Free Sous Vide Timer — Precision Times for Every Food

Sous Vide Time and Temperature Chart

Sous vide unsticks time from temperature. Below the cooking temperature, food cannot overcook in the traditional sense — meat just becomes more tender as collagen converts to gelatin over hours. The minimum times below are when the food has reached temperature throughout (heat-up time for a 1-inch piece). The maximums are when texture begins to degrade (proteins go mushy).

Beef

Poultry

Pork

Fish & Eggs

Vegetables

How Sous Vide Works

Sous vide — French for "under vacuum" — cooks food sealed in a plastic bag, submerged in water held at the food's target final temperature. The food cannot exceed the water temperature, so unlike pan-searing or roasting, there is no overshoot. A steak cooked sous vide at 130°F finishes at exactly 130°F internal, edge to edge.

The method was developed in the 1970s by French chefs Georges Pralus and Bruno Goussault, originally for foie gras at Restaurant Troisgros and for industrial food production. It entered home kitchens with the launch of the Anova circulator (2014) and Joule (2016), which brought temperature-controlled water baths under $200. The technique is now mainstream — Modernist Cuisine treats it as standard equipment, and Kenji López-Alt's The Food Lab has detailed sous-vide guides for every major protein.

The technical reference is Douglas Baldwin's A Practical Guide to Sous Vide Cooking, freely available online and used as the safety reference by ChefSteps, Anova, and most commercial sous-vide producers. Baldwin's pasteurization tables, derived from FDA Food Code thermal-process calculations, are the standard for safe long-cook timing.

Pasteurization: Time as a Safety Variable

The USDA's instant-kill temperature for Salmonella is 165°F. But pasteurization is also a function of time at lower temperatures. At 145°F, chicken is pasteurized after about 8.5 minutes once the entire piece reaches temperature; at 140°F, after about 27 minutes; at 135°F, after about 89 minutes. This is why sous vide chicken at 145°F for 90 minutes is safer than oven-roasted chicken at 165°F for 20 minutes — the lower temperature kills the same pathogens with extended exposure, and the meat is dramatically juicier.

Baldwin's pasteurization tables (downloadable as a free PDF from his website) show the time-at-temperature required to achieve a 6.5-log reduction in Salmonella for poultry and a 6.5-log reduction in Listeria and E. coli for beef. For at-risk eaters (pregnant individuals, young children, elderly, immunocompromised) the safer choice is the higher-temperature/shorter-time combinations — these provide the same kill rate with less reliance on extended hold times.

Equipment and Technique

Circulator

An immersion circulator clamps to any pot, heats the water with a resistive coil, and circulates it with a small impeller. The Anova Precision Cooker and the Breville Joule are the two best-known consumer models. Both are accurate to 0.1°F and hold temperature for days.

Bag Sealing

A chamber vacuum sealer is the gold standard, but a $40 Foodsaver or a zipper bag with the water-displacement method works fine. To displace air with a zipper bag: place food in the bag, lower into the water bath until the air is squeezed out by water pressure, then seal at the surface. This is the most common home method.

Finishing

Sous vide does not produce a brown crust because the water temperature is well below the Maillard threshold (285°F+). The finishing sear is essential. Pat the food completely dry with paper towels, then sear 60–90 seconds per side in a screaming hot cast-iron pan with high-smoke-point oil. A butane torch (the Iwatani Torch is the food-publication favorite) is also effective, especially for tricky shapes.

Common Sous Vide Mistakes

Not Drying Before Searing

Water on the surface steams instead of browning. Pat the food completely dry with paper towels (some chefs even use a hair dryer on cold setting) before searing.

Searing Too Long

The food is already cooked. The sear only needs to develop color — 60 to 90 seconds per side, no more. Longer cooking pushes the gray band of overcooked meat back into the perfectly-cooked interior.

Cooking Below 130°F for Extended Times

Bacterial growth zone is 40–130°F. Cooking below 130°F is considered safe only for short cooks (under 4 hours) of intact-muscle proteins (steak, fish). For poultry and ground meat, follow Baldwin's pasteurization tables.

Reusing Bags

Standard zipper and vacuum bags are food-safe for one cook. The plastic stresses under heat over long cooks; do not reuse for multiple sessions.

Overcrowding the Bath

Water needs to circulate around each bag. If you stack bags or pack them tightly, the centers cook slower and the timing in the chart no longer applies.

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