The disadvantage of the Sous Vide Supreme (which I had for about 4 years and loved before I broke it) is that it takes up a lot of counter space. That’s why I’m signed up for the Sansaire Kickstarter campaign. They’re supposed to start shipping on November.
Personally, I think chicken benefits more than anything else. It’s great for steak but I have other good steak cooking techniques. Chicken ends up with amazing flavor and texture (pop in the bag with some fat and seasoning and finish on a griddle or under the broiler) and is ridiculously easy. Fish can be fantastic too but you have to be careful not to overcook or it gets mushy.
I was going to bring this up, Jay, but you beat me to it. I bought a similar but much more expensive device a while back, the Polyscience Sous Vide Professional Creative model, about $3-400. It’s great, but the Sansaire is better looking, appears to be a little smaller, and half the price. Unless you need one by this weekend, I’d jump on the Kickstarter offer and you’ll have it before Christmas.
Disclosure: I happen to have met with Scott, the guy behind this, at a wedding two weeks ago. Nice guy. No connection otherwise (NFI).
I was talking to a friend of mine a few weeks ago about home sous vide, who also happens to be a professional chef and successful restaurateur, and he talked me out of buying Sous Vide Supreme or one of the devices that will externally control the temp of a rice cooker, crock pot, etc…
I haven’t followed through on this, but he said that the vast majority of home sous vide dishes can be made with a stand-alone induction burner from a restaurant supply store (about $150) and a large stock pot, and uses this setup in one of his restaurants with a small kitchen. He claims that this would work for most dishes that you would make at home, and the induction burner can be used for any number of things when not cooking sous vide.
I’m going to pull the trigger on this soon and will report back
Christine Huang used to use a pot in her oven. She’d calibrated the relationship between the oven temperature setting and the water temperature. As you say, works well for most recipes.