Comments on: The Sous Vide Supreme

By: James

James — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 02:39:31 +0000

Hi Michael, hope you had a great holiday! Haven’t seen/heard from you since the Chef’s Garden cook-off this summer. Hope all is well and Cleveland isn’t to cold! I’ll be heading back out to CVI in March to do a dinner with Mangalitsa Pork for the Earth to Table series.

Anyway, really enjoyed this post! My wife just bought me one of these for christmas- I can’t wait to get my hands on it once it comes in. I’m particularly interested in what it may mean for making confit and rillettes at home. I was curious if you’ve ventured down that road yet, if so how did it work? I’m hoping that I’ll be able to make confit at home without having to keep huge tubs of fat in the fridge…

By: Barzelay

Barzelay — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 19:25:38 +0000

In addition to Polyscience, there are several other brands that make great circulators that are perfect for restaurants (and are, in many cases, much higher quality than Polyscience). Techne, Omega, Julabo…

By: Randall

Randall — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 04:38:54 +0000

This looks like the same idea as the SVS from polyscience. It looks like these are fairly new (not available yet) but the 2 ltr size will start at $459. http://www.thermoworks.com/products/baths_circulators/polyscience_analog_waterbaths.html

By: Merry Christmas from Dallas | The Blog of Michael R. Eades, M.D.

Merry Christmas from Dallas | The Blog of Michael R. Eades, M.D. — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 03:53:39 +0000

[...] writer Michael Ruhlman did a great review of the Sous Vide Supreme, and in the comments section someone took me (and the SVS team) to task [...]

By: Peter

Peter — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 21:42:51 +0000

The electronics inside PolyScience, Addelice, Julabo, et al are likely all the same. I’m a process automation engineer for a pharmaceutical, so I know a little bit about process control devices. Lower priced goods generally have lower manufacturing costs (i.e., cheaper labor).

By: E. Nassar

E. Nassar — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 21:21:15 +0000

I guess I’m still thinking the Euro is fairly expensive. As far as argument for the Polyscience goes. Well, it’s more or less the industry standard as opposed to the Addelice which I am not familiar with. That’s about it.

By: Jane

Jane — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 20:32:54 +0000

Nassar,

The price of Addelice immersion circulator would be more in the area of 645 $ not 1,000 $ (the currency rate €/$ is currently very unfavorable to €, you could imagine that the price could be soon below 600$ . What are your arguments to purchase a Polyscience one instead?
Buy the way my question was how to compare sousvidesupreme and addelice immersion circulator.

By: E. Nassar

E. Nassar — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 19:57:30 +0000

Here is Polyscience’s SV kit: http://www.cuisinetechnology.com/SousVideCookingKit.html

I would rather spend a couple hundred dollars more and get that rather than the Addelice.

By: E. Nassar

E. Nassar — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 19:53:00 +0000

I am not sure the Addelice is a competitor to the SVS. Maybe I am wrong but that is almost a $1000! For that much cash, I’d rather buy a Polyscience. I’ve been cooking SV for over a year now using an immersion circulator I got from ebay for $100 and a good foodsaver with the Pulse feature. Glad Michael decided to start featuring this unique a very useful technique here. As far as carbon footprint of the machine being on, it is negligible compared to almost any other other household gadget. Someone actually measured the power usage on that eGullet thread if anyone is interested. Of course to each their own, and if you believe using your gas range is so much more efficient all the time then by all means do that, but if we wanted to be completely “green” we can go back to hunting and gathering.

By: Jane

Jane — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:58:23 +0000

Michael,

You said “But the price as it is seems pretty reasonable to me given the technology involved and the fact that our nearest competitor is about twice the price for a smaller basin. ”
I checked Einard’s comment above and I think he is right. Your nearest competitor is a “real immersion circulator” from Addelice. How would you compare the sousvidesupreme with Addelice immersion circulator?

By: luis

luis — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 06:46:29 +0000

Maybe even sell the first prototype sousvide ready packages through Blue SKY? A nicely seasoned Mangalitza pork chop in a ready sousvide bag seasoned by MR? with specific sousvide directions to do it ins Sous vide Supreme? and Maillard it under hot broiler….hmm hmm hmm……This could work.

By: luis

luis — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 06:06:15 +0000

A proportional–integral–derivative controller (PID controller) is a generic control loop feedback mechanism (controller) widely used in industrial control systems. A PID controller calculates an “error” value as the difference between a measured process variable and a desired setpoint. The controller attempts to minimize the error by adjusting the process control inputs. The PID parameters used in the calculation must be tuned according to the nature of the system.

By: luis

luis — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 05:36:15 +0000

Michael Eads , One last thought on your fine effort. Even with regular ovens we find the huge step forward was to install the fan to circulate the air. Hence the convection ovens. A water oven could be built with a circulator and perhaps a cheaper controller? But it would be much less reliable than your machine which uses no moving parts. Bravo Bro… Kudo’s.

By: luis

luis — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 05:28:47 +0000

Sara I just got my cooking in for most of the week. My day off you see. I can tell you that it is all in plastic bags in my freezer. So basically I think you do have a point. We need to recycle plastic more efficiently. Absolutelly!
But the technique of sousviding is not entirelly the problem and it is one of the healthiest ways to cook that conserves the most nutrients and true flavor out there. If you look to the future far enough as I do sometimes. You can imagine Whole Foods and Publix selling “SousVide” Ready food.
In fact I can imagine the thought has crossed Michael’s mind already.
Rhulman sousvide ready pot roast. One plastic package from store to freezer. Seasoned by Rhulman????….Embrace the future Sarah…love change and be healthy and prosper.

By: luis

luis — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 05:07:59 +0000

Michael Eades thank you for the insight into your sousvide machine temperature controller. And into the accuracy required to make great sousvide food. I would have never guessed the water column temp required such accurate control. It reminds me of the natural thermoclynes we find in the ocean water columns. I the summer here in SOFL we have warm water on top and colder on the bottom even in shallow water.
Multple heating elements and a PID controller suggests you went all out to correct this issue andbuild an outstanding machine.
I really commend your great effort to bring this technology to our kitchens.
I wish you the best of luck with your outstanding product. I find the price to be very reasonable for a new product. Even more now that you shared your insight with us.

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 23:22:44 +0000

following up on ET’s comment above – not to mention the carbon footprint of having these kinds of devices on for long periods of time

By: Matt Sloan

Matt Sloan — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 22:42:20 +0000

In addition to the new culinary possibilities that the sous vide technique opens up, I suspect that this method of cooking will become more and more popular due to the fact that one can prepare a meal course days ahead of time. I know that restaurants appreciate this fact and often use the technique to keep food at temperature for many hours before service. In our increasingly hectic lifestyles, it never hurts to have a large hunk of beast prepped and ready to go, leaving one less task to deal with. Especially at this time of year when families are gathering together, and the oven is needing to be utilized to perhaps roast a large bird, cook a dish of stuffing, bake a pie, etc, having one less thing to have to put into the oven sounds great to me.

By: sara

sara — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 21:45:58 +0000

Nagging question…

This sounds like a great culinary innovation, but is the plastic recyclable? It is essentially a means of generating more garbage unless there is a program in place for reprocessing the plastic being used in the sealing and cooking. And by that, I mean collection and actual reprocessing. Not just collection and then it is someone else’s headache to make it disappear as happens with much of the plastic collected in the US.

Just something to keep in mind.

By: Michael Eades

Michael Eades — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 19:12:45 +0000

@ msparksis and David Dadekian

The PID is basically a piece of hardware that stays pretty much unchanged. It receives input from the sensors around the basin, integrates the info and converts those inputs into temperature outputs that go to the heating element in such a way as to not allow a temperature overshoot. The display panel simply has to be calibrated so that its temperature displays correlate to what the PID is transmitting. You can kind of think of it as a speedometer in a way. If the wheels of a car are turning at a rate that indicates a speed of 60 mph, then you can calibrate the digital speedometer to say 60 mph when it receives that signal. You do the same at a handful of other known speeds, and then your speedometer is pretty well permanently calibrated. This is a simplistic explanation because it doesn’t really deal with the overshoot, which is one of the main reasons to use a PID, but it’s the best I can do without going overboard on the technicalities.

We’ve tested the units over thousands of cycles and found that once they are calibrated, they stay calibrated…at least over the many cycles we’ve tested. We (and others) operated the early prototypes using this same PID and heating element combo for many months with the calibration holding just fine.

By: David Dadekian

David Dadekian — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 17:36:29 +0000

That’s a fascinating and helpful explanation, Mr. Eades. I too would ask how long can that calibration be sustained or will the unit require some calibration over it’s lifetime? Either way, I wouldn’t think the price isn’t justified.