I love steak. Especially ones that are cooked rare; they are tender, succulent, and most of all, absolutely delicious.
In the quest for juicy steak without hemorrhaging funds, I looked into sous vide.
Sous vide is a cooking technique where food is wrapped in a vacuum pack and cooked at a (relatively) low temperature for a (relatively) long period of time.
I tried it out a few times, with my old trusty aluminum pot, a meat thermometer, and lots of patience. I had to turn on and off the stove to make sure the water bath's temperature doesn't stray far away from 54c.
It was a lot of manual work, but after the whole process was done and I seared the meat with its own juices, the result tasted amazing.
However, it was still far from the steak taste that I was looking for.
It turns out that the key to great sous vide is precision and accuracy. The temperature must precisely controlled to with a certain range, and just like Goldilocks' bowl of porridge, must be neither too hot nor too cold. For example, when cooking poached eggs via sous vide, the temperature must be at where the whites start cook (usually 63c) but not more than that or otherwise the yolk will also cook.
I've already shown that I can do a somewhat okay job at doing temperature control, although it was a bit boring and imprecise.
But do you know what can also do temperature control but doesn't get bored and a lot more precise?
A computer 
So for this Project 14, I want to upcycle and retrofit my old pots that are still great for conventional cooking, but give them additional functionality.
In today's smart and connected world, they are fast becoming obsolete. A few years ago I purchased a rice cooker that can do not just rice, but soups and steamed vegetables together, and is timer controlled (so I can set it up with the ingredients before I leave for work, and have a steamy hot meal for dinner when I get back home). I'm sure that by the time I have to buy a new rice cooker, I won't be able to find a decent one that doesn't have wifi nor bluetooth capabilties.
But the fact that they are "dumb" is an advantage: they will easily take any upgrades or improvements without much issue. Unlike some of my remote control fans for example which can't be made to work with a relay socket because they default to "off" even with mains power; you need to use the actual remote control (which I have since lost) to turn it on, or press a tactile button.
I would like to adhere to the spirit of Upcycling and Retrofitting by imposing a constraint on the project:
After all the modifications, it would still look and function just like how it was originally. That means no major changes in the external features, nor any changes that would make the original appliance unable to operate without the modifications.
I've already ordered a few of the things I think I will be using, but it's only at the planning stage so I still have a few things to decide on.
Watch out for my future updates!
