How to pasteurize eggs with an Anova sous vide cooker

So many wonderful recipes call for raw eggs, and pasteurized eggs helps you make a safer kitchen experience. This has been challenging at home in the past, but sous vide cookers change the game. Get out your sous vide and learn how to pasteurize eggs with an Anova sous vide cooker.

🐓 What makes this recipe special?

This brings the power of DIY egg pasteurization to your home kitchen! In-shell pasteurized eggs can be hard to find and if you do find them, they are often far more expensive than a regular dozen eggs. 

Our process allows you to buy eggs and pasteurize them right from home in just 75 minutes in your sous vide. The USDA says that mayo (along with other products) can be “safely made if raw, in-shell pasteurized eggs or pasteurized egg products are used.”

I have been dabbling with several recipes that call for raw eggs and instead of running around town to find spendy eggs, I wanted to learn how to pasteurize them myself. 

Just as the FDA recommends, I also recommend not using raw eggs unless they are pasteurized. While using the sous vide may not be as safe as using store-bought pasteurized eggs, it gives us home cooks the opportunity to make safer eggs for raw use. 

🍳 Ingredients & Equiment

This is just eggs. Nothing more to it, other than some equipment like the sous vide. 

• Eggs
• Water
• Ice

The water is used for the sous vide bath and the ice bath at the end.

🍲 Instructions

Once your sous vide bath is up to 135° Fahrenheit, carefully add your eggs to the path and allow them to cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes. This temperature and time are based on this egg safety study and sources like Douglas Baldwin.

After they are cooked, place the eggs in an ice bath to stop any further cooking. In twenty minutes or so, remove the eggs from the ice bath and dry them eggs off! Mark them with a marker or any means that will help you identify them as pasteurized. 

Some Differences between Pasteurized Eggs and non-Pasteurized Eggs

• Pasteurized eggs are safer for raw use, as they are treated to help kill salmonella.
• While egg yolks are about the same, egg whites are different. If used for meringue or whipped egg whites, they do not work quite as well. Cream of tartar or lemon juice added to the whites can allow them to act very similarly to non-pasteurized eggs. When it comes to whipping, however, they do require more whipping time.  

🤷 Substitutions and variations

You can allow the eggs to cook for longer than 75 minutes. I would not allow them to sit in the bath more than 2 hours and 30 minutes.

One thing that I think is important to note is why sous vide works so well. Pasteurization of eggs happens with two elements, time and temperature. Eggs can be pasteurized much faster than in 75 minutes, but being able to control the temperature is a major issue. 

At 140°, the egg will begin to cook, which is also something we don’t want. So, we heat it to 135° and cook it for 75 minutes to hit what should make a safer raw egg.

The amount of time needed for eggs to become pasteurized is based on the diameter of the egg. This recipe is for regular eggs and larger eggs will need more time to become safer raw eggs.

You can really use any brand of sous vide, but I really like my Anova brand sous vide cooker.

📦 Storage

Store your pasteurized eggs in the refrigerator and use them by the date on the original package. 

❓ FAQ

📝 Tips and tricks

• Do not place your eggs in a bag before putting in the sous vide. 
• Use a big slotted spoon to gently place the eggs
• Use a marker to note your eggs as ‘P’asteurized before placing back in the refrigerator. 
• Follow egg safety rules.

🛠 Products used in this recipe

• Anova Sous Vide
• Large Pot or Anova Sous Vide Bath

😋 Did you make this recipe?

Thank you so much for giving this recipe a try! I am glad you now know how to pasteurize eggs at home. Could you do me a favor by leaving a review in the comments area below? This helps me know how I am doing and helps others decide if this is their recipe. Most of all, thanks for visiting Ramshackle Pantry!