Sous Vide Cooking

everything you need to know to get you started

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Where our Sous vide research led us

There is so much about the sous vide topic online and it is growing fast. Products have developed a lot in the last few years, and there is a lot of old information online. We aren’t scientists or chefs, but professional foodies that are keen users, and old restaurant / hotel owners. We’re diligent researchers, and avid foodies that want to provide people like us with, unbiassed honest information.

After all our research, we’ve summarised below the best pure sous vide machines to buy now.  So you have choices and your decision depends on your needs, preferences ( and your pocket !) Our research taught us which one to buy to suit us (the Breville chefsteps model).   But they are all brilliant, as are a few more on our shortlist. But here, we summarise, for the two main types of sous vide machine,  the very best models for entry level i.e. if you just want to dip your toe in the sous vide water, and the best overall sous vide machines if you want to dive right in.

We now use our sous vide machine almost every day to get the best out of our meat, vegetables and fruit, to cook the best steaks, the most moist salmon steaks, and get great joy and value out of making delicious moist meat meals with cheaper cuts. Poached eggs are now so consistently easy, and you can even batch make them for the whole week ! We’re able to perfect lots of dishes we never had the skills to tackle before – the sous vide machine is the smart skilled chef in these cases ! We bought the Joule, and the phone app that comes with it guides you through hundreds of recipes, step by step (with pictures) to make it easy.

On this page you will find all the information that answered our questions along the way, from the basic beginners questions, right through to the point where we got excited enough to part with our own cash and buy the best choice for us. We hope it takes you on the same journey. Just ask anything else in the comments section at the bottom.

Top 2 domestic entry level, and top 2 overall machines for 2020

covering both immersion circulation and water bath styles 

The basics of Sous Vide cooking

What sous vide means

Let’s start by getting a few niggling questions out of the way. The French word ‘sous’ means under, ‘vide’ means empty. Together it means ‘under a vacuum’. It’s a French term of course, but in the U.S. you might hear the term “Cryovacked” to describe the same cooking process.

Sous vide myths

The first thing people might think when you say sous vide is “perfect steak”… “unbelievable eggs”… “um, boil in the bag !”  O.K., let’s clear the last one up, because it’s a total misconception.

Boil in the bag was invented in the 1950s… but take away the boiling water from that and you have a nice gentle cooking method instead. The food is indeed usually vacuum sealed in a bag in sous vide,  but this is so that the water bath is in direct, even, contact with all of the food. In addition, it means that no water enters the food bag. The food never usually gets to boiling point though. For example, proteins are cooked at lower temperatures say 50 – 70℃, and only desserts and vegetables are usually cooked higher at 80 – 90 ℃.

So, why the obsession with sous vide ?

Essentially, sous vide is

professional cooking… simplified

What started as a trend, has become the norm. in restaurants. A restaurant kitchen can have 3 or 4 machines for batch prepping foods. For chefs…its all about product quality, economic and organisational benefits. It also allows them to create gourmet meals with consistent ease. This prepping or batch cooking is a big reason more people are getting obsessed with sous vide. Imagine how it helps organise the food prep for a busy family.

Since 2010, sous vide has crept its way into the developing cook’s kitchen ( with foodies like us ). It’s a technical tool that helps level the playing field from cook to chef. That’s why we think all our readers will love this.

What sous vide cooking will do for you

Ok, this is the crux of the matter. Sous vide is for all levels of cooking abilities. Whether you’re cooking steak, chicken, fish, eggs for a weekday meal, or a fancy dinner party, sous vide is an extremely practical tool that takes care of the tricky part of cooking. Sous vide can both enhance your cooking, whilst making your life easier.

Even if all you need is to keep something (like baby milk ) at a constant temperature … the precision of sous vide takes care of that too.

It can even help you save money, and be more adventurous foodie-wise. That’s just a snapshot of the benefits. Read on to see why cooks are obsessed with sous vide, or have a look at our 20 reasons why this trend has a serious uptake. 

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As a gift, a sous vide is perfect for foodies and busy parents, a great wedding gift, or for those of you that like or need to be more organised, and have a consistent failsafe help in the kitchen ! 

How and why sous vide works

Traditional cooking vs Sous vide cooking

When you heat food, it goes from uncooked to cooked when it reaches a critical temperature.

Normally when you cook, you have to have the temperature of the pan and cooking liquid a lot higher than the food ever needs to be when its cooked. This is because it cooks the food from the outside inward. Hence the chance of burning the outside while its still raw in the middle.

Sous vide is essentially precise cooking in water rather than using direct heating elements in a frying pan, or through air in an oven, or even through microwaves ! Sous vide also cooks the food at a lower temperature, for a longer time.

The whole idea of sous vide is to gently get the food to the precise scientific critical internal temperature that means the food molecules are perfectly cooked. It never goes beyond this temperature so the food never under or over cooks, and is never dried out.. So, unlike traditional cooking where the goodness literally bursts out of its cells and changes the form of the food, sous vide keeps it all intact. It does this by cooking for longer, at a lower controlled temperature.

The other important thing is that the precise temperature is delivered to the food evenly. That way, it cooks things to perfection , consistently. The food is cooked all the way though using water as the medium to cook it evenly from end to end, and from outside in.

The two main added benefits of sous vide cooking (because it preserves the quality of the raw food), are that the flavour of the food is more intense, and the texture is beautifully tender.

Smart cooking tool

Now you can cook like a chef too

If there was such a thing as a robot chef then a sous vide machine is it !  The main machine is the temperature and timer all in one. Apart from that you just vacuum up the raw food, set the temperature and timer, then when it reaches the temperature you want your food to be when cooked, you just place it in a water bath,  and wait till its done… tada!

Any extra seasoning or marinades cook into the food, rather than coating on it. Liquid isn’t lost, and any extras that you add like oils or butter just cooks back into the food rather than having it all cooked out, so it doesn’t dry up. No overcooking or undercooking, and more importantly, no chance of error.

How a sous vide machine works

You pick a temperature and time that will cook your chosen food to the perfect point for you or your guests.  Most machines give some guidance. Some have an app for your phone where you can even pick the temperature and time recommended and control the machine to start from the phone. It can also set off a beeper to let you know when its done.

Just think, you can serve everyone the same perfectly cooked steaks to everyone at the table, and even customise the seasoning, herbs or marinade in each one, if you know your diners preferences. You can sous vide them all, at the same time, to exactly the same temperature. The key is the precise low temperature, think of it like a much more high tech slow cooker… it takes a lot longer, but its hand off cooking. Just leave it alone, don’t interfere, and go do something more interesting instead 😉

The two types of sous vide machines you can buy

1. Immersion circulation tool

A wand like machine that you put into the, also known as a pod, that you place in your own choice of water vessel.

The wand, or pod as its also known,  heats and circulates the water at the same time, around your protected package of food.

The vessel which could be a saucepan,  or you can buy an associated water vessel.

Usually this is the best startup solution, and also the most flexible for home and professional cooks because you can cook up any food size, and in almost any vessel.

2. Water baths

An all in one counter top solution which is in fact the water vessel with the heat source integrated within it.

So the domestic versions don’t usually have a water circulator element, although the more expensive options don’t tend to need one.

Water baths are usually more expensive, and in our opinion, often not as precise unless you go even more high end toward a restaurant grade model.

With some food ( particularly eggs), a temperature variance of just 1℉ can turn out a very different product !

Sous vide buying check list

Power

which really means time to heat up.

Best heat / water circulation

which leads to the most precision and even cooking.

Noise

from the motor and the water circulating.

Size

Sous vide pods range from a few the size of a whisk to most the size of a champagne bottle and beyond. Domestic use water bath models aren’t too big, but professional models can take up a lot of counter space.

Design

Most wands are pretty industrial ( professional and robust) looking, but there is a new style of modernist sleek slimline wands, or water baths that are pretty much slow cooker / instant pot / deep fat fryer kind of size.

Lifestyle

How does it fit in with your lifestyle? That was a biggie for us. We imagined ourselves popping the sous vide in a carry on case when we travel… we are getting more and more mobile so using our smartphone to connect is good. 

Other buying factors

Price, robustness, reliability, user support,  connectivity, display, min/max water levels, cooking capacity, reputation, energy consumption, ease of use, cleanup, convenience, temperature accuracy, price, weight, attachability, accessories, cook time, warranty, alarms/beepers.

We could go on…just click over to our in depth buying guide to read in more detail.

Comparing the top models: Joule vs. Anova vs. Sansaire

Power: time to heat up

Fastest to slowest have been tested and touted online as 1. Sansaire , 2. Joule, 3. Annova precision

Best heat / water circulation – i.e. accuracy

All good, but which one moves the most water? The Anova precision tool, followed closely by the Joule, then the Sansaire

Noise from the motor and water circulating.

It’s worth noting that the best silent sous vide tool is actually the water bath by Sous vide supreme (it’s silent !), Immersion circulators move the water and can make other motor noises sometimes & usually that means there is a problem to fix though) So the quietist water movement has tested as the Sansaire, then the Anova . The Joule comes last but maybe that’s because it can circulate in the lowest depth of water so you will hear more bubbles if you are using less water ( we have this one and find the water sound soothing actually !)

Electricity consumption

The BEST on comsumption is Sous Vide Supreme 788w. Then Anova 885W, the Joule 1095W, Sansaire 1097watts.

Wifi / App / Bluetooth

Only 2 use wifi. With the Joules either Bluetooth or wifi is necessary, With the Anova, it’s optional. The Joules app is much easier to use than the anova one.

Operation

The Joule has no controls on it so you have to rely on the smartphone. The Anova precision has all the controls on the wand too. The Sansaire clip is the best..so easy to snap on quickly. The Sansaire is a little Large for a pot ( a little larger than the Anova) and the Joule just sits in any size pan without even needing it’s clip as it has a strong magnetic base to hold it !

Size

The Joule wins on size, so does the new Anova nano entry level version. All the water baths need counter top space ! The Joule and new Anova fit in the cutlery drawer, the Sansaire can stand on a shelf – about the size of a champagne bottle.

Design

Most wands are pretty industrial ( professional and robust ) looking, as they started as commercial tools. The Sansaire is sleek and modern but looks a little futuristic. The Anova looks ‘practical’ and the Joule is small and skinny, and mimimalist designer looking. The two water baths we chose are pretty neat and sleek looking, given that they still have to sit on the counter top.

Lifestyle

The Joule is smart, shows you how your food will look when cooked so you can choose your preference, and it guides and alerts you all the way through. So it’s loved by young and old, cooks and chefs ( it’s made by chefs!). You have to be committed to smartphone using though to love it !