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Have ever heard of sous vide? It is a style of cooking that uses a water bath of precisely controlled water temperature. It uses a low cooking temperature and it is practically idiot-proof as there is no risk of burning or overcooking. The food never gets hotter than the water temperature itself. Restaurant chefs have been using this method of cooking for ages to perfectly cook steaks and delicate seafood. In recent years, home cooks have the opportunity to try sous vide at home thanks to the introduction of highly affordable sous vide equipment. The latest and possibly greatest sous vide device has just been launched by the highly popular cooking website, ChefSteps, and it is called the Joule Sous Vide.

We are no strangers to sous vide and have in fact featured both the Anova and Sansaire immersion circulator sous vide baths on the site. The Joule Sous Vide is also an immersion circulator which means that it has a built-in heater and water circulation system and you immerse part of the device inside a water bath like a pot or a cooler box. However, the Joule Sous Vide is the most compact and sexiest device of the lot.

This 11 inch tall and 1.3 pound gadget is super sleek. One of the biggest problems that home cooks face is lack of counter space for all their kitchen apparatus. The Joule Sous Vide is so small, you can easily store it in a kitchen drawer. However, don’t let its small size deceive you as it packs a 1100 Watts heater. This means that it takes less time for the device to bring the water up to temperature. It also means that you can heat up a much larger volume of water (about 40 litres in a covered container) thus allowing you to cook much larger portions at one go. This is important because it takes a long time to do sous vide cooking (as long as 24 to 36 hours) so cooking multiple batches is usually out of the question.

One reason the Joule Sous Vide looks so sleek is because there is no display on the device itself. There is a single LED light that provides status feedback but to operate and control the device requires the use of an Android or iOS app.

Communication is via WiFi which also means that you can monitor and control the Joule Sous Vide from anywhere and anytime as long as you have your smartphone and an internet connection. While this sounds rather cool, in reality sous vide cooking is pretty much a set and forget type of cooking. Once you have turned it on and set the temperature, you literally don’t have much to do except to wait.

However, the WiFi connectivity does allow the Joule Sous Vide to have support for Amazon Alexa. Yes, you can voice control the Joule Sous Vide. The cool (and drool) factor just went up a few more notches.

Like the other immersion circulators, the Joule Sous Vide can be used with just about any water container including cooking pots and coolers. It has a side clip for attaching to the side of the container. It also has an added feature of a magnetic base. If you are using a metal container, chances are you may be able to magnetically stick it to the base of the pot.

If you are interested in introducing sous vide cooking to your home kitchen, the Joule Sous Vide is a great way to start.
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