Sous Vide Fish Temperature Chart: Times by Thickness

Sous vide fish temperatures run from 105°F (40.6°C) for nearly raw tuna to 140°F (60°C) for firm, fully cooked salmon, cod and halibut. A fillet is timed by its thickness: at 120°F (48.9°C) a salmon fillet 1 in (2.5 cm) thick needs at least 45 min and comes out by 1 hr. Shrimp, lobster tail and scallops are not timed by thickness. Each setting has one time range.

The charts below are generated by the calculator. Most of these settings do not pasteurize the fish. The sections after the charts say which ones do and what time limits apply.

Salmon

Skin, brining and the other salmon settings are covered in the salmon guide.

Tuna

The calculator covers fish up to 1.5 in (3.8 cm) thick. Cut a thicker tuna steak into thinner portions.

Cod

The texture descriptions for cod are the calculator's own wording.

Halibut

Shrimp

These times are for large peeled shrimp in a single layer. Add 5 minutes to the minimum for shell-on shrimp. Some shrimp turn very soft after about 30 minutes in the bath, so the best window for shrimp cooked from the refrigerator ends there. From frozen, the best window is later by the time added for thawing. The shrimp guide has the full method.

Lobster tail

The 20 minute minimum is for the tail of a 1.5 lb (680 g) lobster, and tails from heavier lobsters need the long end of the range. The tail is parboiled in boiling water for 1 to 1.5 minutes so the meat releases, moved straight to an ice bath, then taken out of the shell before bagging, as the lobster tail guide explains.

Scallops

Use dry-packed sea scallops. Pat them very dry and sear them quickly in a very hot skillet.

How to read the charts

Each doneness chart has one row per setting, with the bath temperature and the texture it produces. The shellfish charts also show the cook time, because thickness is not an input for shrimp, lobster tail or scallops.

Each time chart for a fillet has these columns:

• Thickness. Measure through the thickest part of the fillet. The calculator covers fish from 0.5 to 1.5 in (1.3 to 3.8 cm).
• Minimum time. The shortest time in the bath.
• Best window. The range the calculator recommends.
• Do not exceed. The maximum. For fish at the settings that do not pasteurize, this limit is for texture and, at 130°F (54.4°C) and below, for safety.
• From frozen. The minimum when the fish goes into the bath frozen.

The time charts for shrimp, lobster tail and scallops have one row. In place of a thickness it states the size the time applies to: large peeled shrimp, the shelled tail of a 1.5 lb (680 g) lobster, or sea scallops. Those charts have no "From frozen" column.

The line under each chart says whether the setting is pasteurized at the minimum time.

How fillet times are set

On fish settings that do not pasteurize, the minimum is the time for the center to come within about 5°F (2.8°C) of the bath temperature, by the calculator's heating model, rounded up to the next 5 minutes. A fillet that tapers gets closer than a flat piece. The best window is the minimum to the minimum plus 15 minutes.

The maximum is 1 hr, or the minimum plus 15 min when the minimum is over 45 min, and never more than 2 hr 30 min. Fish left longer turns soft and mushy.

This rule is the calculator's own. Anova's salmon guide gives 30 to 45 minutes for thinner fillets and 45 minutes to an hour for extra-thick ones. The calculator sets the time by thickness, so its minimum can be shorter or longer than that.

Which settings pasteurize

The 140°F (60°C) fillet settings use the pasteurization time as the minimum, or the full heat-through time where that is longer. The calculator builds the pasteurization time on Table 3.1 in Douglas Baldwin's guide to sous vide cooking, which has separate values for lean and fatty fish.

Baldwin names cod as a lean fish and salmon as a fatty one. The calculator uses the fatty fish values for halibut, so halibut at 140°F (60°C) gets the same times as salmon.

Do not shorten these times. The USDA safe minimum internal temperature for fish is 145°F (62.8°C), listed on FoodSafety.gov, and the 140°F (60°C) setting pasteurizes the fish only because it is held for the full minimum time shown. The hold makes the fish firmer and drier than the shorter settings.

Cod at 131°F (55°C) is at the pasteurization floor but is still not pasteurized. Pasteurizing at that temperature takes longer than the maximum for the setting, which is 1 hr 5 min for a 1 in fillet. Shrimp at 135°F (57.2°C) and 140°F (60°C), lobster tail at 140°F (60°C) and scallops at 131°F (55°C) are also not pasteurized at the times shown.

For USDA guidance on shellfish, FoodSafety.gov lists no temperature. It says to cook shrimp, lobster and scallops until the flesh is pearly or white and opaque. Shrimp at 125°F (51.7°C), lobster tail at 120°F (48.9°C) and scallops at 122°F (50°C) leave the flesh translucent, and shrimp at 130°F (54.4°C) leaves it nearly opaque but not fully opaque. All four are short of that guidance.

Time limits at 130°F (54.4°C) and below

A bath at 130°F (54.4°C) or lower is below 131°F (55°C), the lowest temperature in the pasteurization tables this calculator uses, so the food is not pasteurized. The calculator's warning for these settings says to keep the total time in the water bath to the maximum shown or less, serve the food right away, and not chill it to reheat later.

For a fillet thicker than 1 in, the limit is the figure in the "Do not exceed" column. The limits in the table are for food that is not frozen. From frozen, the limit is the maximum the calculator shows, which is 1 hr 10 min for shrimp and 1 hr for scallops.

Every fish setting that does not pasteurize carries one more note: use fish sold for eating raw that has been frozen to kill parasites. Freshness alone is not enough. The FDA's seafood page gives the same rule of thumb for raw fish, and adds that freezing kills parasites but does not kill all harmful germs. The salmon guide lists the freezing times the FDA gives for killing parasites.

The reasons behind the 131°F (55°C) line are in the article on whether sous vide is safe.

How to choose a temperature

Start from the default in each doneness chart. Those are 120°F (48.9°C) for salmon, 110°F (43.3°C) for tuna, 131°F (55°C) for cod, 130°F (54.4°C) for halibut, 135°F (57.2°C) for shrimp, 130°F (54.4°C) for lobster tail and 122°F (50°C) for scallops.

Baldwin's guide gives a general range. It says most fish and shellfish are best between medium-rare at 120°F (48.9°C) and medium at 140°F (60°C), salmon between rare at 110°F (43.3°C) and medium-rare at 120°F (48.9°C), and tuna between very rare at 100°F (38°C) and rare at 110°F (43.3°C). The calculator's lowest tuna setting is 105°F (40.6°C).

If you are cooking for anyone in the groups named in the warning, use the 140°F (60°C) setting for salmon, cod or halibut. Tuna, shrimp, lobster tail and scallops have no pasteurized setting.

The steps are the same for fish as for any other food: heat the bath, bag the food in a single layer and hold it for the time shown. The guide on how to sous vide walks through those steps with a steak.

Cooking fish from frozen

Frozen fillets go straight into the bath. At the settings that do not pasteurize, the frozen times are 1.55 times the thawed times: a frozen 1 in salmon fillet at 120°F (48.9°C) needs at least 1 hr 10 min. Freeze fish in a single flat layer so the thickness is the same as when thawed.

For shrimp the calculator adds 10 min, which assumes a piece about 0.5 in (1.3 cm) thick, and the maximum becomes 1 hr 10 min. For scallops it adds 25 min, which assumes a piece about 1 in thick, and the maximum becomes 1 hr. Lobster tail times are for thawed meat out of the shell, so thaw frozen tails first. The FDA page says to thaw frozen seafood gradually in the refrigerator overnight.

The guide to cooking from frozen covers frozen food in general, and the sous vide cooking times chart sets fish beside steak, chicken, tough cuts and vegetables.