Sous vide cooking is a brilliant way to create restaurant grade meals in the comfort of your own home. Whether you are cooking for 1, a family or a party load of guests, sous vide cooking allows you to control your meal cooking to perfection.
It is a super popular technique for cooking all sorts of proteins including steaks, pork, chicken, fish and eggs. It’s also super effective for creating delicious flavor filled vegetables, desserts and exotic cocktails.
Sous vide cooking is an overnight meal changer
Click here to see our sous vide FAQs to learn more about sous vide cooking if you are not familiar with it.
Sous vide immersion circulators have been designed to work WITHOUT a cover for your water bath. Popular brands such as Anova Sous Vide Immersion Circulators, Joule Sous Vide Precision Cookers amongst others don’t actually require a cover or lid to maintain a constant water temperature.
In saying that many sous vide cook times are long. We are talking from say 10 hours through to 48 hours and beyond.
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Super effective sous vide water bath cover option
Given sous vide cooking often requires long cooking lengths, it is not surprising that some sous viders do prefer to cover their sous vide water baths to make sure that there immersion circulator doesn’t have to use any more energy than necessary during their long cook.
Photo credit: James Havens DIY suggestion for covering water over from Facebook group
We were recently taking a look at the #anovafoodnerdfam – sous vide cooking forum on Facebook and came across a fantastic hack from @James Havens.
His solution for a sous vide water bath cover container is super simple and inexpensive – a simple BPA free plastic cutting board.
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You can use a flexible cutting board such as those you can find at Ikea and similar stores.
Draw an outline on your cutting board around the holder of your specific immersion circulator (the size of each is different). Then cut that shape out with scissors.
And voila, you’re inexpensive water bath cover is complete.
What to look for in a cutting board to cover your sous vide water bath
Just make sure that the cutting board you use is:
- BPA free
- Heat resistant
- Able to be cleaned in the dishwasher – which usually means that the cutting board won’t warp during your sous vide cook
Other water bath cover options
If this solution is not for you there are plenty of other covers you can use to cover your sous vide water bath.
These options also serve to stop water evaporation and keep an even cooking temperature in your sous vide water bath efficiently.
These solutions include:
- Water balls that sit as a layer on top of your water bath
- Cling wrap (also know as cling film) or foil to put over your water bath
- Bespoke plastic container lids (with custom built in holes for whatever sous vide immersion circulator you have) to put on top of your water bath
Conclusion
As we said at the start of the article, it is not mandatory to cover your sous vide water bath. But we think that a BPA free cutting board is a great DIY, cheap option for those of you keen to explore your sous vide cooking with a lid.
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Further Reading and Resources
The best containers for your sous vide cooking
Sous Vide Hub’s Curated Recipes Library
Top 15 tips to look for before you buy a sous vide immersion circulator
Water balls and why you need them
Sous vide lid – which one should I get?