Someone had asked about using a water bath canner to make Creme Brulee. Yes. That would probably work just fine. I think the Creme Brulee cooked at 179 degrees for one hour so, if you can master keeping the temp constant and at about 179, it should be fine.
Some Instant Pots have a sous vide feature. Just like with the water bath canner, there isn’t going to be any swirling water . . just sitting in water but honestly, if the food is in a jar, what difference does it make? But . . what do I know?
I had ordered a “tub” specifically for using with the sous vide. You clamp it to the side, and it has a lid with a cutout for the gadget. It arrived shattered and apparently half the country (maybe more) got a sous vide for Christmas so those tubs are all on back order now. I’ve been using the insert to the Instant Pot without a lid. Last night when I was doing the creme brulee, I had too many jars to fit into the Instant Pot container. My Dutch Oven was too small so I ended up using my turkey roasting pot which is huge . . at least twice as big as I needed, so that was a lot of water to get to 179 degrees and keep there. It took several hours to get the water up to temp so I ended up turning the stove low under the turkey roaster. Of course, I couldn’t have done that with a plastic container. Also, the turkey roaster had been in the garage when I brought it in so it was ice cold and it’s thick sided. I put a cookie sheet over it to try to keep some heat in and it all worked fine. I’m just telling you that so if you’re planning to doing some kind of “work around”, be aware of what you may run into.
I’m having so much fun with the sous vide. I know I didn’t need another gadget and everything I’m making with it, I could be making with something else but . . fun counts for something, right?
Cilla says
Did you purchase a sous vide cookbook also? If so which one? Thank you.
Judy Laquidara says
I didn’t. The internet is full of recipes.
Tracy says
I have seen people making containers out of coolers for cooking large things like briskets. Most of my sous vide cooking gets done in a high sided stock pot. I have a square, clear plastic container with a cut out lid for things that take longer than two hours. Try looking at restaurant supply places for them, also, you may have storage container or two that you (Vince) could convert?
Judy Laquidara says
I looked at restaurant supply places online but most had shipping costs that made it less to order them at Amazon but, of course, Amazon is out of them. I do have a container supposed to arrive tomorrow and the lid should be here in a few weeks.