Until now, home cooks wanting to try the method have had to improvise, with solutions from low-tech (a stockpot and a handful of ice cubes) to high (a chamber sealer and an immersion circulator, generating about $1,500 in start-up costs). But there seems to be an audience, however small, for an easier and cheaper way. The first 500 SousVide Supreme machines sold out via the Internet before shipping in November, according to the manufacturers. More are on the way, available for order online now, and scheduled to reach Sur la Table warehouses in January.

I recently spent a week with the device, basically a bread-machine-size hot-water bath, with simple, intuitive temperature controls. The heavy, boxy countertop unit and the long cooking times of some sous-vide recipes (up to two days) are not always inviting. But simple dishes like skirt steak were, as promised, transformed.

Image Lamb cooked in the new SousVide Supreme. Credit... Evan Sung for The New York Times

Oven-baked apples usually have good flavor but a mealy, exhausted texture. To test the machine, I combined peeled apples with butter, spices, brown sugar and raisins, then sucked the air out of the bags with a handheld sealer. (The SousVide Supreme is not sold with a vacuum seal system.) Because of renegade air bubbles, I had to force the bags underwater, and there was splashing, scalding and profanity. Even so, the apples that emerged six hours later (they were done after two, but bobbed in the water for another four without complaint) were exactly as hoped for: tender, almost custardy, infused with butter and sweet juice but not at all overcooked.

While the apples were in, I scouted to see if I could slip in some whole eggs (sous vide is the reason there are so many beautifully slow-poached eggs on menus these days). But no: the apples demanded a 170-degree cooking temperature, and eggs prefer 150; the machine generally can’t cook two different foods at the same time.