Why You Can Trust CNET Eades Appliance Technology SousVide Supreme review: This bulky sous vide cooker isn't Supreme
Eades Appliance Technology's SousVide Supreme can make the steak and eggs you crave, but its minimal features won't make it particularly easy on you.
Eades Appliance Technology's SousVide Supreme is a $429 water-bath-style cooker; it's also available in the UK for £350 and in Australia for AU$500, where it's branded as a Breville appliance, but otherwise identical. This type of sous vide machine features a large-capacity water reservoir that's best for cooking in bulk -- and not much else. The SousVide Supreme did manage to meet performance expectations, but it floundered as far as features go. Its direct competition, the $500 Caso SousVide Center SV1000 , which is roughly £466 on Amazon's UK site, didn't perform as well, but has a built-in vacuum sealer, a hose for easy water draining and water circulation tech.
Eades Appliance Technology SousVide Supreme
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
Since performance is more of a priority, I'd recommend the SousVide Supreme over the Caso SV1000 -- if you're set on a water-bath cooker. If not, I'd skip this cumbersome sous vide category altogether and go with an immersion model, like the $200 Anova One , instead.
The SousVide Supreme has a 2.6-gallon (10-liter) maximum water capacity; you can set the timer from 0 to 99 hours and the temperature from 86 to 210 degrees Fahrenheit (30 to 99 degrees Celsius). The whole thing is finished in stainless steel and weighs 13 pounds (5.9 kilograms).
The display is pretty minimal, with separate Set Temp and Timer buttons, plus and minus buttons, a Fahrenheit/Celsius button, a start button and a power button. There's also a small display screen that shows the current cooking temperature; you have to press the Set Timer button to view the remaining time during the cooking process, which is annoying. It also features LED indicator lights to let you know the status of the water (whether or not it's done preheating) and the timer (whether or not it's done cooking).
It looks fine overall, but certainly won't make any sort of kitchen design statement, aside from taking up quite a bit of space on your counter. I like that it has handles on the base unit and on the lid. The lid itself feels very flimsy, though, like it wouldn't do much to seal in heat.
But we used industrial-grade thermometers to test the water of the cooker and found that it maintained a very steady temperature throughout. This was particularly impressive since it doesn't have water circulation capabilities. Additionally, it did a good job of staying close to the target temperature. The Caso SousVide Center does have a built-in water circulator and maintained a similarly consistent temperature, but it struggled to hit its target temperature during cooking, which often translated to undercooked food.
The SousVide Supreme is also missing a built-in vacuum sealer and a detachable hose. These features aren't necessary for making a good sous vide meal, but they certainly improved ease-of-use on the Caso SousVide Center. I could drain the water without having to lift and tip over the entire unit into the sink -- I splashed a healthy amount of water on myself just trying to empty the SousVide Supreme.
You'll also have to buy a separate vacuum sealer if you don't already have one. There's a large assortment available on Amazon, and Eades Appliance Technology sells a handheld model for $75 (on sale now for just $23) and fancier varieties that top out at $999 (on sale for $749), but that's a definite inconvenience (you also aren't saving that much money compared with the Caso model at this point). Even so, the SousVide Supreme did surpass the Caso model in terms of performance.
All it took was 15 minutes at 140 degrees (60 Celsius) for perfectly cooked salmony goodness. The recipe worked similarly well in the Anova One immersion cooker, but was significantly undercooked in the Caso SousVide Center. That's because the SousVide Supreme maintains its set temperature better than the Caso model.
Making eggs in this sous vide machine was easy. Eggs don't have to be vacuum-sealed and, although there are many different degrees of egg doneness, it was a very forgiving process. I tried 15- and 12-minute tests at 167 degrees (75 Celsius) and a 45-minute test at 145 degrees (roughly 63 Celsius). The 15-minute eggs were slightly runny, the 12-minute eggs were quite runny and the 45-minute eggs were very runny. Regardless of your egg preferences, this cooker can get it done, although we found that to be true with every sous vide machine we've tested.
I aimed for a medium-cooked top round steak for this test. Immersion sous vide models, like the Anova One, managed to make cheap steak great after 4 hours in the cooker at 131 degrees (55 Celsius). This was not the case with the SousVide Supreme steak, pictured right, or the Caso SousVide Center steak, pictured left.
The SousVide Supreme was actually quite well-done, which could be related to the relative thickness of the cut compared with what was tested in the Anova One. Either way, it was still a very tough piece of steak after 4 hours in the cooker. The Caso steak was slightly less done, but that had no significant impact on its overall taste or tenderness.
I cooked the pork ribs at 135 degrees (about 57 Celsius) for 48 hours. It definitely looked gross right out of the cooker, as you can see in the photo above, but that's just because it didn't have any sort of marinade, glaze or other sauce to give it a "finished" look.
These ribs were actually pretty good, even without adding anything to them. And they were definitely better than the undercooked Caso SousVide Center ribs, even though they cooked at the same temperature for the same amount of time.
Eades Appliance Technology's $429 SousVide Supreme is a decent performer, but water-bath models won't make a lot of sense for most. They're big, which makes them annoying to fill and empty, and their performance isn't any better than what we experienced with the immersion models we've reviewed. The $200 Anova One immersion sous vide cooker, in particular, is easier to store and use than either the SousVide Supreme or the Caso SousVide Center; it also happens to be a more accurate cooker. Get the SousVide Supreme if you're set on a water-bath model; otherwise, I'd go for the Anova One.