Sous Vide Pasteurization Calculator — Baldwin 2012 times for chicken, pork, beef, fish, eggs

Why sous vide times are thickness-squared, not linear

Quick answer: heat penetrates proteins through conduction. The time for the center of a flat slab to reach water-bath temperature scales with the SQUARE of the thickness. A 40mm pork chop takes 4x longer to heat than a 20mm chop, not 2x. This is why "sous vide chicken for 2 hours" recipes are almost always wrong for your specific cut.

The total sous vide time is heat-up + hold. For a 60°C chicken breast at 25mm thickness: heat-up ≈ 65 minutes (from fridge-cold), plus a 16-minute pasteurize hold for 7-log Salmonella reduction, for about 80 minutes total. At 40mm thickness the same temperature needs 160+ minutes for heat-up — same 16-minute pasteurize hold, but total jumps to nearly 3 hours. The wizard computes this per protein because thermal diffusivity differs (fatty cuts ~40% slower than lean).

Pasteurization hold times (Baldwin 2012, poultry + pork)

Quick answer: at any target center temperature, there is a specific hold time that achieves 7-log Salmonella reduction. Halving the hold doubles the surviving bacteria fraction. Below 55°C the reduction is too slow for food-safety; below 54.4°C it's impossible in any practical timeframe.

Pasteurization hold times (beef — E.coli 6.5-log reduction)

Quick answer: beef uses E.coli O157:H7 as the reference pathogen; reduction target is 6.5-log. Intact whole-muscle beef is lower-risk than ground (pathogens stay on surfaces which contact water-bath heat first). For ground beef do not use sous vide unless held at 71°C center temp.

Texture-only vs pasteurize — when each is acceptable

Quick answer: texture-only cook (no pasteurize hold) gives the shortest cook and best tenderness at low temps. It's safe ONLY if: (1) source protein was fresh, (2) you eat within 4 hours of assembly, (3) no at-risk diners (pregnant, elderly, immunocompromised). Texture-only is how restaurants serve 52°C steak — but they start from sashimi-grade supply and serve immediately. For home meal-prep, chilled-hold, or reheat scenarios, always use the pasteurize goal.

The 4-hour rule derives from FDA time/temperature danger-zone guidance. Below 55°C the pathogen-reduction rate is slower than pathogen-growth rate for fresh protein at initial contamination levels. Net: bacteria counts grow. Under 4 hours this stays within acceptable risk; over 4 hours compounds. The tool's "eat within 4 hours" flag is literal, not conservative.

Collagen conversion — tough cuts only

Quick answer: connective tissue in tougher cuts (chuck, brisket, short rib, pork shoulder, belly) is predominantly collagen. At 54-60°C collagen stays tough. Above 68°C collagen begins converting to gelatin. At 74°C the conversion rate is ~12 hours to pleasing tenderness; 77°C is ~24 hours; 80°C is 24-48 hours for fall-apart texture. Pasteurization happens automatically in the first hour of any of these; the remaining hours are texture work.

This is the only cooking mode where time above 4 hours contributes to the outcome. For tender whole-muscle cuts (steak, chicken breast, pork loin) holding past 4-6 hours causes noticeable texture softening with no food-safety benefit — at 8+ hours whole-muscle cuts become mealy. The tool's collagen goal is gated to cuts where this is the desired outcome.

Heat penetration — why measurement matters

Quick answer: the calculator uses a protein-specific penetration coefficient to estimate heat-up time from (thickness/10)² × k, where k ranges from 8 (fish/thin) to 14 (fatty cuts / bone-in). This is Baldwin's empirical approximation and accurate to ±15% for flat-ish cuts. For irregular shapes (whole birds, lamb leg, bone-in pork shoulder) use the THICKEST-point dimension.

Starting temperature multiplies penetration time: fridge-cold (5°C) is the baseline. Frozen (-18°C) adds 50% because 40°C of thaw has to happen before heat-up can start at water-bath temperature. Room-temperature (20°C) reduces heat-up by ~15%, but is NOT recommended from a food-safety perspective — surface bacteria grow fastest at 20-35°C. Pull from fridge and cook within 30 minutes for best results.

Fish and egg — different pathogen, different floor

Quick answer: fish uses Listeria monocytogenes as reference (6-log reduction target). Safety floor is 50°C for wild-caught / freshly-handled; colder-than-50°C fish is sashimi territory. Eggs use in-shell Salmonella; the iconic 63°C sous-vide egg has a 60-minute hold for pasteurization AND produces the loose-white custard-yolk texture simultaneously.

Fish pasteurize windows are short at sous-vide temperatures because Listeria is less heat-resistant than Salmonella: at 55°C fish pasteurizes in ~20 minutes; at 60°C in about 2 minutes. Eggs take longer because the shell slows heat penetration ~20%; for pasteurized egg products, 60-minute hold at 57°C is the Salmonella-kill target, which coincides usefully with the custard-yolk window.

What this model does not capture

Baldwin's heat-penetration approximation assumes a slab geometry. Real cuts are wedge-shaped (rib steak), round (filet mignon), irregular (lamb leg), or with bone (chicken thigh). These deviate ±15% from the slab model — the tool is accurate within that envelope for most home-cook scenarios.

Shape aside, real-cook variability sources: water circulation rate (sous-vide circulators differ; immersion cooker on high vs low), bag contents (hot water displaces faster around a single thin bag than around 6 stacked bags), evaporative loss at the water surface (cover with ping-pong balls or lid for long holds >6hr). For commercial/critical-control-point applications, use a thermocouple probe in the center of the thickest piece and hold to the log-reduction requirement directly.

What this tool EXPLICITLY does not do: ground beef (use traditional 71°C cook), shellfish in-shell (outside scope of Listeria curve), house-made charcuterie / ham curing (different pathogen control — use salt-curing tools). The tool rejects these with an "out-of-scope" flag rather than returning a misleading number.

Sources and further reading

Douglas E. Baldwin, Sous Vide for the Home Cook (Paradox Press, 2010, rev. 2012) — the canonical home-kitchen reference; pasteurize tables + heat-penetration approximation used here. Baldwin 2011, A practical guide to sous vide cooking, International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science 2(1) — peer-reviewed basis for the tables. USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, Appendix A: Compliance Guidelines For Meeting Lethality Performance Standards For Certain Meat and Poultry Products (2021 revision) — regulatory 7-log Salmonella reduction targets for poultry and pork. Nathan Myhrvold et al., Modernist Cuisine Vol.2 Ch.5 "Heat and Water" (The Cooking Lab, 2011) — thermodynamics of low-temperature cookery. For ground-meat and emulsified-product safety: FDA Food Code 2022 Ch.3-401.