Wheeee, action in the thread!
Few observations after a few more months:
We bought that 28qt rolling cooler above (or very similar). I used a hole saw to cut out a port for the Anova, a smaller hole for a cork in the side (to drain any water in the lid after awhile), and trimmed the lid hinge "pegs" off so I could just pop the whole thing on and off. It holds heat really well (obviously) - will only lose something like 10 degrees over 12 hours when the unit is off...making the long cooks quite obvious for this unit.
Veggies are great as well.
Waiting until the last minute to get that giant canning stockpot at the hardware store and having the wife come home with a giant laundry tub will end up defeating the unit. It can do around 5 gallons, evidently 10 or 15 is too much, even worse on pavers set on the ground. (But the veggies for that big meal did cook at ~165, just slowly.)
Rack of lamb, yes - but dunno about 131. We did 135 and it was unusable. 140 was just right. About 90 minutes and finished on the grill. This was Australian lamb.
Had short ribs a few times now. 30, 48, 72 hour cooks. All have been popular Personally, though - the shorter was by far my favorite. Was a perfect blend of chew and tender and melted down marbling, basically steak meets stick of butter. One difference was the shorter cook was done using the Searzall in February, and the longer cooks were finished on the grill (2 sets of short ribs, plus 2 racks of lamb cut in half, there was a lot of juggling right then).
Eye of round - don't do it, tis hopeless Maybe injection?
Buy the skin-on, bone-in chicken breast, debone it (save extra for stock, probably a good idea to just have a freezer bag of bits), and then cook. We like to go a little high, 150 works well, about 1.5-2 hours. Usually just finish with the Searzall for an easy dinner. Super juicy and perfect texture.
Rocking three of these isn't crazy, is it?
Anyone get in on the Meld Kickstarter? I resisted, but I was soooo close.