Anova's second-gen cooker makes sous vide smart (pictures)

The Anova Precision Cooker is the brand's second-gen immersion circulator, promising to smarten up the sous vide experience. Click through to see what's cooking.

Sous vide is a cooking technique that involves suspending vacuum-sealed ingredients within a water bath that's held to a very steady, very consistent temperature. That's what Anova does -- stick it down into your pot, and it'll heat the water right to where you want it and hold it there for as long as you need.

You'll clamp the Anova cooker onto the side of your pot by tightening a screw. A new, second screw lets you loosen the device itself, then raise, lower, or turn it. That gives you a little more cooking flexibility.

You can turn Anova on by pressing a capacitive button on its face. To change the target temperature, dial the scroll wheel up and down.

You can search for recipes in the Anova app. Once you've found one you want to cook, you can use Bluetooth to send the corresponding time and temperature settings straight to the cooker.

You can also adjust the time and temperature settings manually.

Eggs are a fun sous vide starter recipe -- you don't need to vacuum-seal them, and there're dozens of ways to cook them.

I like mine poached to a nice, slightly runny medium. 15 minutes at 165 degrees F (74 C) does the trick. With sous vide, it's easy to dial in to the exact settings you like.

Next up was steak -- flank steak, specifically. The flavor is typically on point, but it's a notoriously tough cut of meat. Our hope was that an extra-long sous vide cook would help soften it up a little.

Oh, what a difference a day makes...

Nailed it! 24 hours at 131 degrees F (55 C), and our steak came out juicy and tender, with edge-to-edge consistency.

Of course, you'll want that carmelized crispness on the outside, so a very quick sear in a very hot pan is a very good idea.

Even better: blowtorch the thing.

(*drool*)

(*continued drooling*)

The Anova Precision Cooker retails for $179 -- cheaper than the first-gen Anova. International, 220v units are also available for $229 (£150, or AU$295). Should you dive on in to the sous vide waters? Read our full review to find out.