You can pasteurize eggs at home by holding them in a precisely controlled water bath at 135°F (57°C) for 75 minutes. This process reduces Salmonella to safe levels without fully cooking the egg. It’s worth noting upfront that the USDA says the equipment to pasteurize shell eggs properly “isn’t available for home use” and warns it’s very difficult to do without partially cooking the egg. Commercial processors use tightly controlled systems approved by the FDA. That said, many home cooks do pasteurize eggs successfully using a sous vide circulator or careful stovetop monitoring, and the method below reflects the temperature and time parameters used in commercial pasteurization.
Why Home Pasteurization Is Tricky
Egg whites begin to set at around 144°F, and yolks start thickening at about 149°F. The pasteurization window sits just below those thresholds, which means you’re working with very little margin. Research published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology shows that effective Salmonella destruction in shell eggs requires temperatures between roughly 130°F and 140°F (53°C to 60°C), with hold times ranging from under 10 minutes to several hours depending on the exact temperature. At the lower end of that range, you need longer hold times to compensate.
The challenge is that Salmonella can actually become harder to kill if the egg heats up too slowly. When the internal temperature rises gradually from room temperature to 122°F (50°C) over about 20 minutes, the bacteria mount a strong heat-stress response, essentially armoring themselves against the coming heat. Faster heating (reaching 122°F in about 10 minutes) triggers far less of this protective response. This is one reason a preheated, stable water bath works better than slowly warming a pot of water with eggs already in it.
Equipment You Need
The single most important tool is a way to hold water at a steady temperature for over an hour. A sous vide immersion circulator is ideal because it continuously monitors and adjusts the water temperature. Some multi-cookers with sous vide modes also work. You can use a regular pot on the stove, but you’ll need to babysit the temperature constantly, which is where most home attempts go wrong.
You also need a reliable digital thermometer. Most food thermometers are accurate to within 2 to 4 degrees Fahrenheit, which matters a lot when your target is 135°F and egg whites start cooking at 144°F. Before you begin, calibrate your thermometer: fill a glass with ice, add water, stir, and submerge the probe at least two inches deep for 30 seconds. It should read 32°F. If it doesn’t, adjust it or account for the offset.
Step-by-Step Water Bath Method
Start with eggs at room temperature. If they’re coming straight from the refrigerator, add 10 to 15 minutes to the total time. Cold eggs take longer to reach the target internal temperature, and that extra time accounts for the delay.
Fill your pot or container with 10 to 14 cups of water. If using a sous vide circulator, clip it to the side and set it to 135°F (57°C). Let the water reach and stabilize at that temperature before adding the eggs. If using the stovetop, heat the water to 135°F, then gently lower the eggs in. You’ll need to check the water temperature every few minutes and adjust the burner to stay as close to 135°F as possible. Even a few degrees too high will start cooking the whites.
Once the eggs are in the water, set a timer for 75 minutes. For refrigerator-cold eggs, go 85 to 90 minutes. During this time, the heat slowly penetrates the shell and brings the interior up to a temperature that destroys Salmonella. Commercial pasteurization aims for at least a 5-log reduction, meaning it kills 99.999% of the bacteria present.
When the timer goes off, transfer the eggs immediately to a bowl of ice water. Let them sit for about 10 minutes. This stops any residual cooking and brings the eggs back to a safe storage temperature quickly. Skipping this step risks overcooking the outer portions of the white.
How to Tell If It Worked
A properly pasteurized egg looks almost identical to a raw egg when cracked open. The whites may appear very slightly milky or cloudier than usual, but they should still be liquid, not opaque or set. If any part of the white looks solid or rubbery, the temperature was too high or the eggs were left in too long. Those eggs are still safe to eat but are partially cooked rather than truly pasteurized.
There’s no home test to confirm Salmonella has been eliminated. You’re relying entirely on maintaining the correct temperature for the full duration. This is why a sous vide setup is strongly preferred over stovetop guessing. If your water dipped to 125°F for 20 minutes in the middle, you cannot be confident the eggs are pasteurized.
What Changes in Pasteurized Eggs
Pasteurization partially denatures some of the proteins in egg whites. For most cooking purposes (scrambles, omelets, baking, custards), you won’t notice a difference. But if you’re planning to whip egg whites into meringue or angel food cake, expect lower volume and less stability. Research comparing pasteurized and unpasteurized egg whites found that pasteurized whites had significantly lower foaming stability, producing cakes with less volume and a denser texture. The proteins that trap air bubbles during whipping are partially unfolded by the heat treatment, so they don’t hold their structure as well.
On the other hand, pasteurized eggs form slightly firmer gels when cooked, which can be an advantage in custards and quiches. For recipes that call for raw or barely cooked eggs (Caesar dressing, homemade mayonnaise, tiramisu, cookie dough), pasteurized eggs are exactly what you want.
Storage After Pasteurization
Refrigerate pasteurized eggs immediately after the ice bath. They keep for three to five weeks in the refrigerator, roughly the same as regular store-bought eggs. Mark them with a pencil so you can distinguish them from unpasteurized eggs. Even though commercial pasteurized eggs don’t technically require refrigeration, keeping them cold preserves quality and provides an extra margin of safety, especially for home-processed eggs where the treatment may be less uniform than a factory process.
Methods That Don’t Work Well
Microwaves are not suitable for egg pasteurization. They have limited penetration depth and heat unevenly, meaning parts of the egg could reach cooking temperatures while other areas remain below the pasteurization threshold. This creates both a food safety risk and a quality problem.
Running eggs under hot tap water, briefly dipping them in boiling water, or using a dishwasher cycle are sometimes suggested online but none of these methods maintain a controlled temperature for long enough to reliably kill Salmonella throughout the yolk, which is where the bacteria are most likely to be found.
If you don’t have the equipment to hold a precise temperature for over an hour, commercially pasteurized eggs are available at many grocery stores. They’re typically stamped with a “P” inside a circle on the shell or labeled clearly on the carton.