Electric Kettle Sous Vide?

Submitted by Stuart Broz on Wed, 03/24/2010 - 8:51pm

As I've mentioned in the past, I've really been wanting an electric kettle. I was researching them yesterday when I noticed some things of interest. First, some of them have various temperature settings and will even keep the water at a constant temperature. Second, many of them don't have exposed heating elements. If you put the two of these together, you have the makings of a sous vide water bath. Now, the big problem here is... well... a lack of bigness. You aren't going to be able to stuff much in your typical electric kettle. Then I saw this Zojirushi 4-Liter Electric Water Boiler/Warmer. Yes, it is slightly more expensive than your typical electric kettle, but it could also do a lot more. I'm seriously considering finding out how it would work for sous vide. The big reason I didn't order one immediately was that its lowest temperature setting is 140 degrees F - warmer than some of my favorite sous vide applications. On the other hand, the temperatures that it does have are generally useful ones.

Sous Vide

Comments

Submitted by Peter on Wed, 03/24/2010 - 9:02pm.

You might find this post interesting:

http://thefermenter.tumblr.com/post/287624691/sous-vide-setup

I bought a used (non-circulating) water bath on ebay for $150, and it's great.

Peter
http://quisimangiabene.blogspot.com/

Stuart Broz's picture

Submitted by Stuart Broz on Fri, 03/26/2010 - 4:26pm.

I've been looking at various temperature controller set-ups. Unfortunately, I have both a rice cooker and a slow cooker already... and they are both too smart for this sort of thing.