I love my Nomiku Sous Vide Immersion Circulator! This Kickstarted kitchen tool quickly turns a standard pot or bucket into a sous vide cooker.
As I mentioned in our new Boing Boing Gadgets podcast, I've been playing with my Nomiku since December. I've cooked everything from eggs to steaks, veggies to fish. The process of cooking food in a warm or hot water bath and maintaining it at a given temperature for long periods of time is fascinating to me. It is simple science. Sous vide cooking in this method is so consistent, I am tempted to call it foolproof.
Checking in at $299, the Nomiku unit is very well built. It has run for days on end in my home, and remains very quiet and effective. Unlike many other Sous Vide home cookers, it does not come with a bulky, single use cooking vessel. Smaller pots, kettles and buckets are easy for it to heat and maintain, but I've used it with things as large as my 32 quart brew kettle, 3/5 of the way filled or so. I dry it out on the counter and put it back into the very nice box it came in. It does need 5-6 inches of water, so smaller dutch ovens won't cut it. A bucket will. I wrap the metal pots with a towel to help insulate them a bit.
The very first thing I did with this device was make eggs. I used this awesome article on Serious Eats as a reference and made at least 2 dozen eggs. The 165ºF hardboiled are incredible.
The first time I tried the Nomiku, I used tap water that was around 138ºF and the unit had to heat it the rest of the way up. For red meat, which wants temperatures in the 130ºF range, this isn't an issue — but for 165ºF eggs, you'll want to boil some water and slowly add it to the mix. Let the temperature stabilize a bit before cooking.
With red meat, ribeye steaks are consistently amazing. Out of curiosity, I once tried a tougher cross rib roast and let it sit for a long period of time. It did not become very tender. I also learned that a little seasoning goes a long way in sous vide. Flavors become very bold.
The Nomiku does exactly what you expect, exactly how you expect it to do it. The food you can prepare with it is excellent. The science behind it and watching the food change over time are, for me, endlessly amazing. This is a fun kitchen gadget.
You may also find the story of their Kickstarter, and the founders' relationship starting over this product, cute. I did.
