Cooking For Engineers

[PedroG]

[Ed]

I tried a PID controller with a slow cooker and it works fine, but, if you don't want to spend a lot, there are simpler alternatives. The first one that worked well was an electric frying pan with a dial control. I was able to set the dial to maintain a fairly accurate temperature at 55 and 75 centigrade. For a larger volume cooker I picked up a used electric turkey or roasting pan made by Rival, it cost $15 at Goodwill and it worked fine. I use a Taylor thermometer, the thermocouple wire is thin enough to allow the lid to close, I probably could insert the probe through the lid with very little trouble. I would also put a small fish tank pump into the larger pot to provide circulation. I have not tried the final method, but, I think it should work and that is to put a dimmer switch between the power source and the slow cooker to regulate the heat, if it works, it would be much cheaper than a PID controller, just a thought, somebody with better electrical knowledge might comment.

[senojjones]

I have a PID controller, crock pot but I find for most things a really nice thick ice chest is fine. Got mine off Ebay and it's really a super insulated shipping container, the walls are 3 inches thick. That chest loses 1 degree F, an hour.

It helps to "preheat" the meat. I use a large pot of water on the stove to heat the water for the ice chest, I heat it a few degrees higher, and fill the chest. Let that stablise. Meanwhile reheat a pot full of water to your desired temp, toss in the meat and remove the whole thing from the heat.

Wait 20 minutes and toss the meat into the ice chest. Now you'll have a much smaller heat loss to content with.

Calibrate your ice chest, use the same volume of water and figure out how much boiling water do i need to add to raise the temp 1 degree, or ice to drop it 1 degree.

A large thick ice chest gives you a very stable water bath, and as long as you check the temp every 20 mins or so and adjust, works very well.