Broke down and ordered an InstantPot

[old sarge]

YouTube has a video with a demo of the Instant Pot used for Sous Vide. Aside from tying up the pressure cooker for hours or days you don’t get the ‘circulation’ of the water. I imagine an induction type hot plate might be able to dial in an exact temp as well.

 

[SconnieQ]

YouTube has a video with a demo of the Instant Pot used for Sous Vide. Aside from tying up the pressure cooker for hours or days you don’t get the ‘circulation’ of the water. I imagine an induction type hot plate might be able to dial in an exact temp as well.

The current Instant Pots don't do true sous vide. Sous vide requires precise constant temperature, and water circulation. The temperature in the current Instant Pots is not precise enough. Plus there is no circulation like Sarge said, which can cause hot spots. The screw that holds the fan blade on my Anova came loose once, so the fan wasn't spinning, and my Anova temperature readings were going up and down all over the place within seconds, by several degrees. With the heating element on the bottom, I can't imagine that the Instant Pot could keep any kind of accurate temperature without circulation. There has to be a pretty wide range of temperatures between the water near the bottom of the pot, and the surface of the water.

Basically what people are doing in the YouTube videos is "poaching" inside a ziplock bag. So in some cases, you can get "similar" results to sous vide depending on what you are cooking. I'm not sure how they'll solve all of those issues with the new Max model, but seems like a tall order to integrate it into the Instant Pot, especially the circulation aspect. Sous vide seems better suited to a separate appliance. Too darn many mechanicals to break in one appliance if they try to add circulation. The new "stirring" feature they are adding (Nutri-burst) is just simply short spurts of pressure release that agitate the contents when under pressure, so that's already kind of a built-in feature that just requires a separate program. Since sous vide isn't under pressure, not sure how they'll achieve the circulation. Anyway... here's what the Instant Pot website says about sous vide with their current Smart Instant Pot model. Too much fuss. I think I'll stick with my Anova. ;D

"Instant Pot Smart can support limited sous vide cooking when food materials are not too sensitive to temperature.  You need to use our Smart Cooker app to do so. Due to the fact that the thermometer is at the bottom of the inner pot, the detected temperature inside the inner pot is an approximation. Calibration is needed. We did many experiments. With the same volume of water in the inner pot, the temperature can be maintained consistently within +/- 1°C between each runs.  The process of calibration is to set a temperature on the app, say 60°C, for a fix volume of water, run the program, measure the temperature with a thermometer, e.g. getting a 63°C reading, then modify the program to set target temperature to 57°C. For the same volume of water, the new program will be able to maintain the temperature at 60°C +/- 1°C."

 

[old sarge]

I think sticking with the Anova is a smart decision. And I liked your explanation of what those in the video were actually accomplishing.