There are a lot of things to like about sous vide cooking — the ease, the reliability, the “you can't possibly mess this up” factor... however, speed is not one of its strong points. It can be a very slow process and isn't ideal as a weeknight dinner solution for most families.

Breville have set out to fix that to some extent with the Joule Turbo sous vide cooker. Through the use of what I'm calling Fancy Math™ (i.e. proprietary complex algorithms), this smart immersion circulator claims to be able to make select dishes in half the time of conventional sous vide.

As it turns out, this Turbo feature actually does work! But that term “select” is key here, because it really only works on tender cuts of meat like chicken breasts, pork chops/tenderloins, and steaks. You're not going to magically crank out a lightning-fast chuck roast or anything of that sort, due to the physics of meat tenderization.

Redditor u/BostonBestEats, who was a beta tester for the Joule Turbo, discusses how the technology works and mentions that this faster cooking technique has actually been possible to accomplish with previous sous vide cookers, but only if you had a temperature probe and kept a real close eye on things. The Turbo merely automates the process, without needing a probe.

The cooking process is controlled via the new Breville+ app, which has replaced the old Joule app. In addition to Turbo mode, there are features like Autopilot, which automates the optimal cooking times/temps without needing your direct supervision (and sends you progress notifications along the way), and Primetime, which holds foods right at their ideal doneness for a window of time (dependent on the protein being cooked) so you have more flexibility for when you actually eat.

If you're ready to be on the cutting edge of sous vide cooking, get the Joule Turbo for $250 on Amazon and watch your life in the kitchen transform forever.