Why am I so intimidated?

[Ember]

The answer to most of these concerns is quite simply read the Sous Vide Bible:

A Practical Guide to Sous Vide Cooking

It explains pasteurisation. It gives you tables for the temperatures and how long to achieve pasteurisation for a given thickness of meat or poultry at any given temperature.

Times for pasteurisation are in addition to the time to reach temperature equilibrium (when the core of product cooking has reached the same temperature as the bath) which can be roughly calculated by one hour per inch of thickness.

Still worried? Invest in a quality instant read digital thermometer.

The variation in the times given has been covered many times on this forum. Here’s just one of them:

Many steaks at once

A little about time selection… ‘Doneness’ is a function of temperature. So it is a matter of selecting a temperature that will produce the finish that you like. For your medium rare 129F is a good starting point. Time is more flexible. Firstly, you need to cook your steak long enough for the centre to reach the desired temperature (which is where the thickness comes into the calculation). The warmth moves through the meat at approximately 1/2 inch per half hour. So the minimum suggested time …