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I've been thinking of pasteurizing eggs, which requires heating them to a specific range of temperatures for a continuos set of time.

I thought about finding a sort of electric kettle that has heat-preserving abilities in order to reach at simple consistent results, but looking online I can find only products aimed specifically at the Chinese market for making sorts of herbal teas with either a small set of predefined temperatures or at intervals of 5° Celsius up to 100, which might fall on a good egg-pasteurizing temperature, but that's still not as good as a higher resolution approach would have been (and I don't know if it's even accurate enough in its temperature-keeping). Also, because these products are in Chinese and their information is not clearly translated, I'm not sure they even work in the required manner.

I think in essence a sous vide can be used, but they seem rather expensive while in the product I have in mind is a simple small thermostatically-adjustable electric pot of-sorts.

Anything like this exists?

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  • I bought a 900 watt aNova wifi enabled sous video unit for $69 back in 2017. Attached to a half size steam table pan, in a plywood case, it'd do just what you want. Unfortunately prices have doubled and tripled since then. You can still buy high wattage digital thermostats and submersible heating coils for cheap. Get a steam table pan and a circulator pump, and you should be ready to roll for under $100. -No Arduino or Raspberry required.
    – Wayfaring Stranger
    Apr 28, 2021 at 23:32
  • Is there any reason why a (laboratory) water bath wouldn't do? They serve the same purpose and I can see some on Amazon for a third of the price of the ones marketed specifically for sous vide.
    – tardigrade
    Apr 29, 2021 at 6:58
  • @tardigrade Seems like an interesting solution, but I see only one on Amazon which is relatively cheap compared to sous vides, and also I don't know what materials are these usually made of. Is cooking an edible (even if within a shell) inside it in open water safe?
    – TLSO
    Apr 29, 2021 at 7:06
  • Sorry, that was meant to be part of my question: are you cooking the eggs inside a container (plastic bag etc) or whole and "loose"? Also just noticed some cheaper sous vide examples, so the price difference might not be worth it...
    – tardigrade
    Apr 29, 2021 at 7:10
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    I'd happily use @tardigrade's suggestion of a water bath, but if you're worried you could put the eggs in a pyrex kitchen jug (or just a mug) inside the water bath, with more water inside, neither waterline up to the top of the vessel
    – Chris H
    Apr 29, 2021 at 9:26

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You need to hold an egg at 57C for two hours to pasteurize it. At this point, it will appear as close to raw (and yet safe) as possible. Take it to 60C and the white begins to set. So, especially for eggs, precision is essential. There is a good chart on this page to get you in the ballpark. You really need the sort of stability that will keep you within a degree or so of your target temperature. This is, of course, the beauty of sous vide. These days, you can pick an immersion circulator (what people call "sous vide") up for well under $100US. I see Amazon has one for $45US. There are other devices, like induction burners with temperature probes, or combi-ovens, but the price point is significantly higher.

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  • I now read that a small percentage of the proteins in the egg white do begin to coagulate at 60° Celsius, although the majority of its mass requires a higher temperature. But perhaps it's still of significance in some usages. Some directions talked about reaching 60° or even a bit more for short periods of time, so I'm not sure what results these methods might get. Unfortunately the sous vide you referred to seems to experience many issues according to the reviews.
    – TLSO
    Apr 28, 2021 at 22:20
  • I wonder why an accurate heating mechanism, which likely just involves in the sous vide an adjustable thermostat that shuts the heating element off when arriving at the goal temperature, isn't available in a simple electric-cooker solution? I understand the water-circulation of a sous vide machine would help in situations where a greater volume of water is needed to be heated evenly, but it seems bulky and expensive for when something in the form of a small pot would suffice.
    – TLSO
    Apr 28, 2021 at 22:26
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    I can't imagine you can get accuracy without the circulation.
    – talon8
    Apr 28, 2021 at 22:40
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    @TLSO With eggs, you want that propeller caged.
    – Wayfaring Stranger
    Apr 28, 2021 at 23:36
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    @TLSO re I wonder why an accurate heating mechanism, which likely just involves in the sous vide an adjustable thermostat that shuts the heating element off when arriving at the goal temperature, isn't available in a simple electric-cooker solution? was discussed recently in the context of Which machine/ product would be best for melting then maintaining sugar mixture at constant temperature?
    – Chris H
    Apr 29, 2021 at 9:20

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