Kickstarter project aims to cut the cost from sous vide

The budding chefs out there that don’t have oodles of money to spend on appliances are probably a little miffed that the French water bath technique that is sous vide is so expensive to try out, but a Kickstarter in play as a solution.

Designed to make the most of appliances most of us already own, the Codlo is a temperature controller that aims to turn any cooking device that can store water and regular temperature into one of the expensive cookers.

For those that don’t know, sous vide is a cooking style that relies on precise temperature and lengths of time to cook, with both of these factors determining how the food will come out. You can’t just throw a steak into a sous vide, though, as the technology and concept relies on keeping the food locked within a vacuum sealed bag, allowing the juices to cook inside the plastic with the flavour.

Currently, most sous vide cookers cost in excess of $400, making them out of reach for most people, especially those keen on trying out the technology.

Running as part of a crowd-sourcing project, Codlo is an accessory that won’t need the added sous vide cooker, and is being built to work with a range of appliances, including a slow cooker, rice cooker, and even a coffee urn.

The gadget will plug into the wall, allow you to set the desired time and temperature, and from what we understand, monitor and control the cooker based on the temperature and time needed to make your food into the desired done-ness.

At the moment, the gadget is running at just under $200 for a regular person to buy and ship it locally, which puts it around the price of a sous vide machine available locally from Sunbeam, the Duos Sous Vide and Slow Cooker which retails for $199.

With that sort of early crowd funding price and an expected delivery date of later this year, Codlo is an idea that won’t be for everyone.

It doesn’t help that Codlo isn’t looking at the Australian plug type for its product closely, and is considering making it into a stretch goal, which means it will only go into production if a certain value is raised for the project.

Still, if the idea of sous vide is attractive but you don’t have the room for yet another appliance, this seems like a neat concept worth waiting for.

Link: Codlo on Kickstarter