A Twitter reader queried us: How long would it take to soft cook a goose egg? Good question!

As with all things sous-vide cooked, time to reach target temperature completely depends on the the distance the heat of the water bath has to cross to heat the food from edge to edge. With eggs, the critical measurement is its circumference at its ‘equator’ or widest point. That’s true regardless of type of egg from quail to ostrich! Douglas Baldwin–mathematical wizard that he is–has worked out the equations for we lesser mortals and presents the results nicely in his great book SousVide for the Home Cook giving us cooking times in quarter inch increments from 2 to 8 inches (or in those used metric measurements, in half centimeter increments from 5 to 20 cm) for the quick cooking method done at 167F/75C. Be advised that the quick cooking method of soft poaching in the shell demands precise timing, because at this temperature, if you leave them longer than the recommended time, you will have lovely hard boiled eggs. Fortunately the SousVide Supreme comes equipped with a handy built in timer that you can set, so that your precise timing won’t be a pain.

We thought it might be helpful to share that chart as a ready reference, with gratitude and full credit to Douglas Baldwin! So no matter what sort of egg you need to cook (up to an 8 inch diameter, so not the recent discovery of the giant elephant bird egg!) you need only measure and go!