Communité, Equipement, Revues, Sammic, Sous vide, Souvideuse 7 comments

Test SV-310T par Sammic.

By on mars 18th, 2011

Again, Apologies to Sammic to have taken so long to post this review. As I was saying in my previous article. Work was taking priority. I had a little bit of time on my hand and here it is: the review of Sammic SV310 chamber vacuum sealer.

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I’ve been cooking sous vide for a while and like lots of people who start with this technique my first attempts were done using the simple Ziploc bag in a pan of water technique. Actually to be completely honest, my very first attempt was using my deep fat fryer filled with filled with water, but it was sad and am ashamed of how badly it ended up.

I, then move uo to a run of the mill exterior vacuum sealer, a £60 model I picked up at amazon.co.uk. It did the job ok. I used it for nearly a year. It had its problem though, the vacuum wasn’t high enough and there wasn’t anywhere near enough control. That’s when I decided I needed to move on to a better model, so I switched to a La.Va V300. It has a more powerful pump, nice control via a pressure control valve and overall it’s way better.

It’s fine for me after all, I’m a home cook. It does the trick and I am happy with the resulting food.

then again, it’s limited and limiting.  Unless I resort to tricks or jumping through ever growing hoops. Compression techniques is out of my reach and precise variable vacuum pressures is near impossible and vacuuming liquid is a far away dream.

For a passionate amateur like myself, this is frustrating, and for a professional chef, it’s a real handicap.

The solution? A chamber vacuum sealer! I had the opportunity to get a model on loan by the good people at SAMMIC. SAMMIC is a leading international professional kitchen equipment provider. They offer a vast range of Chamber vacuum sealer for all kitchen sizes and budgets. When we talked I asked for a model that could fit in my tiny London Flat, they sent me the Sv-310T.

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The first thing you notice when you open the box is how beautiful the machine is, all stainless steel and shinny. Size-wise (384 x 455 x 405 mm) it is not the smallest model and it was good as it was perfect for pretty much all sous vide application from large brisket joint to single serving steak. Despite its reasonable size it is heavy. Thirty five kilos to be exact. You might want to find a place for it and leave it there. for like ever!

So why is it so good to own a chamber vacuum sealer?

There’s various reasons for this and I’m going to talk about a couples.

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Vacuuming liquid.

With an exterior vacuum sealer, when you try vacuuming liquid like marinades, stocks or sauces… The machine sucks up the liquid while sucking the air out thus damaging sometimes permanently the equipment. Because the Sv-310T (like other Chamber vacuum sealer model) creates a vacuum in the chamber no aspiration is happening. Allowing you to sous vide liquid without making a mess and that’s a huge difference. With traditional suction vacuum sealer you have to freeze the liquid or like I’m doing, in gelatin form.

Compression

Maybe one of the coolest thing you can do with a chamber vacuum sealer is what we call compression.  This technique opens doors to new culinary adventures and bring new horizons in food preparation. What is “compression”? Using a high pressure setting you can vacuum pack vegetables or fruit and compress them so much that you change their look and texture. This technique is nearly impossible to replicate with most external vacuum sealers.

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Control

Good usage of a chamber vacuum sealer allows you control the type of vacuum you want in the bag. You may need to apply a fair amount of pressure for some food or sometimes you need to be more gentle and remove just the necessary air, but not enough to damage the delicate food you’re cooking. The Sv-310T is pretty good at that in a very simple way, you just change the timer up or down. If you ever watch Bruno Goussault DVD about Sous vide cooking. He explain that when cooking chicken on the bone he need to get a gentler vacuum going as to not suck out the bone marrow from the bones thus making the bone black. This is the kind of control you gain using the Sv-310T.

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Why the Sv-310T? First it is a very powerful yet compact machine. It is not the smallest on the market, but if you invest in this kind of equipment you want something that would work in pretty much all application and the Sv-310T offer exactly that.

Using the SV-310T is extremely easy and quite straightforward. You lift the lid, place your pouch in the chamber resting the edge of the bag on the sealing bar. On the front of the machine, you find the different control, push the vacuum button then set the time you want the vacuum to go for, push the sealing button and again set the timer to how long you want the machine to seal. close the lid et voila. The vacuum is made the bag sealed and the lid open automatically. Nothing that could make you feel inadequate.

There’s a couple of advance functions, but mainly this is what you need to make it work. It was actually lucky that the machine is so easy to use, because one thing I have to be critical of is the instruction guide, it’s a couple of pages in a leaflet and I didn’t find them really clear or helpful. If anything Sammic should revisit the instructions and made them clear for people who don’t have much experience with those kind of machine.

The pros and cons? Really it’s all good. I wish I still had it, I still mourn the day I had to give it back. I should have tried to negotiate a discount price and buy it for myself.

Good size, allowing a wide range of produces to be vacuum sealed. Sturdy, aesthetically nice and very easy to use. On the negative side, the weight . 35kilos you won’t move it everyday, then again it’s one of the lightest. The price! it’s quite expensive and at the moment it’s stays in the realm of the professional kitchen or the passionate cook with loads of cash.

If you have the need or the means, go crazy. it’s worth it.

Communité, Equipement, Grant sous vide, Immersion circulator, Revues, Sous vide No comments yet

Test Grant Sous Vide SV100

By on mars 18th, 2011

First. I wanted to apologize to Grant Sous vide to have taken so long to finish this series of reviews. But as I was saying I had a lot of work, not enough time on my hand and when I had some time I was too tired to even contemplate writing. But here it is, the very anticipated SV100 review.

As I said in the previous article the people at Grant Sous vide allowed me to test out two of there machines, the SVE12 and the SV100. the SVE12 was a good machine, a very good machine, a couple of improvements wouldn’t go amiss, but a good machine nonetheless. I couldn’t wait to start testing the SV100.

I opened the box and there it was, quite impressive in size I have to say. It was bigger than I expected. A big body and an equally long immersed part. I compared it to the Swid (forgot to take a picture though) it was significantly bigger. Aesthetically I thought it was quite nice , didn’t have this industrial look that some of its competitor have. Like with the SVE12 a single sheet instruction manual was the first thing you saw when opening the box, seems scarce but it a testament to the ease of use of this equipment. It’s so easy I didn’t have to read the instructions to get it going. (But I recommend you do).

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I took it out of the box and attached it to an 18 litres gastro pan and set it off.

A great aspect of the SV100 is the noise, there is none!. the machine is extremely silent. I set the temp and there she was stirring and heating. The water agitation is very good, it felt a bit less powerful than the Polyscience 7306, but still does the job of keeping a constant temperature all over the container. This, I measured with my trusty thermocouple. The heating time is similar to pretty much every model I’ve tested so far, approx 25 minutes from 45°C to 80°C for an 18 litres container.

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How does it work?

To set the temperature, press the S button. The screen will flash for a second and display the current temp. Use the really cool rotary knob to your temperature of choice. Press S again and the display goes back to the current temperature and the water start heating up. How easy is that?

A cool feature is that you can set and store three temperature presets. So you can record your favorite temp for fish, meat and vegetable and access them quickly later. Or if you’re using it in a restaurant, it allows less experience chefs or sous chefs to use the equipment by just using the presets.

Size-wise, as I was saying above, it is bigger than the Swid, but not so much that it becomes a problem, it can still be used in a home kitchen. It is bigger but it is also feels sturdier. I understand that it could be a problem for some, but really I had it in a cupboard when I wasn’t using it and it is fine.

In term of use, it’s a blast. I love the rotary dial for the temperature setting. As I said earlier it is pretty much plug and play, that’s the reason the user guide is limited to one concise page. It looks pretty. It’s just fun to use and it doesn’t have this ultra complicated Lab tool feel to it. It feel familiar, like you always had one.

One thing that might sound weird, but is actually quite important is the Clamp system which allow you to attach the SV100 to any container, it is simply one of the best clamp system I came across to date, big and sturdy and safe looking.

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So, how would I compare it to the SVE12? Being a immersion circulator you can use it with various size containers, which is a good thing for bigger pieces of food that wouldn’t fit in the SVE12. Personally I’m partial to immersion circulators, they are more versatile, they easily transportable and can be adapted to anything.

To conclude it’s a very good machine with a very attractive price, which makes it a good alternative to the Swid. Grant Sous vide is a very respected company working with chefs for years, coming up with great new tools all the time.

Communité, Equipement, Revues, Sous vide, waterbath 3 comments

Test Grant Sous Vide SVE12.

By on octobre 4th, 2010

This morning I realise that in my eagerness to let people know about the cheaper alternative to the SVE12, meaning the SVP12, I kept referring to the SVP12 all over the article. I apologise if it confused people. I rectified this earlier, but I thought that an explanation was in order. So this article is about the “SV12 Expert” which is the professional version. The “SVP12″ is the cheaper version with a 1deg stability, the SVE Has a 0.2 deg stability, hence the price difference.

I wanted to make clear that when testing these various machines, I’m not trying to pit them one against the other, I really think that they all have their pros and cons and I’m trying to relate my experience using them. People can then decide by themselves which is best to serve their uses. Obviously if one day I test one which is a massive piece of crap I will say so.

As I was saying a couple of weeks back, Grant Sous vide sent me two machines to play with. The SVP12 and the SV100. I’ve been using them everyday for the last two weeks and I’m ready to let you know how they performed.

I’ll start with the SVE12 a 12 litres professional grade waterbath used all over the world in professional kitchen, used among other in Heston Blumenthal’s kitchens. Last time I used a waterbath was when I tested the SousVide Supreme. Although similar the experience this time slighlty different, I have to credi this to the pro, yet simple layout of the SVE12.

The first thing that you notice when you unpack the machine is the simplicity of it. No fancy, useless functions, just straightforward clean lines. and easy to use functions. The users instructions reflects this straight to the point concept. It fits on a single page.

How does it work? First you need to find a flat sturdy surface to put the waterbath on. then you plug it, fill it with water and turn it on. To set the temperature. Nothing simpler. You press the S button to get to the menu, a ºC with show on the display, then press S again, the display will show the actual water temperature, then you press up or down to set the target temperature, then you press S a final time and the machine will start to heat the water.

Besides, the S, UP and DOWN button the only other control is the Power on/off button. nothing else, so confusion is not an issue. I could have used this machine without the instruction is so simple. Setting the temps can also be done using shortcuts, using the UP and DOWN control directly will get you directly to temperature control without going through the menu.

Let’s go back to the machine itself. What you get in the box is the main unit, a circulation tray, a lid and an instruction sheet. The main unit is quite light, light enough to be moved around, which is good if you want to store it and take it out when you need it. Even though the SVE12 is made for the professional kitchen where it will stay on a counter everyday ready to be used. The machine is all stainless steal which makes it very easy to clean and Hygienic, it has anti-slip leg that makes it quite stable.

The first thing I usually do when I test any machine, is to get it to cook something for a long period of time. I do that is because I want to be able to trust a machine enough to be able to leave it to run unattended for days, without the fear of burning down my flat. I did just that, but gradually, I started with a brisket, that I decided to cook for 24 hours at 80ºC.

I filled the SVE12 and started the heating process. The water I used was hot water from the tap. the machine indicated 45ºC I checked with my thermocouple and I got 45.8ºC which is pretty close. It took 25 minutes for the water to heat up to 80ºC which is reasonable. It’s when placed the pouch in the water that I had my first problem.
The brisket, though not a massive chunk was too big for the bath and prevented the lid to effectively close. The problem was the circulation tray which holds the bag above the bottom of the bath to allow water to circulate underneath the food. I could have removed it, but I though more appropriate to just portion my brisket into two smaller bags. I placed them in the bath and came back the next evening. I didn’t test the water temperature on this first go, I left that for later. The brisket came out perfect.

What you notice when the machine is running is the complete silence. I don’t mean it’s quite, I mean it’s silent. Not a sound, you can hear the food cook it’s so silent. You could use it in a baby’s bedroom. (Although I don’t recommend it.). the other cool thing is the lid that makes evaporation a problem of the past. Talking about the lid, I have my second critic here. I would prefer a lid with a handle with a bit more clearance. The first time I opened it I burnt my fingers touching the surface of the lid. you have to be careful especially at thess kind of temperatures. I guess it wouldn’t be an issue if I was cooking a beef filet at 57ºC, but 80ºC is quite hot.

For the second test, I prepped myself a couple of beef cheeks, using the Sammic SV310, that I have on Loan, I vacuum packed them with Sherry, Port and some beef stock. I set the temperature of the waterbath to 66ºC and placed the pouch in it and let it be for 72 hours. This time I checked the temperature, I used my thermocouple every morning and every evening for the next three days. The SVE12 was displaying 66ºC and my thermocouple registered temperatures between 66.4 and 66.8ºC. Not bad. I didn’t check the temperature at different spot inside the bath, for the simple reason that when you cook something that long, you don’t really care if you get a 1 or 2 degrees difference inside the bath. It’s not like I was cooking the perfect egg.

What are the good point about the SVE12?

  • First it’s simple to use, very simple to use, which makes sous vide cooking an approachable endeavour for the amateur cook.
  • It’s very sturdy and feels safe. After the first 24 hours test I didn’t think twice before leaving for 72 hours straight. It was running pretty much everyday for two weeks without blinking.
  • It’s stable, once the temperature reached it doesn’t seem to bulge. It dropped a couple of degrees when I place the pouches in, but it’s a normal occurrence and happens with any machine.
  • I like the idea of a self contained unit and it seems to be the best option for the amateur cook who doesn’t want to be bothered with a immersion circulator and various containers.
  • Twelve litres is a good size, not too big, not too small.
  • And finally and more importantly, it does the job!

What are the bad points about the SVE12?

  • Not unlike the SousVide Supreme, you would want a removable container to make emptying and cleaning easier. It’s a bit daunting to bring an electric device near a sink.
  • Although the lid does the job of keeping the water level constant for long period of time by elimination loss by evaporation, the handle could be cleared from the surface a bit more.
  • The size of the machine is good as I said earlier, but I would prefere a deeper container. To make the cooking of bigger pieces of food easier or maybe a shallower circulation tray.

All in all a very good machine, trustworthy and performing very well. It’s not a cheap equipment like most of the sous vide material but it’s not massively expensive with a price around £700. You can get The SVP12 for £500. Grant offers a wide range of waterbath from 5 litres to 26 litres. Mostly for the professional kitchen it could find a place in the amateur chef’s kitchen.

Working Capacity: 300mm (W) x 190mm (D) x 505mm (H)
Temperature stability ±0.2°C
Temperature range ambient plus 5 to 99°C
3 digit LED
1 year warranty

Grant sous vide Website for more information and other appliances, here.

Check back Tomorrow for the review of the Grant Sous Vide SV100.