SousVide Supreme

Posted by johngl

There has been a lot of interest lately in my sous-vide posts, especially the ribeye, posted just a couple of weeks ago, and the lobster, posted about a year ago. I’m not complaining; these were really very worthwhile experiments.

As my regular readers know by now, my sous-vide rig is a Rube Goldberg blend of a Rival 16 quart electric roasting pan ($50 tops) and an Auber Controller (about $150 with shipping).  Born out of my desire to cook sous-vide style without investing over $1000 in an immersion circulator, this rig has done me well.

Now, it seems, a manufacturer has put these together into a single unit called the SousVide Supreme.

My rig has internal dimensions of 11 3/4″ x 18″ and is 5″ deep.  As I said earlier, it easily holds 16 quarts (over 15 liters) of water.  By comparison, the internal dimensions of the SousVide Supreme is 9.9″ x 12.6″ and is 6.8″ deep. It holds about 11.5 quarts (10-11 liters). The SousVide Supreme operates from 41° – 203° with 1° accuracy while the Auber unit claims a range of 5° over ambient to 383°F with the same 1° accuracy.

So, how much does the SousVide Supreme cost?

I am so very glad you asked. According to the website, it retails for $449.

I checked the google and that figure appears to be the going rate (I would be at a loss without the Bush family).  I also checked on immersion (or thermal) circulators; they are still in the $1000 range without any sort of water tub.

So, it appears that the SousVide Supreme saves you more than 50% of the cost of a circulator. It is also a self contained unit, which has some appeal. Some folks probably even got one for a holiday gift, which would make it, ummmm…well, free I guess. Can’t go wrong with that! However, in the spirit of Alton Brown, this is a monotasker. The only thing it can be used for is sous-vide. Okay, so you might also be able to use it soak your feet — unless your dogs are as large as mine.

My unit, though a bit more, shall we say rustic, cost me only the $150 for the controller. I already had the roasting pan which I use to keep large chunks of beef, pork, chicken, etc warm at parties. It also has a tri-pan insert that allows it to work as a kind of chafing dish at gatherings. On occasion, I have even roasted things in it.

Further, the Auber unit can be used to control temperatures in electric smokers. This can be as simple as assembling another Rube Goldberg award winner: an electric hotplate, a pie tin with hardwood sawdust, and a cardboard box. This contraption can be used to smoke fish like in Alton Brown’s episode of Good Eats: Where there’s smoke, there’s fish (episode transcript). Instead of using probe thermometers (as in Alton’s method), you can use the Auber to control the heat source.

Far be it from me to knock the SousVide Supreme though.  It looks like a reasonable way to get people to actually try some alternative ways of cooking.  I might even buy one if it was, well, bigger.  The primary complaint I have about my own kludge-unit is that it isn’t big enough — and it’s considerably larger than the SousVide Supreme. I’m an unusual case though (the most glorious spousal unit will gladly confirm) and the cooking of large hunks of meat is pretty typical around here.

Whatever rig you choose to use: immersion circulator, SousVide Supreme, or something like my Rube Goldberg kludge-unit, cooking sous-vide is well worth exploring.

Oh, and if anyone out there has actually used the SousVide Supreme, please let me know how it worked for you; I may decide to buy one yet.