Sous Vide Time Calculator

You pick a protein (steak, chicken breast, pork chop, or egg), choose a target doneness, and enter the thickness at the thickest point. The bath temperature comes from the doneness. The minimum cook time is either the estimated heat-up time or, when available, the published total pasteurization time from a 5 C (41 F) start.

Sous vide cooking is a heat-conduction problem, and heat travels in from every surface toward the center. The center of a thick slab is farther from the water, so it takes longer to warm up regardless of how heavy or wide the piece is. Because of this, the heat-up time grows roughly with the square of the thickness, so a piece twice as thick can take about four times as long to come up to temperature.

The listed time is a planning estimate for the selected assumptions, not a guarantee of pasteurization or safety. Thickness, shape, starting temperature, bagging, bath accuracy, food type, and required hold time all matter. Use a tested recipe and an accurate thermometer.

Poultry generally needs a time-at-temperature hold in addition to heating the center. An intact steak is often treated differently because contamination is usually on the surface, but that assumption does not cover mechanically tenderized, injected, ground, rolled, or punctured meat. Follow a tested time-temperature table for the exact food and geometry.

The temperature and pasteurization values follow the widely used tables from Douglas Baldwin's "A Practical Guide to Sous Vide Cooking," along with ChefSteps and Serious Eats. The heat-up times use Baldwin's slab heating table for food starting at refrigerator temperature, around 5 C (41 F). If your food starts closer to room temperature, it will reach the bath temperature a little faster than the estimate.

No. Use it only as a planning estimate. Follow a tested recipe or validated pasteurization table, verify bath temperature, measure thickness correctly, chill or serve food safely, and use stricter guidance for vulnerable people. A higher temperature alone does not replace the required hold time and handling controls.