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What do you guys think about using immersion circulators as a general cooking technique for the average person? I see that you can buy one for $300 or so. Is it

• joezydeco 13y ago
  I'm a fan of sous-vide cooking. I gave up on plans to build my own rig and bought a Dorkfood DSV for $99. Best investment I've ever made in the kitchen. I believe almost all SV equipment uses electric heat. I've never encountered a gas-powered model. Energy savings wise I'd like to believe that it's about as energy efficient as you can get. The food is brought up to temperature and no higher - no excess energy is wasted in lost heat. Although one of the benefits of sous-vide cooking, the very long hold times, can result in an energy loss if you decide to start your steak at 8am and then not finish it until 6pm. Circulators use a bit more energy, a PID controller on a crock-pot will get you almost as good a result. For the average person, it's just not ready yet. I've done work with a large home appliance manufacturer and their belief is that it will be a niche cooking technique for a long time to come. There's too much up-front work with prep and sealing and a lot of families don't plan ahead 4-8 hours when making family meals. They're too busy getting the morning routine accomplished to think about dinner. There is potential in offering pre-sealed meals that can be thrown into a water bath all day, but that's a whole different set of problems.