Sous vide in your slow cooker with the Dorkfood DSV (pictures)

Sous vide is a high-end cooking technique that involves heating water to a precise, consistent temperature, then slow cooking vacuum sealed foods in the bath. A new generation of gadgets wants to bring the technique to your kitchen, and the Dorkfood DSV is one of the most affordable, promising to transform your old slow cooker into a bona fide sous vide super machine. Click through to see how.

You'll need your own slow cooker or rice maker to use Dorkfood. Any model capable of turning on to a high setting as soon as you plug in will work. Bargain bin models with physical dials are safe bets.

Dorkfood's plug has a socket of its own in the back. After plugging the device in, you'll plug your slow cooker in right behind it, automatically syncing the two up.

From there, you'll fill the slow cooker with water and insert the attached temperature probe. Just tell Dorkfood what temperature you want to cook at, and it'll heat the water to that point, then keep it there by cycling the power on and off.

Vacuum-sealed salmon filets came out tender, flaky, and flavorful.

Steak sous vide was even more successful, with edge-to-edge medium rare perfection.

Since the cooking is so precise, you can fiddle with the time and temperature until you find your poached egg "sweet spot." Then, you'll be able to dial in and achieve perfect results each and every time. For me, it's 15 minutes at 167 degrees F (75 degrees C).

The Dorkfood DSV sells for $100, which puts it well below competitors from brands like Anova, Nomiku, and FNV Labs. Those the DSV is less full-featured than those (and less attractive on your countertop), it still left us thoroughly impressed, and left our taste testers thoroughly satisfied. Check out our full review for more mouth-watering analysis.