This is a project I’m working on quite some time. An affordable sous-vide cooking rig. For those who are new to the whole the sous-vide cooking experience, read this site (very interesting and useful site!).

I was inspired by several people that made a sous-vide bath with a rise cooker and a thermostat. So as a student I did some research for an affordable rice cooker with a mechanical on/off switch, and an affordable thermostat that controls the temperature of the bath. The rice cooker I bought is some kind of OEM cooker, in The Netherlands this brand is called Tristar. But there are many “clones” on the market, all around the world. For the thermostat I bought a nice gizmo from a German electronic shop, for less than 50 euros (70 dollar)!

I ript of the lid of the rice cooker, so the temperature is decreasing quicker. This isn’t really energy efficient, but when bath temperature is above the desired temperature it cools down quicker. The thermostat needs to know at what temperature the bath must be turned on, and at what temperature it must be turned off. So there is a little bit of trail and error involved, because the iron bath cools not immediately down when it’s turned off. Therefore the desired temperature is easily exceeded.

So for a test I made a 65 degree Celsius egg. To calibrate the rig, I use 2 different digital thermometer.  So I can keep an eye on the temperature the first few hours. For the perfect 65 degree Celsius egg the temperature has to be stable for 26 hours. The egg yoke will become firm, while the egg white stays soft. For more information about the perfect boiled egg, I recommend this article.

The result after 26 hour at 56 degrees Celsius. The egg yoke is firm and has a creamy taste and mouth feel to it (not dry at all), the egg white is still slight soft. At the first sight it doesn’t looks very appetizing, but the egg has got a full creamy taste. Very subtle. The white provides more mouth feel than a taste experience. This leaves me with input for new ideas.

So, I’m very pleased to find out that this budget sous vide bath is working well. It’s a bit tweaking with the temperature settings, but in the near future I expect to do new experiments with this bath. To be continued …