Anova Precision Cooker - cook sous vide with your iPhone.

Soldato
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somewhere out there!
Hey all, apologies if i have actually already asked this question however if I have I cant find my post.

So a few weeks ago I sous vided two chicken breasts however one came out beautifully juicy and tender whilst the other came out drier and not juicy, I have had this experience with steaks too. Does anyone think its down to how close the one piece of meat is to the anova element? Or is it just down to purely the animal it came from?

Thank you.
 

SPG

SPG

Soldato
Joined
28 Jul 2010
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10,231
What temperature and time, ziplock or Vac bag ?

TBh, never had a issue with anything although i do avoid the annova app and use chefsteps timings instead.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2003
Posts
3,659
Hey all, apologies if i have actually already asked this question however if I have I cant find my post.

So a few weeks ago I sous vided two chicken breasts however one came out beautifully juicy and tender whilst the other came out drier and not juicy, I have had this experience with steaks too. Does anyone think its down to how close the one piece of meat is to the anova element? Or is it just down to purely the animal it came from?

Thank you.

Not had this and we use Anova 4 out of 5 days. Make sure water can circulate around all pieces, although to be fair I don't make much effort. Probably just based on the animal. I almost always for for the lowest temperature in the scale offered.
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
25 Feb 2004
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18,141
Location
Hampshire
Hey all, apologies if i have actually already asked this question however if I have I cant find my post.

So a few weeks ago I sous vided two chicken breasts however one came out beautifully juicy and tender whilst the other came out drier and not juicy, I have had this experience with steaks too. Does anyone think its down to how close the one piece of meat is to the anova element? Or is it just down to purely the animal it came from?

Thank you.

Sounds odd, as long as the water can move around it shouldn't matter, if it happened once I'd say bad batch of meat, but to happen a couple of times sounds like something odd, is the circulator spinning and how big is your container? Definitely sure the bags are sealed properly?
 
OcUK Staff
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OcUK HQ
They were in the same bag. Vacuum sealed rather than ziplock. I think with the steaks MrsS was talking about the issue was more they were different thicknesses from the supermarket, but again I think we cooked them in the same vacuum seled bag. But yeah, the chicken was two peices from the same pack, pretty close to each other in size and thichkness, cooked in the same bag for the same time, and one was pretty tough and stringy (but not dry), the other was really tender and as you'd expect sous vide chiken to be.
 
Man of Honour
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28 Nov 2007
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12,736
Depends what you want to do. If you're just melting sugar for creme brulees and so on then normal kitchen one is fine. If you actually want to sear meat straight out of the water bath they aren't good enough. You'd want searzall or something. I only have a basic kitchen one and just do BBQ chimney starter for steaks and things when cooking sous vide.
 
Associate
Joined
9 Oct 2004
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1,376
Location
Paris
Bugger my Anova has stopped heating the water up. Went to do 75c poached eggs and it hit 72c but started falling slowly after that :(

It’ll be 3 years old this May so out of warranty. Anyone had the same issue?
 
Associate
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15 Feb 2015
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1,064
Porterhouse just gone in for 2-3 hours at 54c for a medium rare - now onto the triple cooked chips and béarnaise sauce.

Also tried pork chops for the first time cooked sous vide, couple of hours at 65c and finished in the frying pan, definite improvement over the grill but I think I need to drop another 2-3 degrees next time.
 
Associate
Joined
9 Oct 2004
Posts
1,376
Location
Paris
Porterhouse just gone in for 2-3 hours at 54c for a medium rare - now onto the triple cooked chips and béarnaise sauce.

Also tried pork chops for the first time cooked sous vide, couple of hours at 65c and finished in the frying pan, definite improvement over the grill but I think I need to drop another 2-3 degrees next time.

65c? Try 55c next time! Will be insanely juicy and tender
 
Man of Honour
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
39,945
Porterhouse just gone in for 2-3 hours at 54c for a medium rare - now onto the triple cooked chips and béarnaise sauce.

Also tried pork chops for the first time cooked sous vide, couple of hours at 65c and finished in the frying pan, definite improvement over the grill but I think I need to drop another 2-3 degrees next time.

65c? Try 55c next time! Will be insanely juicy and tender

Yup. I normally do pork loin steaks or tenderloins at 55-56°C. Pork is perfectly fine pink.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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39,945
Tried something new today. Half leg of lamb (about 1kg).
Stabbed it and put slices of garlic and small sprigs of rosemary in the cuts, salt and peppered it. It had the bone in so it had a sharp end, covered that with an additional piece of bag and then vac sealed it to stop it piercing the bag.

57.5°C for 7.5 hours. After an hour, discovered that lamb floats. Weighed it down and left it.

Time up, opened and drained the juices. Pulled as many of the rosemary and garlic pieces out as I could quickly. Well torched and served with roastie spuds, steamed veg and gravy from the juices.

Damn it was tender. Never had lamb that soft, even from a couple of michelin starred restaurants. Was fantastic. Still have a good chunk left too. Thoroughly recommended.
 
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