Look What Our Daughter Found for $100

[Jim White]

Our daughter found this at a yard sale.

Wow. In theory this is unused, although the quick start guide was missing from inside the box. The unit turned on when plugged in and connected to WiFi on the first try. Can’t wait to put it through its paces.

[Skip]

Great find Jim! Have fun with your new SV Cooker.

[DaveD]

Outstanding Jim! I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that you already own a vac sealer. Sous vide and vac sealed leftovers are life-changing.

[58limited]

SV is great for defrosting too.

[Jim White]

I have a Nano but haven’t used it as much as I should. This will jumpstart more action on that front.

[randy.56]

You will like it, lots of uses, There are SV cooking sites online you do not need the paper work.

[jfmorris]

So, half the $199 price of a new one. Assuming it's really just opened and not used, and works for you, that's a good deal.

I really need to bust out my Anova (Precision but not Pro) more than once a year as I seem to do. I'll be using it soon to finish some pastrami I smoked and dropped back in the deep freeze...

I have an Amazon wish list with SV accessories like tubs to do it in, that I've never pulled the plug on. I just use a 2 gallon stock pot, or even a 5 gallon stock pot I keep in the garage on a shelf.

[Old Glory]

Score I love my SV machine!

[DaveD]

I use the SV to reheat leftovers at least twice as often as I do to do the primary cooking. Steaks are what I use the latter for most often. I run that thing at least three times a week, sometimes almost every day when we're in "we need room in the freezer" mode. We're making way better use of our leftovers than ever before with this thing, combined with the vac seal. I hate to waste food, although I know sometimes there's no choice, and it comes out so close to how it was on the day, way moreso than any microwave reheat can do (since there's always additional cooking).

[RichieB]

Great deal congrats! What's the 1st cook and what time should we all arrive?

[Troutman]

Nice score !! Actually I heard that was Huskee's old unit.

[fzxdoc]

Jim, jfmorris , you may find that using the sous vide will ease your cooking load during the day. It's so easy to put some frozen chicken, steakburgers (so juicy and safe at lower temps when pasteurized in the SV) , steaks or salmon in the bath and have each perfect from frozen to searing/serving in a couple of hours.

I've never been on the reheating bandwagon as DaveD is, but I'd trust his judgment, Jim. I'm a bit more skittish since I ruined a gorgeous, perfectly seared piece of leftover tri-tip by reheating it sous vide. It had that rancid fat-induced "leftover" taste. (and you know about my leftover taste bugaboo ). Plus with SV reheating I'm mindful of the cumulative safe zone clock that ticks with leftovers from food that has already been cooked and gone through that zone twice already. That said, I realize that it's not an issue most of the time, depending on the volume/thickness of food reheated via sous vide.

Jim White , congrats to your daughter on that find. You'll be serving up convenient meals in no time.

Kathryn

[jfmorris]

Kathryn,

What about something like pastrami, where it is effectively cooked twice - smoked, then steamed, or in my case, SV'ed for the finish? Just curious. Of course, I'll likely serve the pastrami cold unless we eat it hot the day I do the SV finish.

I will definitely try the pork loin to a lower temp on the SV, and let the sear take it higher.

[fzxdoc]

jfmorris
Usually pastrami doesn't last long in our house. Husband and I eat 1 or 2 of them (I'm talking about starting with storebought corned beef here, which start at around 3 lbs and by the time they're smoked they're about 1 to 1.5 lbs. ). The kids take whatever I freeze, usually.

This year I made 8 pastramis, all from points. We ate one, I gave 4 away, and plan to thaw one to see how it tastes. As I said earlier, if I knew the conditions that predispose leftover flavor, I'd avoid them!

[fzxdoc]

...continued jfmorris
So I'm hoping the pastrami point that I thaw for Reuben sammies does not have that leftover flavor. Must test one before the kids come back and make off with whatever pastrami is in the freezer.

It's hit/miss with that bad leftover flavor. Occasionally I'll reheat a steak just to see whether or not I'm making something of nothing. Sometimes it's just fine. But then, sure enough, here comes the ringer with that terrible taste. It's so hit/miss that I can't predict it.