A popular sous vide immersion circulator got a little help from a Reddit user for its newest feature -- voice controls via Alexa, Amazon's voice-activated virtual assistant.
You'll be able to use an Alexa-enabled smart speaker to control the Anova Precision Cooker Bluetooth + Wi-Fi, Anova announced this weekend at the International Home and Housewares Show in Chicago.
The Anova Skill will be available this month, according to a blog post from Anova. The company is also working on integration with the Google Home smart speaker.
If you have an Alexa-enabled speaker and enable the Skill, you can to ask Alexa to tell your Anova to set a temperature, cook time, check on the status of your cooking cycle, search for recipes and other tasks.
In January, a user on the Reddit website posted about how he connected his Amazon Echo Dot and his Anova Precision Cooker. Anova eventually reached out to David Zielezna, and the company collaborated with him to build the official Alexa Skill for Anova, according to Anova's blog.
Anova Culinary is one of the most successful manufacturers of connected sous vide immersion circulators, which are small appliances that maintain a temperature-controlled water bath to cook food that's in a plastic bag (read more about this cooking method here).
In February, Electrolux announced that it would buy Anova Culinary for $250 million. And this year, Anova will extend its line of precision cookers with the release of a $99 Nano model, a revamped version of Anova's Precision Cooker with Bluetooth + Wi-Fi and a Pro model with a built-in touchscreen. The company also plans to release the Anova Precision Oven, a countertop oven that will sear, convection bake, steam cook and connect to Anova's precision cookers.
The Alexa voice integration will also work with an ice bath setup, a feature that the company temporarily removed from its app but will bring back next month. Here's how it works: You fill your pot with ice and water, then put the Anova in place. The Anova will make sure you have enough water and that it is cold enough to safely chill food until you're ready to cook it. The Anova will send you an alert if the water gets too warm, at which point it will start cooking.