Why you should try sous vide cooking with Anova

Have you heard of sous vide cooking? A few years ago, it was an admitted pretty radical idea, but now more and more home chefs are coming around to the idea. I get asked all sorts of questions when I talk about how much I love my Anova Precision Cooker, and I love to convince others to try out sous vide cooking with Anova for themselves.

I like to tell people that I used to be a chronic over-cooker. Sometimes it was because I got distracted with kids and life and then would come back to blackened food. And, sometimes it was because our stove and oven has problems maintaining temperature. But, no matter what the reason, there have been more times than I care to remember when dinner was inedible and I mourned the destruction of a perfectly good meal.

That’s because cooking is a science and in order for food to be properly cooked you must be able to regulate temperature exactly. Can you do that in your oven or on your stove? I’m guessing you can’t. In fact, some studies suggest that ovens can fluctuate up to 20º above or below the set temperature while cooking. That’s anything but precise.

With Anova, precision cooking is their specialty and you always know the exact settings of your meal. Sounds {and looks} amazing, right?

I’m going to share some of the more popular questions I’m asked.

Why sous vide?

Sous vide (pronounced “sue-veed”) is a cooking technique that works by circulating heated water in a pot. This means that it’s not just the edges of the food that get cooked while the middle stays raw, giving you overcooked edges and undercooked middles.

With sous vide, you have the ultimate control because you get to choose everything to the exact degree. But, not only does sous vide allow you to cook more precisely and evenly, it also gives you incredibly tender and delicious meals thanks to its slow cooking process.

Is it possible to over-cook or under-cook foods?

Not if you’re using the Anova app it’s not. Utilizing the app helps you cook to the exact set temperature, easily. Since there’s only a 3º difference between a rare and medium-rare steak, precision in this case means perfection. Perfect meals are as easy as selecting your guide and then pressing “start”. Once you set it, food is cooked evenly edge to edge, with no worry of overcooking.

Is mastering sous vide hard to do?

Thanks to the Anova app that connects via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi to the cooker, it really couldn’t be easier to master. The Anova Culinary app allows you to search recipes, find inspiration, and get tips for perfect cooking. And, thanks to Bluetooth connectivity or Wi-Fi, using the app also enables you to start, stop and monitor your cooking right from your mobile device.

It can also alert you if your water level gets low, give you full control of the Anova Precision Cooker, and allow you to check on the status of your meal – all from your smartphone. With the Anova Precision Cooker I get perfect cooking results every single time without any of the guesswork of cooking using other methods. I believe we call that fool-proof.

Is the Anova Precision Cooker hard to store?

It’s by far and away the smallest item I’ve ever cooked with, ever. It’s smaller than an oven, a stove top, a microwave, an air fryer, and even a toaster. I mean, it even fits in a drawer or cupboard super easily. It might just be the most compact and versatile cooking tool I’ve ever seen my life, and I would argue that it deserves a spot in every single kitchen, regardless of size.

What can you cook with the Anova Sous Vide Precision Cooker?

You can cook everything from meats, fish and vegetables to soups, and desserts. But, as for me, I’m most excited about using it for steaks and meat cuts. We buy great quality steaks I love that with Anova they are never too done or too rare. Be sure and check out the free Anova app for all sorts of recipes for sous viding {is that a word?} basically anything you can imagine.

This was our first attempt cooking leg of lamb, and this is the finishing process of searing the meat. It was just as amazing as it looks.

I still need convincing. What’s one more reason to try sous vide?

With every other cooking method, there’s some degree of hands-on cooking time. Some methods just require stirring occasionally or flipping halfway through cooking, but that requires you to watch it closely in order to remember to do it in the correct window.

But, not with sous vide. Once you get your food into the pot and pair it with the app, you just press start and you can go back to whatever project you were working on. Since it doesn’t have any hands-on time during the cooking process, it’s the perfect meal to make on your busiest days when you are tempted to do take out.

Since I’m typically still working around the dinnertime hour, having something I can cook with that is mostly hands-off and that I can control while I’m working away at the kitchen table is the coolest thing ever. It allows me to focus on work while still whipping up an amazing meal that is cooked to perfection every single time without fail.

That means that instead of eating junk, I can enjoy this delicious and perfectly cooked meal even while working.

Where can I get an Anova sous vide?

If you are at all interested in trying sous vide cooking, Anova is the way to go. You can order one from the Anova Culinary site.