Neovide Review - A Waterless and Bagless Sous Vide Cooker That Delivers Perfectly Moist Food

Do you love the taste and convenience of sous vide cooking, but feel discouraged by the hassle of bags and water usage? If so, you'll be thrilled to discover Neovide - a waterless and bagless sous vide cooker that guarantees succulent food with minimal moisture loss. And don't just take our word for it - listen to Mike, one of our backers on Kickstarter, who recently shared his glowing feedback after two weeks of using Neovide.

"I just want to do a review after using this product for about 2 weeks.

I’ve cooked steak, salmon, chicken, and pork chops with the Neovide mode, and everything came out perfect. I did a “control” with this device and my Anova circulator, and I enjoyed the food from this device more. I don’t think it cooked it “better,” but whenever I cook traditional sous vide, there is a ton of liquid in the bag after the cook, which means less moisture in the food. The food being cooked with this device barely leaks any moisture, which I’m finding to be great. I think the food not sitting in liquid allowed all of my seasoning to stay in place for the entire cook, which aided in the better flavor. Considering I use resealable silicone bags when using my Anova circulator, I’m not getting the benefit of any “vacuum sealing marination” or whatever, so perhaps this is why I’m preferring how the Neovide cooks my food.

I don’t know the scientific explanation for why the Neovide’s food has such low moisture loss - whether or not is has to do with the speed the food got up to temperature, the vacuum created by the device, or something else. I thought that it could be related to how long the food is held at temperature, but nope. I’ve held food at temperature with the NV100 for nearly four hours, and it still barely lost moisture. So, very happy with this! The food is extremely flavorful.

However it works, it seems to work well, and produce a great result. I have stacked food on top of each other and put tin foil on top of everything (as recommended by the manufacturer), and all of the pieces cooked evenly. I’m not sure what benefit the tin foil provides, since everything cooked is happening under vacuum, but that’s what they recommended. It worked flawlessly. I am going to try something without the tin foil, next time, to see if I notice any difference.

Once the food is cooked to the temperature you dictate, the vacuum is released and the food is held at the temperature. I would have preferred if the vacuum was maintained, but after having held food at temperature for hours after the vacuum released, and not noticing any issues what so ever, I guess this is fine. I noticed that one of the times where I decided to hold food at temperature, the machine did so flawlessly for the first hour, then the food slowly dropped 3 degrees. The machine started heating the food back up, and it took 1 hour to get back to the temperature I set it to. Once the temperature was re-established, the NV100 went back into “Hold” mode for another 2 hours, until I decided to stop the machine so I can eat the food. I’m not sure why the temperature dropped, but I was happy that the machine slowly brought it back to temperature and didn’t overcook it at all.

The marinate option worked great. Not much to say about it other than it worked. I tried cooking eggs with the “water bath” mode and I found them to be very undercooked. I set it to 145f, like the instructions said, but I wasn’t happy with the results. It came out great when I set it to higher temperatures, but their little cookbook recommended 145f, and I found it to be severely undercooked. I vaguely remember being happier with how they came out at 145f with my Anova, years ago. I will have to try some other things with the “water bath” mode to see how they come out, compared to the “Neovide” mode. However, I bought this machine to NOT waste water, so this is more of a “nice to have” feature, rather than something I really plan to use.

Anyway, the proteins I cooked with the “Neovide” mode didn’t take too long to get up to temperature (I don’t remember exactly, but times ranged between 1 to 2 hours - depending on thickness), which I can’t complain with, considering I usually cook things for 2 hours while doing the traditional sous vide methods (plus, more time to heat the water). Depending on what I’m cooking, I’ll either sear it on my cast iron skillet as soon as the food reaches temperature, or “hold” it for some extra hours (like when cooking chicken and pork at lower than usual temperatures). I’ve not tried the NV100’s “mild sear” option, because my cast iron skillet does the exact job I want in the searing department.

The inner chamber/pot is easy to wash. I clean the thermometer probe with 91% rubbing alcohol. The device is quiet enough, considering there always seems to be a fan running on the bottom of it.

Overall, I’m extremely satisfied with the marination and Neovide mode. I need to experiment more with the water bath mode - next time, on meat/fish, instead of eggs. I would prefer that the machine maintain the vacuum while in “hold” mode, but the food tastes perfect after being held for anywhere between 1 hour, to 2, to 4 hours, so I guess the vacuum doesn’t really matter much as long as the food being kept at that temperature for hours does takes care of the pasteurization.

One thing that I absolutely do not like is how pressing the buttons when setting the temperature results in it increasing/decreasing the temperature by “.1” I’ve never deliberately cooked food at something like “145.3” - so being able to increase and decrease the temperature by such a little amount is silly to me. Thankfully, holding the button down allows you to change the temperature by a full degree. If anyone sets their temperatures to things like “145.3” and there is a benefit to this, please let me know! Maybe I’m missing out, here!"

We are truly grateful for the thorough review shared by our backer, and with his kind permission, we have made it public. We value all feedback and are constantly seeking ways to enhance our products and services. As a result, we have recently upgraded the "keep-warm" mode to ensure consistent vacuum functionality. We would be delighted to hear more from you about this product and welcome any additional feedback, experiences, or suggestions you may have.