Sous vide time calculator

This sous vide calculator gives a bath temperature and a cook time for 61 foods. For meat, poultry and fish the time depends on how thick the piece is. It comes from a heating and pasteurization model that is checked against Douglas Baldwin's published tables and the USDA FSIS poultry tables.

How to use the sous vide time calculator

1. Choose the food type and the food. There are nine food types, from beef to desserts.
2. Choose the doneness. Each option shows its bath temperature. A food with one setting has no doneness control.
3. Set the thickness. A line under the control says how to measure that food. For a steak it reads "Measure through the thickest part, including the bone if there is one." For a roast, measure straight through the center at its thickest point. You can switch between inches and centimeters.
4. Tick "Cooking from frozen" if the food goes into the bath frozen.
5. Switch between °F and °C if you need to.

The result updates as you change each control. If you are cooking several pieces, enter the thickness of the thickest one.

Tough cuts, bacon, fully cooked ham, shellfish, eggs, vegetables and desserts have no thickness control. Their times come from published recipes and charts. For these foods a line under the minimum time gives the size the time applies to, such as "Pieces up to 3 in (7.6 cm) thick" for chuck roast or "Whole baby carrots or 1 in (2.5 cm) chunks" for carrots. On a tough cut that is not recommended from frozen, that line reads "Thaw first".

What each line of the result means

Bath temperature. The temperature to set on the circulator. The food heats to this temperature and stops, so it sets the doneness.

Minimum time. The shortest time the food should stay in the bath. For chicken, turkey, duck, fresh pork, burgers, sausage and the rolled leg of lamb it is never shorter than the pasteurization time. For a whole, intact steak, chop or roast of beef or lamb it is the time for the center to heat through, unless the calculator raises it to the pasteurization time. It does that in three cases: at 150°F (65.6°C) and above, when pasteurizing takes no more than 15 minutes longer than heating through, and when heating through takes more than 4 hours.

Best window. The range where the texture is at its best. It starts at the minimum time. For meat and poultry timed by thickness it usually runs for 1 hour. For fish it runs for 15 minutes.

Do not exceed. The latest the food should come out. On a result that is pasteurized, this is a texture limit: extra time at 131°F (55°C) and above makes the food softer but does not make it unsafe. On meat, fish and shellfish at 130°F (54.4°C) and below it is also a safety limit, and on a recommended result it is never more than 2 hr 30 min. Where the source gives one time and no range, the line reads "No maximum given". For vegetables it reads "No limit, gets softer". It reads "Same as the minimum" for a frozen chicken drumstick 2.5 in (6.4 cm) thick at 165°F (73.9°C), whose minimum of 8 hr 45 min is already past the 8 hours after which the meat turns mushy.

Heat-through time. The time for the center to come within 1°F (0.5°C) of the bath temperature. It is shown for foods timed by thickness. On fish settings that do not pasteurize, the line reads "Full heat-through" and says it is not reached at this setting, because those settings use a different rule, explained below.

Pasteurized. "Yes" means the food is pasteurized at the minimum time. "No" comes with the reason, in one of four forms: the time in the bath after which the food would be pasteurized, a statement that pasteurizing takes longer than the maximum, "not at this temperature and time", or "this result is not recommended, see the warning". A result that is not recommended is never reported as pasteurized, even when its time alone would have been long enough. "Not applicable" is shown for vegetables, desserts and fully cooked ham.

Warnings, notes and "Not recommended"

Messages under the result come in two kinds.

A warning is a safety message and sits in an amber panel. These results carry one:

• Every meat, fish and shellfish setting at 130°F (54.4°C) and below.
• Fish, shellfish and soft egg settings above that temperature that do not pasteurize.
• A chilled whole cut of beef or lamb that is close to the 6 hour limit described below. The result stays recommended, and the warning says a thinner piece or a higher temperature is the more cautious choice.

A note is information and sits in a neutral panel. The usual case is a medium-rare steak. At the minimum time it is heated through but not pasteurized, which is normal for a whole, intact cut of beef cooked to that doneness. The note gives the longer time that pasteurizes it and names the people it matters for. Where that time is longer than the maximum, the note says to choose a higher temperature when cooking for them.

When a result breaks a safety limit, the amber panel is headed "Not recommended" and its first message gives the reason and what to change. The times are still shown, but the calculator does not recommend cooking at that setting. Two limits put a result in this state:

• At 130°F (54.4°C) and below, a minimum time over 2 hr 30 min. A rare steak at 125°F (51.7°C) is not recommended at 1.75 in (4.4 cm) and thicker from the refrigerator, and at 1.25 in (3.2 cm) and thicker from frozen.
• A center that takes more than 6 hours to reach 130°F (54.4°C) by the calculator's cautious estimate. A frozen medium-rare steak at 131°F (55°C) is not recommended at 2 in (5.1 cm) and thicker.

The time tables in the guides mark the same rows "not recommended".

Below the result, a list of notes for the food covers practical points: keeping the bags in a single layer, the USDA safe minimum internal temperature when the setting is below it, and how to finish the food.

How the sous vide cook times are calculated

The calculator does not look a time up in a chart. It runs a heat conduction model for a piece of the thickness you entered, then a pathogen reduction model at the temperature of the center. Both are the models Douglas Baldwin describes in A Practical Guide to Sous Vide Cooking, and the output is tested against his published tables:

• Table 2.2, heating times for thawed meat, and Table 2.3, heating times for frozen meat.
• Table 5.1, pasteurization times for beef, pork and lamb.
• Table 4.1, pasteurization times for poultry.
• Table 3.1, pasteurization times for fish.

Poultry times also have to deliver the hold time in the chicken and turkey tables of the USDA FSIS Cooking Guideline for Meat and Poultry Products (Revised Appendix A).

The calculator is deliberately more cautious than those tables in several places:

• Rounding. Every calculated time is rounded up: to the next 5 minutes up to 1 hour, and to the next 15 minutes above that.
• Safety factor. The pasteurization time is multiplied by 1.05 before it is rounded. The result equals or exceeds Baldwin's published value in every cell of his three pasteurization tables and is shorter in none.
• Heat-through floor. A heat-through time is never shorter than the published table value for that thickness.
• Poultry. The time is the longer of Baldwin's table and the FSIS hold, using the longer of the chicken and turkey figures. Chicken pieces and duck breast are computed as a flat slab, with no credit for the faster-heating box shape that Baldwin's poultry table assumes.
• Pork chops, burgers and sausage. Baldwin's meat table treats a piece thicker than 30 mm (about 1.2 in) as a box. The calculator pasteurizes these three foods as a flat slab at every thickness, which gives a longer pasteurization time above that thickness.
• Pasteurization floor. 131°F (55°C) is the lowest temperature in the pasteurization tables the calculator uses. FSIS Appendix A also lists a 130°F (54.4°C) row for meat. The calculator does not use that row, so nothing at 130°F (54.4°C) is treated as pasteurized.
• Low temperatures. At 130°F (54.4°C) and below the calculator caps the time in the bath at 2 hr 30 min, and a result whose minimum is longer than that is not recommended. Baldwin's guide and the FDA Food Code use 4 hours. The calculator uses the strictest limit among its sources.
• Thick pieces. The center has to reach 130°F (54.4°C) within 6 hours, a rule taken from Baldwin's guide and the FSIS guideline. The check uses a cautious estimate that allows for a dense or unevenly shaped piece. A piece that misses it is marked "Not recommended". A chilled whole cut of beef or lamb that misses it by the cautious estimate but passes as a typical piece stays recommended and carries a warning. Frozen food gets the cautious estimate alone.

Fish uses a different rule at settings that do not pasteurize. For salmon, tuna, cod and halibut at those settings, the minimum is the time for the center to come within about 5°F (2.8°C) of the bath, not within 1°F (0.5°C). The best window is 15 minutes long. The maximum is 1 hour, or the minimum plus 15 minutes when the minimum is over 45 minutes. This is the calculator's own rule. No published table gives it, and a note in the result says the minimum comes from the calculator's heating model.

A salmon fillet 1 in (2.5 cm) thick at 120°F (48.9°C) gets a minimum of 45 min, a best window of 45 min to 1 hr and a maximum of 1 hr. Full heat-through would take 1 hr 15 min. Each of these results also carries a note to use fish sold for eating raw that has been frozen to kill parasites.

The 140°F (60°C) settings for salmon, cod and halibut do pasteurize, and they use the Table 3.1 time. Tuna has no setting that pasteurizes. Fish is covered from 0.5 in (1.3 cm) to 1.5 in (3.8 cm) thick. The fish temperature chart lists every fish setting.

Why thickness matters more than weight

Heat reaches the center of the food from the surface, so the distance to the center sets the time. Two steaks of the same weight can need very different times if one is cut thicker.

Example: steak, medium-rare

A 1 in (2.5 cm) steak needs at least 1 hr 15 min. A 2 in (5.1 cm) steak needs 3 hr 45 min, which is three times as long for twice the thickness. The 2.5 in (6.4 cm) row is marked "see warning", because a steak that thick is close to the 6 hour limit. The last column is the minimum time from frozen.

A recipe that prints one range for a span of thicknesses, such as 1 to 4 hours for steaks 1.5 to 2 in thick, does not account for this. The calculator's minimum is the heat-through time for your thickness. The post on how long to sous vide steak goes through steak times by thickness, and the steak guide covers the full cook.

Example: chicken breast

At 145°F (62.8°C) a breast 0.5 in (1.3 cm) thick needs at least 45 min. A 1.5 in (3.8 cm) breast needs 2 hr 30 min, and a 2.5 in (6.4 cm) breast needs 5 hr 30 min.

The minimum time covers pasteurization for this temperature and thickness, so do not shorten it. The chicken breast guide has the other doneness settings.

Cooking from frozen

Most meat, poultry and fish can go into the bath frozen. The heat-through time from frozen is 1.55 times the thawed time, and never less than Baldwin's Table 2.3. The pasteurization time is longer by a matching allowance. That allowance is the calculator's own rule, because no published table covers pasteurizing from frozen. For fish at settings that do not pasteurize, the frozen minimum is 1.55 times the thawed minimum.

A 1.5 in steak at 131°F (55°C) needs at least 3 hr 30 min from frozen, against 2 hr 15 min from the refrigerator. A 1.5 in chicken breast at 145°F (62.8°C) needs 4 hr 15 min, against 2 hr 30 min.

Vegetables, fully cooked ham and lobster tail have to be thawed first, and the result says so. Eggs, foods cooked in jars and yogurt are not cooked from frozen either, so the box does not change their times.

Some thick frozen pieces are marked "Not recommended". At 131°F (55°C) and above the reason is the 6 hour limit: by the calculator's cautious estimate the center takes more than 6 hours to reach 130°F (54.4°C). At 125°F (51.7°C) the reason is the 2 hr 30 min limit. In both cases the message lists thawing the food first as one of the fixes.

Freeze food in a single flat layer so the thickness is the same as when thawed. The guide to cooking from frozen has frozen tables for chicken, steak and pork chops.

Sous vide safety

At 130°F (54.4°C) and below, the calculator shows a warning on meat, fish and shellfish. The time in it is the maximum for that result. For a rare steak 1.5 in thick it reads:

The calculator's other safety messages say the following.

• Who should not eat unpasteurized food. Do not serve it to pregnant women, children under 5, adults 65 and older, or anyone with a weakened immune system.
• Do not shorten a minimum time that covers pasteurization. For chicken at 145°F (62.8°C), the USDA safe minimum internal temperature is 165°F (73.9°C), which is a single reading with no hold time. The lower temperature pasteurizes the food only because it is held for the full minimum time shown.
• Keep the bags in a single layer, fully under the water, and not overlapping. Crowded or overlapping bags heat more slowly, and the times shown will be too short for them.
• Tenderized beef. If the label says mechanically tenderized or blade tenderized, or the meat has been injected, cook it for the pasteurization time, not the shorter heat-through time.
• Acidic marinades. An acidic sauce or marinade can make beef take up to twice as long to pasteurize. If the beef is in one, do not rely on the pasteurization time shown.

Where a setting is below the USDA safe minimum internal temperature listed on FoodSafety.gov, the result says so. The explainer on whether sous vide is safe covers how pasteurization depends on temperature and time together.

Foods covered

The calculator covers 61 foods. The 36 linked foods have a full guide.

Beef (19). Steak, ribeye, filet mignon, New York strip, sirloin steak, flank steak, skirt steak, tri-tip, picanha, beef tenderloin, prime rib, burgers, London broil, chuck roast, brisket, short ribs, corned beef, beef back ribs and eye of round.

Pork (9). Pork chops, pork tenderloin, pork loin roast, pork shoulder, pork belly, pork ribs, bacon, pork sausage and fully cooked ham.

Poultry (8). Chicken breast, chicken thighs, chicken wings, chicken drumsticks, turkey breast, turkey legs, duck breast and duck legs.

Lamb (4). Lamb chops, rack of lamb, leg of lamb and lamb shank.

Fish (4). Salmon, tuna, cod and halibut.

Shellfish (4). Shrimp, lobster tail, scallops and octopus.

Eggs (2). Eggs in the shell and egg bites in jars.

Vegetables (8). Potatoes, carrots, asparagus, corn on the cob, sweet potatoes, broccoli, green beans and beets.

Desserts (3). Cheesecake in jars, creme brulee and yogurt.

The time and temperature chart puts the default setting for each of these foods on one page. If you have not cooked sous vide before, how to sous vide walks through a first cook.

Printable charts

The printable charts are one-page PDFs of the same times. They are produced by the same calculation as this calculator, so a time on a chart matches the time you get here for the same food, doneness and thickness.