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Connected sous vide company Nomiku is shutting down
Nomiku, one of the companies that helped make sous vide immersion circulators mainstream, is shutting down. The small kitchen appliance maker announced the news on Friday afternoon, noting that it plans to discontinue both its WiFi Sous Vide Smart Cooker and prepared meal service, and is suspending operations, "effectively immediately."
Nomiku Sous Chef essentially offers TV dinners for foodies
Nomiku debuted nearly five years ago with an innovative idea: affordable sous vide cooking in your own home. Back then, machines that did sous vide -- a way of cooking vacuum-packed foods in a temperature-controlled water bath -- was still a fairly new concept. In 2012, Nomiku launched a successful Kickstarter for its first immersion circulator (raising $586,061 in 30 days) and has since made a WiFi version that you control with your smartphone. Today the company is ready to announce yet another sous vide machine, but with a twist: It comes with a food program that sends you precooked frozen meals.
Does your sous vide gear really need WiFi?
If you spend a considerable amount of time reading J. Kenji Lopez-Alt's writings on better cooking through science, you'll come across his sous vide steak guide. I've read what Lopez-Alt and others have to say about the culinary method for preparing a slab of beef, or, more specifically, that cooking a thick steak in a low-temperature water bath before searing produces stellar results. But that process can take a couple of hours for a thicker ribeye or New York strip. Also, keeping watch for that long sounds like an awful way to spend an evening.
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New Nomiku is a WiFi-connected immersion circulator that makes sous vide meals easier
I stood in front of a nondescript iron gate in the heart of San Francisco's Mission District and rang the doorbell. The scent of bacon-wrapped hot dogs and grilled corn on the cob from sidewalk food carts filled the air, seducing my senses as I waited patiently for someone to let me through. Soon, the door behind the gate opened, and Abe Fetterman, Nomiku's co-founder, escorted me in. We walked down a narrow hallway and up a skinny flight of stairs, making pleasantries and exchanging small talk to relieve the awkwardness. When I emerged from the steps, I was welcomed to the office by Nomiku's other co-founder, Lisa Q. Fetterman. There, in a small modest office surrounded by boxes, laptops and wires, she introduced me to one of the most recognized food science writers in the country: acclaimed author of On Food and Cooking, Harold McGee.
Nomiku's immersion circulator makes low temperature cooking available to the masses, we go hands-on
If you've ever spent time watching Iron Chef or other cooking shows, odds are you've heard of the term sous-vide and know the wonders of cooking with immersion circulators. For those not in the know, an immersion circulator cooks food in a water bath at a precise (to the degree) temperature to ensure perfect doneness of dishes. Nomiku's an immersion circulator that clips onto any pot of water, giving home cooks the ability to sous vide to their heart's content at temperatures up to 100 degrees Celsius. The device is a machined aluminum tube and heat sink, with a 1.3-inch touchscreen OLED display on top surrounded by a plastic knob. Inside is an impeller and 750W PTC heating element that circulates water at up to 10 liters per minute and heat it to within .2 degrees Celsius of the temperature you choose. Just tap the touchscreen to turn it on, stick it in a pot with up to 5 gallons of water, turn the knob to set your temperature, tap the screen again to get it going and, presto, you (or your sous chef bot) will be cooking succulent meats like Bobby Flay in no time.%Gallery-158650% For now, Nomiku exists only in prototype form, but the folks behind it have launched a Kickstarter page to get the funding needed to ramp up production. We got to see the prototype in person, and as a casual dabbler in the culinary arts, the appeal was easy for us to see. It's dead simple to use, and is about the same size as a hand blender, so most folks won't have a problem finding a place for it in their kitchen. In speaking with its creators, we discovered that they created Nomiku to make low temperature cooking easy and (relatively) affordable. You see, existing immersion circulators cost between $500-$2000, which puts them out of reach for most home cooks, but Nomiku (should the project get funded) will retail for $299. Itchin' to get one in your kitchen? Well, head on down to the source link to help make it happen, and feel free to peruse our gallery of photos while you wait for its arrival.
