Whirlpool may dip its toe in the sous vide space, new patent suggests

By Lulu Chang August 3, 2018

Whirlpool could soon be selling you a sous vide machine. Earlier this month, the home appliance maker was granted a patent for the cooking device, as per documents from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The proposed sous vide cooker will be comprised of an induction cooktop, a cooking vessel, a wireless temperature probe, and a magnetic stirring plate. This seems to suggest that it will be much more involved than, say, a sous vide stick from Anova or Joule, and will instead be a countertop appliance or immersion circulator.

Cooking sous vide, of course, allows professional chefs and home cooks alike to heat and maintain water to a precise temperature, which is then used to cook proteins and vegetables that have been sealed in plastic bags. This allows for careful monitoring of your ingredients’ doneness, which can be particularly useful when cooking delicate items like fish or steak.

There are a number of other companies that have come forth with an induction cooktop offering, but Whirpool’s seems unique in that it has a cooking vessel held within another container, so that you don’t have to use your own pots and pans to go with the machine. Instead, it seems likely that all you’ll have to do is bag up your food items, set your desired water temperature, and let your ingredients go for a dip.

For the time being, Whirlpool is staying quiet about its proposed innovation, and while the patent has been granted, it’s not necessarily the case that we’ll be seeing a sous vide machine anytime soon (or at all). That said, given the growing popularity of such devices and the cooking technique as a whole, it’s not surprising that Whirlpool is looking to get in the game.

After all, the company already has some competition from other established names in the home appliance space. GE, for example, has created an electric slide-in stove that comes with an induction burner and Bluetooth-connected temperature probe so that you can create your own sous vide water bath on your own stovetop.

We’ll keep you posted if and when Whirlpool officially releases its newest appliance.

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