Sous vide time and temperature, worked out for your cut
Sous vide is precise about temperature but vague about time: a recipe that says “1–4 hours” hides the fact that a 20 mm steak is heated through in 35 minutes while a 50 mm one needs nearly three hours. This sous vide calculator takes the food, its thickness and shape and the doneness you want, and returns the bath temperature, the minimum time for the centre to reach it, the time at which the piece is pasteurised, and how long it can stay in the bath before the texture suffers.
The heating times come from the thickness tables in Douglas Baldwin’s A Practical Guide to Sous Vide Cooking, which model heat moving into a slab, cylinder or sphere from fridge temperature. The pasteurisation times add the holding time at core temperature from USDA FSIS Appendix A lethality tables (a 6.5-log reduction of Salmonella for beef, pork and lamb; 7-log for poultry), interpolated between the published points. Fish, eggs and vegetables use fixed, widely published ranges instead.
Seventeen foods are covered, from tender and tough beef to shrimp, eggs and vegetables, in °C or °F. The page is guidance for home cooks, not a substitute for food-safety training.
How to use the Sous Vide Time & Temperature
- Choose the Food. The doneness list, default thickness and notes change with it.
- Pick the Doneness / texture — each option shows its bath temperature in both units.
- Measure the thickest part of the piece and enter it in mm or inches; choose Slab, Cylinder or Ball to match its shape. Tick Cooking from frozen if it is.
- Read the bath temperature, the minimum time, the pasteurised time (recommended for pork, poultry and anyone cautious) and the maximum hold. The table shows the same for every doneness of that food.
- Set your circulator, start the countdown timer, and sear or chill when the time is up.
Sous Vide Time & Temperature features
Thickness-based heating times
Interpolated from 5 to 100 mm, with multipliers for cylinders (×0.6) and balls (×0.45) and ×1.5 for frozen food.
Pasteurisation, separated from doneness
Meat and poultry get a second, longer time that includes the hold at core temperature; options below the pasteurisation floor are flagged.
Seventeen foods, 60 doneness options
From 43 °C mi-cuit salmon to 85 °C root vegetables, with chef-style and traditional choices for each.
°C and °F, mm and inches
Switch units at any time; thickness converts in place.
Practical notes
Brining salmon, searing lamb fat, baking-soda shrimp, chilling vegetables — the things that make the result good, not just safe.
Minimum time versus pasteurised time
The minimum time is how long the centre takes to come within about a degree of the bath. For a tender steak served rare or medium-rare, that is the time most cooks use: the surface is seared, the inside is fresh whole muscle, and it is eaten promptly. The pasteurised time adds the holding period that reduces Salmonella, Listeria and E. coli to safe levels at that temperature — 112 minutes at 54.4 °C (130 °F), 12 minutes at 60 °C (140 °F), seconds at 70 °C.
Poultry and pork should always reach the pasteurised time: a 25 mm chicken breast at 63 °C (145 °F) is heated through in about 50 minutes and pasteurised after about an hour, which is why sous vide chicken can be safely pink and juicy at a temperature that would be unsafe in a quick pan cook.
| Core temperature | Hold for meat (6.5-log) | Hold for poultry (7-log) |
|---|---|---|
| 54.4 °C / 130 °F | 112 min | — |
| 57.2 °C / 135 °F | 36 min | ~75 min |
| 60 °C / 140 °F | 12 min | 30 min |
| 62.8 °C / 145 °F | 4 min | 10 min |
| 65.6 °C / 150 °F | ~1 min | 3.5 min |
| 68.3 °C / 155 °F | <1 min | 1 min |
How thickness changes the time
Heat travels into food by conduction, so time grows roughly with the square of thickness: a steak going from 25 to 50 mm goes from about 50 minutes to about 2 h 40. Measure the thickest part, and never stack pieces in the bag — two 25 mm chops lying on each other cook like one 50 mm piece.
| Thickness | 10 mm | 20 mm | 25 mm (1 in) | 40 mm | 50 mm (2 in) | 70 mm |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Slab, from fridge | 15 min | 35 min | 50 min | 1 h 45 | 2 h 40 | 5 h |
After the bath
- Dry the surface thoroughly before searing; a wet steak steams instead of browning. Sear 45–60 seconds a side in a smoking-hot pan.
- To store, chill the sealed bag in iced water until cold, then refrigerate for a few days or freeze. Reheat in the bath at or just below the cooking temperature.
- Find the equivalent oven and pan targets on the meat doneness chart, and convert temperatures with the temperature converter.
Sous Vide Time & Temperature FAQ
What temperature and time for sous vide steak?
Medium-rare beef is 55 °C (131 °F). A 25 mm (1 inch) steak needs at least 50 minutes to heat through, is pasteurised after about 2 h 20, and should come out within 4 hours. Thicker steaks need longer — enter the measurement and the calculator does the rest.
Is sous vide chicken at 60 °C (140 °F) safe?
Yes, if it is held long enough: pasteurisation needs about 30 minutes at the core on top of the heating time, so a 25 mm breast is safe after roughly 1 h 20 at 60 °C. Use the pasteurised time for all poultry and pork, never the minimum alone.
Why does rare beef show “not pasteurised”?
Below 54.4 °C (130 °F) bacteria are not reliably killed in any practical time. Rare sous vide steak is as safe as rare pan-cooked steak — fresh whole muscle, seared outside, eaten soon — but it is not pasteurised, so serve it within two hours and avoid it for vulnerable diners.
How long can food stay in the sous vide bath?
Until the texture changes: tender steaks and chicken breast 1–4 hours, fish 30–45 minutes, shrimp 30 minutes, braising cuts 24–48 hours. The “hold up to” figure in the results shows the limit for each option.
Does cooking from frozen change the temperature?
No, only the time: tick “Cooking from frozen” and the heating time is multiplied by about 1.5 before the pasteurisation hold is added.
Where do the sous vide times come from?
Heating times follow the thickness tables in Baldwin’s guide; pasteurisation holds follow USDA FSIS Appendix A time–temperature tables for beef and poultry. They are estimates for fridge-cold food in a circulating bath and are provided as guidance, not as a food-safety certification.