Sous vide is a remarkable and highly technical way to cook. You seal food in plastic and immerse it in a precisely heated water bath until it reaches the desired temperature, which keeps all the moisture trapped inside with no danger of overcooking. We loved our experience with the Anova Culinary Precision Cooker Wi-Fi, and ChefSteps offers its own take on immersion circulation with the Joule. The $199 Joule is smaller and sleeker than the Anova, and relies entirely on app control—without a connected phone or tablet, you can’t use it. While the Joule’s smaller size makes it a bit more versatile than the Precision Cooker, Anova’s model is our Editors’ Choice for the simple fact that you can use it without a phone.

Design
The Joule is an 11-inch white tube that measures 1.85 inches in diameter and weighs just 1.3 pounds, making it the smallest home immersion circulator we’ve seen (the Anova Precision Cooker is nearly 15 inches long, over 2.5 inches wide, and weighs almost twice as much). The top of the tube holds a chrome-colored cap you can press like a button, which functions as the single physical control for Bluetooth pairing, along with a small indicator light. Unlike the Precision Cooker, there is no display or temperature dial, so you can’t see or adjust anything without pulling out your phone. The bottom of the tube holds the intake of the pump; water gets sucked in through the bottom and ejected out of a small hole a few inches up the tube.

A sturdy wire clip with rubber feet located about halfway up the tube lets you clip the Joule to the side of your stock pot or other water container. Because it’s so small, it’s relatively easy to make room for. You can readily use a soup or stock pot, though I’ve also had success with a 10-quart plastic box for the water bath.

App Control
Because the Joule only has a single button and indicator light, you can’t directly program it like the Anova. You need to use the free Android or iOS app to even turn it on. The app is simple to use, with a prominent power button that lets you set the pump temperature. The app also has several basic recipes and step-by-step sous vide instructions, with a variety of temperature and timer presets for beef, chicken, fish, and vegetables. The instructions helpfully adjust the temperature and time automatically, depending on the type of meat you’re using (taking into consideration whether it’s fresh or frozen, and the thickness of cut).

Pairing the Joule with your smartphone via Bluetooth takes place entirely through the app. I connected in only a few seconds, and after that the app would reconnect whenever I was in Bluetooth range and the Joule was plugged in. The Joule gives you the option of connecting to your Wi-Fi network, which allows you to control it when you’re out of the house, like the Anova.

I experienced some lag when checking the water bath’s temperature through the app, forcing me to wait up to ten seconds or bounce between menu screens for the display to update. This is a minor frustration, but it could be even less of one if the Joule had an onboard display to indicate water temperature.

Performance
ChefSteps states the Joule can heat water up to 208 degrees Fahrenheit, but the majority of sous vide ingredients require a lower temperature; generally, only vegetables need anything higher than 176 degrees. The Joule tracks water temperature to within a tenth of a degree, and updates the app when it’s connected.

To test the Joule, I cooked salmon fillets, baby carrots, and pork rib tips (all separately). The salmon and carrots were cooked on a pre-release version of the Joule, while I used the final version of the device for the rib tips. After brining the salmon for half an hour, I sealed the fillets in gallon-size freezer bags with dill, lemon slices, and a bit of canola oil, then placed them in a 132-degree water bath for 30 minutes. After that, I placed the salmon in a casserole dish and chilled it in the refrigerator, then increased the water bath temperature to 194 degrees. I put the carrots in another freezer bag with some oil and placed them in the water bath for 25 minutes.

The results were excellent. The salmon came out fully cooked, tender, and moist, with the citrus and dill present, but not overpowering the flavor of the fish. The carrots were cooked through and retained their crispness and flavor to the point that I barely salted them after taking them out of the bag.

The rib tips got a simple coating of pepper and garlic, with a splash of soy sauce. I heated the water to 149 degrees and cooked the tips in a sealed bag for two hours. The result was tender, juicy pork that paired will with oven-baked sweet potatoes and eggplant.

Conclusions
The ChefSteps Joule makes sous vide cooking simple and easy thanks to its app-driven design. It’s the smallest immersion circulator we’ve seen yet, which makes it easier to get started cooking in pots you probably already have in your kitchen. But without physical controls or a display, you need to have a smartphone or tablet handy if you want to use it. Both the Joule and the Anova Precision Cooker are accessible ways to get into sous vide, but we give the bulkier Anova our Editors’ Choice for its easy-to-read display and temperature-adjusting dial.