SousVide Supreme review
A month ago I promised a review of the sousVide Supreme and I suddenly disappeared. As some of you who read the “about me” section of this website, know, I work in Visual Effects. The latest project I’m working on is so, that, coming home from work, I didn’t have the energy to sit down and write. Today I decided that I had to do it and here I am, back at it. So here it is, the review of the sousVide supreme.
As you might know SousVide Supreme arrives in Europe. Eades Appliance Technology allowed me to try out a unit for a while. After the Swid by Addélice, the 7306 by Polyscience it’s the turn of the sousVide Supreme to go through a series of tests. I’ve been playing with it for three weeks and it has been good fun.
Review #3 SousVide Supreme by Eades Appliance Technology.
First, what is the SousVide Supreme. In 2009 Doctors Michael and Mary Eades founded Eades Appliance Technology. The Eades are phisicians and health book authors. They came to the sous vide for the health advantage of this cooking methods. Finding the existent technology costly and alien to the home cook they decided to create their own. Thus was born the first water oven for the home kitchen.
I recieved the SousVide Supreme at work and was very eager to get home that day to try it out immediately. The first thing you noticed when you open the box is the size, approximately the size of a standard bread machine, the all stainless steel exteriore makes it a very stylish appliance that can match pretty much all styles of kitchen, if it’s something important for you that is. The machine is shipped with a Manual/recipe book and a instructions DVD, which I didn’t have to use to kick off the machine. The SousVide Supreme(SVS) is extremely easy to use. all you need to make it work in situated on a control panel on the front of the machine.
The first thing I did that night was to cook some lamb chops, I wasn’t trying to prove anything, I was just excited by the new toy and wanted to use it. If I didn’t have meat, I would have thrown a couple of eggs in it, just to use it. Although I love me an immersion circulator, there is something quite nice in using a waterbath. It makes the process less special, more natural and normal, like using a deep fat fryer or a pressure cooker. With this first use I notice the noise that the machine makes. None, it is very, very silent.
Let’s be a bit more technical for a moment. When I first used the SVS, I poured coldish water around 24°C, I wanted my chops medium rare, around 66°C. It took around 20 minutes to get to temperature, which is alright. It’s not rocket fast, but it’s not slugish either. That night I didn’t measure the temperature throughout the cooking, but the chops came out perfectly cooked.
There’s a couple of interesting features on the SVS that I should mention, the first one that I really appreciated is the fact that you can use it with or without setting the timer, it’s particularily useful when doing very long cooking. the other one is the lid, which is often absent from circulator. (Polyscience sell a bundle including a container with lid.) It’s very useful to retain a constant water lever by avoiding evaporation. lastly the SVS is sold with a pouch holder that sits inside the bath allowing to keep the bags submerged throughout the cooking. I really liked this as some of the longest cooking ie: 72 hours can result in air buildup in the bags allowing the pouches to float at the surface of the water creating uneven cooking.
As I said before all the controls can be found at the front of the machine and are very simple to understand and use. It’s where you’ll set the cooking temperature and the timer if you choose to use it. I usually don’t. There’s nothing to say there, it’s completely straightforward. I didn’t open the manual before using it.
It’s all well and good, but what did I do with the SVS exactly? Personally there’s a very important thing I’m looking for with sous vide cookery, the first one is precise cooking, for fish or tender piece of meat and very consistent temperature for long cooking. I tested the temperature of the water the same way I did on the previous reviews using two home digital probe thermometers and a thermocouple. I noticed a slight temperature variation of about half a degree during an hour period, which is pretty much nothing. Next I wanted to see how the unit would do with long cooking. It did very well indeed. I used the SousVide Supreme for a week, non-stop and I mean non-stop. Day and night for 7 days. I cooked pork belly for 72 hours. Beef cheek for 72 hours (Sous vide Beef cheek was a revelation by the way, if you didn’t try, run to your butcher now and order some), a brisket for 72 hours, Duck legs for 24 hours.
The machine didn’t show any sign of weakness whatsoever, I turned it off for a day then used it again pretty much every day while I had it. I was very impressed really.
A couple of things would make the SousVide Supreme a near perfect machine for the home cook. A removable container would make for an easy cleaning. Having to expose the electrics to water is a bit scary. The lid could do with a handle at the top (Like the Clifton food range waterbaths) or hinged. It will allow user to open and close with one hand. The SVS is unstired, which makes it less precise than a circulator, but home cooking rarely demands this degree of precision, it can be a problem with perfect magic eggs (I actually forgot to try eggs during my testing). Size could be a problem for bigger pieces, but food can be divided into smaller portion, so not so much of a problem.
All and all this is a good machine, ideal for the home cook for whom it will look and feel familiar, it’s very easy to use, which will attract the general public. I really enjoyed using it. No need to attach a unit to some container, it’s all there, open the lid stick your food in there and kick it off.
English
French
Nice review. Looks like the perfect machine to start sous vide. It’s a shame I don’t have space anymore in my kitchen. But I am looking forward to have one. One question though is it possible to cook vegetables sous vide? Seem you are cooking only meat!
Indeed you can. I’m just a full on carnivore. Usually vegetables are cooked at 85°C for as long as it takes for them to be cooked. You get the same advantages in term of taste and nutrition as with meat.
Carrots taste more carrote-y and potato more potato-ey.
N.
I’ve been using one for four months now. A lamb rib chop at 135˚ for 3 hours, then quickly seared in a hot pan for 30 seconds per side is worth the price of the machine. Same for lamb london broil. Hanger streak for 24 hours, brisket for 48 hours are also wonderful. You can take a cheap cut of meat and cook it for 48 hours resulting in a wonderful meal. It also does great things for a good steak (1 1/2 inch ribeye @ 132˚ for 3-4 hours). Cook it precisely to the temperature you like then sear it for a few seconds and serve. Perfectly cooked every time.
The only problem I found was with some condensation when cooking at higher temperatures for longer (48-74 hours) periods when it is humid. Maybe it is just me.
Any idea of the price of the SVS in the UK?
Garry on sale in the UK now at 499.00 – mine is on order !!
I enjoyed reading your review. I just finished mine last week, as well. Please take a look and let me know what you think. Are you going to buy one? I assume you tested the other two machines. You refer to them here, but didn’t really compare much about each – like cost and preference. I would like to know which you would buy for home use, and why.
Valerie
(I would also love to see the website of the above user, if there is one)
No web site. I’m just a home cook who discovered sous vide. You can contact me at rkweaver@swbell.net if you want to.
Dinner tonight was boneless beef ribs at 135˚ for 48 hours. Wonderful. Tomorrow night we try duck for the first time. Should be fun. kw
I just purchased one today and read through the manual. I saw that there was a list for the maximum cooking hour for each type of product (beef, pork, chicken, and vegetables). It says that beef (2″ thick) has a minium time of 4 hours minimum and maximum time of 8 hours. Does this really mean that I cannot keep a steak cooking for more than 8 hours? This is one example, but I really wanted to put food in the SVS in the morning before work and after 10-12 hours, I can have it done. What are your thoughts or experience with cooking longer than the recommended “maximum” time
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