Times, temps and safety
Community · 6 threads
Target temperatures, how long is too long, and the is-it-safe questions.
Every cook who buys a circulator arrives at the same three questions: what temperature, for how long, and is that actually safe. This is where readers ask them out loud, and where the answers get held to a higher standard than the rest of the board, because a wrong steak is just dinner while a wrong safety answer is not.
5 replies · 260 views · last reply by tessak, Aug 30, 2026
6 replies · 300 views · last reply by weeknightdad, Aug 5, 2026
4 replies · 220 views · last reply by tessak, Jul 11, 2026
5 replies · 300 views · last reply by garagegriller, Jul 5, 2026
5 replies · 340 views · last reply by tessak, Jun 28, 2026
4 replies · 470 views · last reply by weeknightdad, Oct 18, 2025
The ground rules under every answer here
If you read one thing before posting a safety question, make it this: pasteurisation is a time and temperature pair, not a single magic number. Lower temperatures can be perfectly safe when food is held there long enough, and the clock only starts once the core of the food reaches the bath temperature, which is governed by thickness, not weight. Most of the confusion in this section dissolves once that clicks.
The moderators repeat two rules in almost every thread, and they're worth internalising. Numbers come from reputable published tables, not from a half-remembered forum reply, this one included. And anyone at the table who is pregnant, immunocompromised, very young, or elderly gets food cooked to the standard conservative temperatures, no exceptions and no negotiating.
The times and temperatures guide collects the numbers this section keeps reaching for, and the food safety guide explains the reasoning behind them, which is the part that actually wins the argument at your own dinner table.