Anova Culinary

I bought an Anova in August 2019. The device is great, and the app had great features. In particular, it was good at preheating, and letting you know about how long it would be until your water is up to temperature. Since then, the app has undergone an update, which has now disabled that feature. Now, when you start a 45 minute recipe, it starts counting down that time immediately, even if the water is preheating. That makes it impossible to use the built-in guides and recipes unless you manually use the device to preheat your water before starting the programmed recipe. In addition, they have now hidden my own recipes in “My Profile”, instead of on the front page dashboard. I have customized several recipes to the “doneness” my family prefers, and they are the recipes I most frequently use. Why bury them on me? Fortunately, these things can be corrected. I just hope Anova does before I abandon the app for manual settings and a kitchen timer. This isn’t rocket science

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Anova intends this to be the directions for using their sous vide machines. As such it fails. There simply are not enough clear directions provided. Very many of the user-contributed recipes are poorly and unclear written as to technique. Those need to be much better-curated. Some examples of issues Anova leaves unanswered: Is there a limit to the amount of product you can cook at one time? When cooking animal flesh, can you put more than one cut (e.g., one pork chop or steak) into a single bag? If so, would you “stack” them one on top of another, or lay them side by side? Do you put the product in the water before it has come to temperature, or after? Many recipes give very large ranges for cooking times, what gives? Do those relate to the thickness of the cut? When the product is done cooking, can/should it be removed immediately, or can it be left in the (gradually cooling) water to keep warm until ready to sear/serve? Is it dangerous if a small amount of air is left in the bag (because it leaves product out of contact with hot water), or is it ok so long as the bag is fully submerged? It is very unfortunate Anova leaves so many basic questions unanswered. Sous vide is a unique technique; I am a skillful home chef but the skills used in other cooking techniques do not directly transfer to sous vide cooking.

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The hardware is great. I can’t begin to describe what a game changer sous vide cooking is. If I had it to do over though, I’d buy a base model with no connectivity because the app is a joke. First, the WiFi settings are ridiculous. After trying to connect unsuccessfully many times, I went to the web. I found out that neither your WiFi network name nor your password can be over 15 characters long. Their solution, I kid you not, is to change your network name and password to be shorter (less secure) than it is now. Also, there are many times where the app continues to tell me I need to get within range of the cooker so it can connect. It’ll stick like this with the app 3 inched away from the cooker. Better to just use the manual controls. Beyond that, I don’t understand how hackish their developers must be to not be able to get a simple timer right. It seemed to work on my first two cooks. After that, the timer now starts during the warm up phase. So you end up having to manually time everything anyway. And you have to listen for the cooker to hit the right temperature. The convenience of “set it and forget it” is totally missed with the poor app functionality.

First of all, I don’t bother pairing my hardware to the app. I use the timer on my iPhone. Apparently, most of the negative reviews are based on issues with connectivity. But in consideration of actual cooking info and recipes, this app is the best by far and I’ve tried many Sous Vide apps. I am not new to Sous Vide cooking but I found so much information in this app. The “Guide” section of the app is detailed yet easy to read. Within the “Guide” section is an “About” tab for each category of food (beef, poultry, veggies, etc.). This section is loaded with more information that I have seen anywhere else. It includes tips and techniques for each category of food. Easy to read and very useful info that will improve your Sous Vide results - especially for the Sous Vide novice. So according to some of the reviews, there are issues with connecting your hardware for timing and controlling purposes. But for Sous Vide cooking content, this app stands way above the others. FIVE STARS FOR THAT!

I have owned the Anova pod for several months now. I have used it to cook beef, chicken, pork and, several different vegetables. I have found it to be easy to use and a reliable device. Before I purchased, I read a number of reviews which questioned the reliability of the Wi-Fi connection. My experience with this connection initially did present me with some problems, but they were quickly resolved in a call to technical support. I had failed to scroll all the way down on the set up screen to find the right option. I am particularly impressed with the quiet operation of the Anova. I have also used a Gourmia sous vide pod for several years. The Gourmia pod is much noisier and it’s Wi-Fi connection was not nearly as reliable as the Anova’s. But most importantly, the customer support for Anova is vastly superior to that for the Gourmia. The Anova is the machine I would recommend you should consider for purchase.