SousVide Supreme SVS-10LS SousVide Supreme Water Oven 10-L. Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Our interest in sous vide cooking grew from being lucky enough sporadicly to sample food prepared this way in a few restaurants. Nothing as fancy as The French Laundry, but still wonderful, memorable food. The sous-vide process is very easy for any cook - just season the raw meat or veggies; seal in a vacuum bag (not included, but our FoodSaver works great); cook at the listed temperature for the recommended time; sear to put a nice color on the outside of the food, if desired. The advantage of the method is that as the food is sealed in a bag, it loses very little moisture during cooking. Most items take about 1-2 hours with zero supervision, but you can sous vide cook them months in advance and then freeze them. When you want a delicious meal, just defrost and sear them to rewarm and finish, making the method a really nice time-saver for midweek gourmet cooking. The food is reliably cooked to perfection, incredibly moist and totally delicious. Timing is very forgiving, so it is gratifyingly difficult to overcook your expensive steaks! This makes preparing the rest of the meal very easy. Before the Sous Vide Supreme became available, we went to the lengths of obtaining a laboratory water bath, but, we weren't sure how clean it was and it was much too big to keep in the kitchen. Having spotted a recent mini-review of Sous Vide Supreme cooker by Cooks Illustrated, we decided to try one risk-free from Amazon. The results have been nothing short of miraculous - I will never cook a steak any other way, if I have the choice! We have also had repeated outstanding successes with t-bone lamb chops, pork loin chops, duck legs (confit-style) and duck breast (medium-rare), diver scallops, shrimp, eggs and chicken breasts.
Specifically about this machine:
Pros:
1. Compact - doesn't take a lot of counter space about 11.5" wide x 14.5" deep x 12" tall
2. Good starter recipe book, but the curious chef will want Douglas Baldwin's book - also available from Amazon
3. Simple to use - out of the box only takes about 5 minutes to learn how to set it up and start cooking
4. Easy clean-up
5. Very accurate temperature maintenance - doesn't vary by more than 0.5 degrees, even without a re-circulating pump
6. Much cheaper than commercial units, and much safer than used laboratory units!
Cons:
1. No vacuum bag sealer in the box. They are not that expensive to buy separately, but you definitely need one
2. Heavy to lift when full of water - can be awkward to fill and move to cooking location, or when you have finished, heavy to lift to the nearest sink and empty of water.
In summary, if it broke tomorrow, we would have to buy another one. It saves times and produces totally delicious food with much less obsessive use of a food thermometer. The fact that food can be frozen and reheated is a huge bonus for us.


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The Gourmet Slow Cooker: Simple and Sophisticated Meals from Around the World Review

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(More customer reviews)I've tried three recipes so far from this collection, each one more complex than the last, as I gain my trust in this author. The Baked Eggplant was ridiculously easy (just cut the eggplants into cubes and cook on low for 4-6 hours, then add the seasonings after the cooking is done.) Next I tried the Tuscan White Bean Soup, which was excellent and not at all watery, like most crock-pot soups. Finally, I made a pot of Mexican Chicken in Peanut and Ancho Chili Sauce, and I can finally say that I've found a crock pot book that really does work.
The author encourages crock-pot users to lift the lid and stir while the food is cooking; I heartily agree, because the food ends up well cooked and NOT the watery, insipid mess I usually got. These are recipes that will not taste like a well-meaning, "good-for-you" home economics project. But this means you can't start your supper in the morning and have it done when you're back from work: the result may be watery. That's been my experience with other books, like Judith Finalyson's.
So if you're going to be home and willing to keep an eye on your slow cooker while it's doing its thing, you will be very satisfied with the recipes in this book.

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Although the slow cooker has experienced a renaissance over the past several years, the discriminating cook is still hard-pressed to find slow cooker recipes worthy of serving at a dinner party‚Äîrecipes that reflect concern about ingredients, flavors, and appearance.For these cooks, comes THE GOURMET SLOW COOKER, an upscale approach to this new-old phenomenon by author and food journalist Lynn Alley. With fresh ingredients and imaginative recipes, you can create delicious meals to serve with pride to your guests. Drawn from slow cooking traditions from around the world, the recipes include Lamb Shanks in Tomato Sauce from Greece; Apricot Chicken from India; Chicken Mole from Mexico; White Truffle Risotto from Italy; Proven?ßal Chicken Stew from France; and Potato, Cheddar, and Chive Soup from the United States. In keeping with the sophistication of the food, each recipe is accompanied by wine or beer suggestions. The slow cooker can be so much more than a repository for nacho cheese dip. Paired with THE GOURMET SLOW COOKER, your everyday dining will be elevated from the mundane to the gourmet, while freeing you from hours of hard work in the kitchen.
A slow cooker book for discriminating cooks, with 16 full-color recipe photographs.
Includes chapter introductions to each region, focusing on the slow-cooking traditions and techniques from that country, and local wine or beer suggestions for all 60 recipes.
According to a study by the Betty Crocker Kitchens, 80 percent of U.S. households have a slow cooker. Reviews“Go ahead and sneer. I love my slow cooker. . . . Even food snobs like me are realizing their potential, albeit a little later than the more than perhaps 100 million Americans who already own one.”—Mark Bittman, New York Times

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