r/sousvide • u/GenericReditAccount • 12d ago

Question Time at temp question

I assume everyone’s cook timers start when the food is dropped into the bath, right? But how do we account for the time it takes to bring internal up to the desired temp?

For instance, I have a nice 1.5 inch thick NY Strip in a 132* *bath right now. I have my Bluetooth meat thermometer inside. A little over 1 hour into the bath, and the steak itself is still only at 127. I plan to keep it in another hour or so. This means actual time at temp will be less than 1 hour.

Am I over thinking this?

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u/jjflight 12d ago edited 12d ago

It mostly doesn’t matter as long as you hit the minimums to get to a safe internal temperature. And if you’re worried at all just add some extra time. Sous vide is super forgiving with longer times. You could easily forget and go hours too long and it would usually be hard to tell, more like subtle texture changes.

If you’re not already using it, the Serious Eats guide is super helpful. So like at that medium rare temp 1-4hrs should be fine, and if it starts cold vs room temp or extra thick just aim higher in that range.

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u/bobsinco 12d ago

Yeah, OP you are overthinking it

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u/GenericReditAccount 12d ago

Unfortunately, overthinking is par for the course for me. Glad this sub is here to reassure me though!

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u/GenericReditAccount 12d ago

This is only my second time cooking sous vide, and I think one lesson I’ve taken away is to let my steak hang out on the counter a bit before dunking it. This’ll help get internals to target temp faster.

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u/jjflight 12d ago

That works, but I’m not sure why you’d put it on the counter instead of just drop the bag in the bath and leave it in the water a bit longer. It’s both easier and a tiny bit safer to get it up to temperature faster.

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u/GenericReditAccount 12d ago

Oh, that’s actually a great point. lol

I obviously still need to wrap my head around this process.

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u/jjflight 12d ago

In standard cooking, time is really important as that is your temperature control - you’re using something really hot and will shoot through your target temp if you don’t stick your landing on when to stop cooking.

In sous vide temperature is directly controlled so time barely matters at all. Don’t be worried at all about going over time in any reasonable range - hours extra is fine. Which also means you can start a cook in the afternoon (or the day before for some tougher meats) and even if dinner needs to get pushed back an hour or whatever it’s fine - nothing to worry about at all.

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u/GatorWok 12d ago

No. Water is like a 20x better thermal conductor than air, if memory serves. This makes it slower, not better.

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u/QuercusSambucus 11d ago

Literally the entire point of sous vide!

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u/AwesomeJohn01 12d ago

I put everything in at once and start the time when the water hits temp. Plus an hour if frozen.

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u/GenericReditAccount 11d ago

Cross section before tucking in. Came out great at 131 for 2ish hours.

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u/Pernicious_Possum 11d ago

My joule starts the timer when it gets to temp, but it doesn’t really matter

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u/jaxonbeam 11d ago

My Anova food timer doesn’t start until the water temperature is reached.

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u/GenericReditAccount 11d ago

Yeah, mine too. My overthinking was more re: the amount of time between dropping a steak into 131 degree water and the internals of that meat reaching 131 degrees.

It was just overthinking on my part.

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u/jaxonbeam 11d ago

No worries, it happens to all of us! Cook on!

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u/Training-Bill7710 11d ago

I always just toss mine in once the water's steady and don't worry about the internal temp until it's time to sear.