Sous Vide

Darren, for real simple stuff like steaks or turkey you can get by with just a large pot on the stove. The thermal mass of lots of water is pretty stable. Not accurate enough for eggs or some of the more delicate bits but simple way to try the idea anyway.
 
Just thinking out loud, but couldn't one use something like Brent's smoker controller with a large crock pot for something similar, maybe with a water pump for circulation of water?
 
For something like a rib eye, you get a perfectly medium rare steak from edge to edge. Not over done, not under done, totally tender.

You do have to toss it on a rocket hot grill for like a few seconds per side after you take it out to get some crust and color, but other than that it's awesome.
 
At the $149 level the new Nomiku is tempting. Some of the drawbacks in the review Ryan posted have been fixed and I like the WI-fi aspect. Not shipping until March of 2015 though. You would have to rig something to get it to clip on a cooler. Lots of backers signing up since it was featured on Yahoo.
 
Just thinking out loud, but couldn't one use something like Brent's smoker controller with a large crock pot for something similar, maybe with a water pump for circulation of water?

Folks do - here is one randomly found: http://www.instructables.com/id/Sous-vide-cooker-for-less-than-40/ they didn't add a re-circulator and for many things that's fine (some of the more "dangerous" food where you're cooking close to the "danger zone" of temperature would be slightly riskier without the re-circ).

Once you get past the recent kickstarter posts the nomiku blog has a lot of interesting recipe ideas as well: http://blog.nomiku.com/ The idea of infused adult beverages is inspired!

While they might technically be the first "wifi" immersion unit, someone beat them to the "first phone controlled cooker" http://anovaculinary.com/products/anova-precision-cooker :rolleyes: The nomiku has a bit higher wattage though and looks like its probably a solider product than this one (which is the lowest end anova).
 
I should add that I'm somewhat sorely tempted here. A DIY one has been on the list for a long time but the size of most of them is excessive (and I'm unsure how good it is to power cycle my crock pots that much.. I like my old crock pots :D). The convenience and relatively decent price of these little rigs is somewhat compelling.
 
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