serves as the primary control interface for the device. The app is pretty solid, with a decent support/FAQ section, a limited selection of cooking guides and a good looking design.

And of course, the built-in chiller for sous vide is a nice benefit for those who want to program a cook for a specific time such as when they get home from work.

All this said, the Mellow has one downside: It’s fairly big. Not only does it have a large footprint, but it’s tall. Really tall. Like most, my storage space is at a premium, and I don’t have the space to store a device with the dimensions of the Mellow.

The Mellow is also a bit more expensive than immersion circulators (again, the company is selling it for $299 through Cyber Monday), but if you’re looking for the latest in sous vide gadgets, you might find the regular price of $399 well worth it.

The Cinder Grill

Want to move beyond the bag? The Cinder Grill might be for you.

The Cinder Grill allows you to cook sous vide without the water or the bags. The device, which looks like the love child of Tesla and the George Foreman Grill, has two precision heating surfaces that allow you to precision cook meat, vegetables or other food and also lets you finish the food with searing functionality.

The two-in-one sous vide and sear capability is an obvious benefit of the Cinder. I also like the idea of cooking without plastic, not so much because I am afraid of toxins within the plastic, but I feel bad about throwing away plastic after every cook.

Like the Mellow, the biggest downside of the Cinder is its size. I’ve been testing it out for a few months, and while it’s become probably one of my favorite ways to cook meat, the device has a really big footprint. And while it does have the benefit of being a dual-tasker (cook and sear), even with multifunction capability I would find it a struggle to stash the Cinder on one of my shelves.

You can see how the Cinder looks in action here:

Like the Mellow, the Cinder also has an app, which allowed me to set time and temperature and also notified me when a cook is finished. But unlike the Mellow (or even more so with sous vide immersion circulators like the ChefSteps), the Cinder app doesn’t go very deep with the cooking content itself, something I am sure the company plans to build out over time.

If you want to get a Cinder Grill, you can order one on their website, but it might take a little while before you see your Cinder. The company has started shipping to some of its backers, but is still in the process of ironing out some production kinks, and likely won’t reach wide availability until early next year.

Still, if you like the idea of precision cooking without the water and plastic, you might want to put in an order. The Cinder costs $499.

Sous Vide Supreme Touch+

And any mention of home sous vide appliances should include the new Sous Vide Supreme Touch+, the latest generation Sous Vide Supreme water bath. And while the idea of precision water baths are hardly new, with this product the company has completely remade their flagship product complete with a touchscreen, a see-through lid, Wi-Fi, an app (of course) and Alexa voice integration.

If you want to get in on the new Sous Vide Supreme Touch+ at a significant discount, you can buy it for $200 off the retail price at $399 on Indiegogo.

Anova Precision Oven

While 2017 has been an interesting year for the oven, 2018 is likely to be even better. One of the products I’m most intrigued about is the Anova Precision Oven. The device, which includes a steam oven, convection, and connectivity, also allow you to sous vide. The device, which was originally slated to ship in 2017, now looks on track for a mid-2018 ship date.

There’s no doubt that immersion circulators are easy to use, but by giving consumers more options to cook sous vide, will open it up to a wider audience.

In short, nowadays sous vide is more than the stick.

You can hear an audio version of this post here on our Daily Spoon podcast (add the Daily Spoon Alexa Skill here to get this podcast on your Echo device):