cooktime Timer running

Sous vide temperatures and times

Sous vide temperatures and times

54°
Steak, medium rare · 129°F
1 to 3 h
The usable window · for a 2.5 cm steak
Salmon, silky
30 to 45 min. Firmer at 55 °C.
50 °C
Steak, rare
1 to 3 h for 2.5 cm. Sear after, hard and fast.
50 °C
Steak, medium rare
1 to 3 h. The default, and the reason people buy one.
54 °C
Steak, medium
1 to 3 h. Past 4 h the texture turns mealy.
58 °C
Pork chop
1 to 4 h. Juicier than any oven can manage.
60 °C
Egg, onsen style
45 to 60 min. Custardy white, barely set yolk.
63 °C
Chicken breast
1 to 3 h. Safe at this temperature given the time.
63 °C
Carrots and root vegetables
1 h. Plant cell walls need far more heat.
84 °C

Target temperatures for steak, chicken, salmon, pork and eggs, with the time range each one needs in the bath.

Cook to temperature, not to timeSous vide inverts the usual relationship: the temperature decides the doneness and the time only decides tenderness and safety. A steak at 54 °C is medium rare at one hour and still medium rare at three. That is why this table has no timer, and why going over the low end of the range is far less costly than in any other method.

Bath temperature is the doneness. The time range is how long until it is safe and tender, not how done it is.

More sous vide times

Common questions

Is chicken at 63 °C safe?

Yes, given time, and this is the part that surprises people. Food safety is a combination of temperature and duration, not a single number. The familiar 74 °C figure kills salmonella almost instantly, which is what a chart needs when the cook is not holding a precise temperature. Held at 63 °C for an hour, chicken reaches the same reduction in bacteria. Sous vide is the only common method that can hold a temperature accurately enough to rely on that.

Why is the time a range rather than a number?

Because with a bath at the target temperature the food cannot overshoot it. Once the centre arrives, it stays there. The range covers the time needed to reach the middle plus a window in which nothing gets worse. The upper end exists because texture eventually suffers as connective tissue breaks down further, not because the doneness changes.

Do I still need to sear it?

For meat, yes. A bath at 54 °C is nowhere near the 150 °C the Maillard reaction needs, so sous vide steak comes out grey and flat tasting. Dry it thoroughly, then sear in a screaming pan for under a minute a side. Any longer and you cook a grey band into the edge you spent hours avoiding.

What happens if I leave it in too long?

Nothing for a while, then the texture goes. Beyond about four hours a steak starts to turn mealy as the connective tissue softens past the point of being pleasant. Fish is far less forgiving and starts to fall apart within an hour of its window closing.

Egg times come from the thermal-diffusion equation for a spherical egg published by Charles D. H. Williams (University of Exeter), calibrated so a large fridge-cold egg at sea level matches the times cooks actually use. Size, starting temperature and altitude then follow from the physics. Treat the result as a very good starting point, not a guarantee, because pans, hobs and eggs all vary.