Sous Vide Cooking

I am sorry not being able to answer to all your questions about the Swid but I am very busy at the moment. The best way to illustrate the precision, size and power of the pump is to watch the video I just made.

I didn’t have time to translate my comments in English but I am sure you’ll understand.
So far I am very satisfied of this appliance which is the most competitive immersion circulator of the market: EUR 449 incl. VAT and shipping costs.
Here is a comparision table of immersion circulators dedicated to sous vide.

Addélice confirmed the swid will be available this week.

Jean-François

I was very attracted by the design of the Frisper when I saw it for the first time. The vacuum machine from Oliso is definitely a very cute and compact device.

You know my philosophy now …if I see something new, you have to try it!

First of all lets make a fast comparison between the LAVA 100 vacuum machine I purchased some months ago and the Frisper from Oliso. The LAVA 100 is a powerful appliance with a “safety box” but its price is 3 times the price of the Frisper (EUR 245 to be compared to approx. EUR 80). On the other hand the Frisper is really less powerful than the LAVA 100 and the price of the specific plastic pouches that must be used with it is significantly higher compared to “normal pouches” (without any zip). Pouches can usually be purchased in the range from EUR 0.11 to EUR 0.50 (if purchased in a pack of 50 or 100 pieces). Plastic pouches used with the Frisper can be sold in a pack of 20 bags for a price of approx. EUR 1 per bag. These bags a theoretically re-usable 8 times but this possibility id useless in the frame of sous vide cooking as bags should not be re-used for food safety reasons.

Therefore the main question is “can the Frisper vacuums enough for sous vide cooking purposes”. Please have a look of this previous post illustrating their is no need of a professional vacuum machine to cook sous vide.

I confirm the Frisper is good enough. For my try I took 2 chicken legs (35 mm thick), added a little bit of marinade, vacuumed them with the Frisper and cooked them at 66°C during 75 minutes.

Last time I cooked chicken legs sous vide (30 mm thick) I decided to comply with Douglas Baldwin time and temperature table (64°C during 60 minutes). The result was good but a little bit bloody on some parts. Click here to read the post mentioning that point.

This time I have decided to raise slightly the temperature and the cooking time.

The texture was again very good and the chicken not bloody anymore. Nevertheless the chicken was still a bit too pinkish for my girlfriend taste. I guess next time will be the good one.

In order to compare with the bloody chicken leg I cooked during my first experiment, find bellow a picture.

Jean-François

Addélice postponed for 2 weeks the launch of its thermal circulator dedicated to sous vide.

The so called “swid” will be at € 489 incl. VAT and shipping costs. Addélice mentioned on Twitter the introductory price will be at € 449 incl. VAT and shipping! Therefore the swid becomes the most competitive  immersion circulator available on the market (click here for a price comparison of immersion circulators). For the record the swid includes a metal protective shield usually provided as an option by other manufacturer. I had the confirmation that the swid is available on 240 V (European standard) but will be manufactured for the North American market (120 V) soon.

The swid features disclosed by addélice are:

- 2,000 Watt heating power
- Circulation pump
- Built-in cooking timer
- Acoustic and optical alarms
- Adaptive PID algorithm
- Microprocessor-controlled
- Protective grid, low water level protection, overheating protection, max. cooking time limiter

Jean-François

Their is now a long time that I wanted to cook sous vide salmon with Turbigomme and a probe. Viktor Stampfer book indicates salmon should be cooked 54°C for 10 minutes (core temperature) with a 56°C water bath. In my former experiment I raised the time to 14 minutes, as I didn’t have any equipment to take the core temperature.

This time I purchased Turbigomme on a French site called svdiffusion.com. Turbigomme is a gum made to be glued on a pouch. The gum is supposed to be airtight if you go through with a probe. I bought it 8.85 euros (3 meters) + 10.94 euros shipping costs! I was really mad when I reallized that SVdiffusion cheated on shipping costs. Who can believe that a 110 gr parcel could be sent for 11 euros!

Anyway I have now everything: 4 cm Turbigomme piece, a 3 mm Mastrad probe (I know this is very thick but this is a cheap thermometer – less than 40 euros) , 2 rubbers to fix the Turbigomme in the case the self-adhesive would not be enough and a nice piece of salmon.

I glued the Turbigomme on the pouch, strapped it with rubbers and pierced the all with my 3 mm probe. I didn’t face any issue during this process. The pouch did not look like “loosing vacuum”.

During the cooking process I was doubting if air was not coming inside the pouch as I could see some bubbles appearing. I was feeling more comfortable when I saw the other salmon vacuum pouch I made without Turbigomme was doing the same…

To sum up I would say my experiment was successful. 8 euros Turbigomme (plus shipping costs!) and a cheap thermometer (40 euros max.) where enough compared to those very expensive 1 mm hypodermic thermocouples probes (approx. 200 euros) and thermometer.

My only issue was the cooking time. The starting temperature of the salmon was 8°C and it took 30 minutes to reach 54°C core temperature. My water bath was set at 56°C. I decided to take the salmon of the water bath as soon as the core temperature reached 54°C (instead of waiting 10 more minutes as suggested by Viktor Stampfer).

I was afraid the salmon would be overcooked. It was the case…nothing to do with a raw appearance salmon!

Next time I’ll try 72 hours pork ribs. No need of an internal probe for this kind of cooking!!!

Jean-François

I finally decided to make sous vide 48 hours pork ribs. Unfortunatly I had to keep the pouch 42 hours hours in the water bath (57°C or 134.6°F) only.I kept the ribs in the fridge 8 hours but before that I put the pouch some minutes in iced water.I purchased on this occasion a butan blow torch for 12 euros including the butan can.The result was very good, very tender.I am asking myself if 6 hours more would have changed something. What do you think?

Jean-François