I've made
- carrots
- NY strips
- Flank steak
- roasted sweet potatoes (precook increases the sweetness)
- Turkey breast "Turchetta"
- soft boiled eggs
I've also used it to defrost some frozen pork chops instead of just running water on them.

Some thoughts:

Since it's my only setup, I can only compare to reviews and the one day we were at some friends' place where they had the Sous Vide supreme. I also backed the Codlo kickstarter but as of their Nov 30 update, they hadn't even gone to certification yet.

Overall, I like it. Some commenters on Serious Eats have had issues with temp calibration and motor problems, but mine is in good agreement with my thermapen, and the 1 h 145 degree eggs came out about the way I expected from what I've read on the web.

My main problems with sous vide cooking are
- involves a lot more planning ahead than my normal mode of look in the fridge and throw together a stir fry.
- I only have one, so I can't do two things at different temperatures.
- I havent' decided the best setup. I started with a 12 q stock pot. The pot works fine, but I didn't like the idea of not cooking pasta or making stock during a long cook like the 48h flank or some of the longer cooks I've seen. I used a small Coleman cooler for the eggs. I just got a 12 quart Cambro polycarbonate food storage container, which I think will be the best, but I haven't tried it yet. I've moved my setup to be next to the sink so I can use fill it directly from the pull-out faucet we have. I might have not ordered the Cambro if I had remembered that we had the cooler before I placed my order.

In other words, nothing serious with the Nomiku.

Now, this leads to the question of how it compares to the alternatives.

Price (some rounded off, Nomiku is direct, others from Amazon)
Baths:
Sous Vide Supreme $400
SVS Demi $263
Aquachef Professional $240 - this looks suspiciously like the cheap deep fryer I have.

The knocks on the baths are:
- counter space
- pain to empty/refill
- lack of circulation means not as good temperature uniformity

Circulators
Polyscience Sous Vide Pro $800
Polyscience Creative $400
Nomiku $300
Anova Sous Vide Immersion Circulator $200
Sansaire $200 but not available yet and being sued by Polyscience.

I haven't read reviews of the more expensive Polyscience units, but they're an established labware maker, so I assume they are fine and are better suited for larger baths than the cheaper ones can handle (Nomiku says their upper limit is 5 gal; I think the Anova is similar). So I think it comes down to is the Nomiku worth $100 more than the Anova.

Probably not, but here are the things that I like about the Nomiku that are different from the Anova
- Clip design. I like the clip better than I think I would like a screw clamp, especially if you plan to take it down and set it up a lot.
- User interface. The complaint about the Anova is that you have to use the touchscreen to set the temp, and that this involves lots of touches instead of holding down an up or down arrow. The Nomiku interface is way simpler, and you spin a knob to set the temp. I don't know, but from the way it feels, I think the knob works like an optical mouse, so I'm not concerned about the moving parts issue.
- Circulator strength: the Anova is more powerful. This would be a plus for the Anova, but people are writing that it's so strong that they have to find something to keep eggs from breaking in their baths.
- I like the look of the Nomiku, and I've used the curve to hold a colander that was keeping a bag of carrots submerged. But I'd use a different method in the future.

Cons for the Nomiku
- price
- no timer (I think the Anova or the Sansaire has a timer)
- price
- weaker circulator - see above.
- price
- I spend too much time thinking about what I'm going to sous vide when I could be wasting time reading the Zoo

Personally, although I don't think the Nomiku is inherently worth $100 more, I don't feel ripped off at all… but then I'm the kind of person who had been buying Macs for years. And I am guessing that I'd be happy with the Anova too.

Hope this helps if anyone is looking to get one of the various options for Xmas!

Can't believe I forgot the worst thing about the Nomiku!!

The stick that clips onto the bath is powered by an exernal power brick that sits on your counter. This is an extra thing and it can get in the way and/or have a risk of getting spilled on. The Nomiku people argue that this is better than having the power onboard the circulator stick, as the stick is more likely to get dropped in the bath than the brick is likely to get spilled on.

But there is no on/off on the brick. When you finish your cook, you have to pull the plug out of the wall. You can turn the circulator off from the touchscreen, but it's still on and making a little bit of background noise. They tell you to unplug it before removing it from the bath. This seems like an oversight in the design to me.

I guess I've gotten used to that already, but it's a flaw.

Enjoyed this, thanks for the review. I'm a really amateur cooker, so the idiot-proof element of sous vide is intriguing to me.

Right now I do a really ghetto DIY cast iron pot + burner on low + thermometer without the vacuum sealer (I just use the archimedes principle and use a ziploc) but I've been so pleased that I'm probably going to end up getting one of the more accurate setups. I've been thinking the Sous Vide Supreme since I have some Amazon gift cards to use, but now I'll look into the other options as well.

right now I have a butterball turkey electric fryer that I have hooked up to a controler. It works pretty well for what I paid for it.

Duncan,

I've seen claims that the setup like yours is less precise or uniform, but the question is: when does that level of precision matter? I'm guessing that your works fine for 99.99% of the uses, and to look for the 0.01% is kind of like the audiophiles who only play the vinyl version Dusty Springfield's "Look of Love" from the 1967 Casino Royale soundtrack because it's the only recording that shows how great their system is.

At some level the immersion circulator is a toy for foodies with too much disposable income (guilty!!). I'll be interested in seeing how well the Codlo does when I get it, since I think it's like your controller.

But sometimes it's fun to indulge on overkill.



[This message has been edited by biobioprof (edited 12/16/2013 2:23p).]

it works well for steaks and stuff where 3-4 degrees isn't a factor. I wouldn't use it for eggs or fish where 1 degree can change the end result.

I also use a small pump to keep the water moving the whole time.

What kind of pump? I wonder if a cheap electric hand mixer would work.