Sous-vide and roasting

Temperatures — the USDA safe minimum internal temperatures, and the sous-vide doneness temperatures from Douglas Baldwin’s guide.

Heating time — how long until the centre of a steak, fillet or chop is within 0.5 °C of the bath (from the fridge or frozen), by thickness and shape: a slab (steak), cylinder (loin, sausage) or sphere. This is not a pasteurisation time: food cooked below 55 °C, or not held long enough, is unpasteurised and should be eaten within 4 hours. Also the time to chill it in ice water.

Pasteurise — the time in the bath that makes the food safe, from Baldwin’s tables for beef, pork and lamb (55–66 °C), poultry (57–65 °C) and lean or fatty fish (55–60 °C), by thickness. The whole table is shown with your cell highlighted. Thickness is rounded up and the bath temperature down to the table’s rows and columns — the safe direction.

Core hold — if you measure the centre with a probe: how long it must stay at that core temperature — the FSIS table for chicken and turkey (by fat content) and the FDA Food Code table for beef, pork and lamb roasts.

Roasting — a time range for a cut and weight from the USDA FSIS charts (beef, pork, lamb, chicken, turkey), the temperature to pull it at so carry-over cooking brings it to your target, and the USDA minimum. Poultry is never pulled early: take it out once the thickest part reads 74 °C (165 °F). Use a probe thermometer; the chart only says when to start checking.

Pasteurisation is time and temperature: 60 °C held for the right time is as safe as 74 °C for an instant. The tables assume an accurate bath, food sealed and fully under water, starting at 5 °C, and food that was safe to begin with. Pasteurised food kept below 3.3 °C keeps for weeks (Baldwin); unpasteurised food is for the immune-competent, eaten within 4 hours. When in doubt, use the USDA minimums.

Sources: Douglas Baldwin, A Practical Guide to Sous Vide Cooking (douglasbaldwin.com): Tables 1.1, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3.1, 4.1, 5.1 and Appendix C (C.1: US FDA Food Code 3-401.11.B.2; C.2: USDA FSIS 2005 poultry lethality table). USDA FSIS Safe Minimum Internal Temperature Chart; FSIS "Beef / Pork / Lamb from Farm to Table" and "Chicken from Farm to Table" fact sheets; FSIS "Let’s Talk Turkey" roasting timetable.

Related: meal timing planner (time the whole meal), brines and cures, kitchen conversions (oven temperatures).

Temperatures in °C, thickness in mm, weight in grams. Add the tab after #: doneness, heat, pasteurise, hold or roast.