In the kitchen, you often prepare dishes utilizing raw eggs. Whether you’re making mayonnaise, chocolate mousse or cookie dough ice cream, these recipes call for using raw eggs – whites or yolks.
While most eggs are perfectly fine to eat raw, there is always a very small risk that one egg might be contaminated by bacteria. According to the American Egg board, about one in every 20,000 eggs might be contaminated by Salmonella.
Naturally, eggs are surrounded by a protective layer that prevents bacteria from entering and growing. In the United States though, that protective layer is eliminated as all eggs are washed with a special detergent according to government regulations. To avoid the risk of illness, there are a few things to consider. First of all, make sure to only utilize fresh, whole, grade A or AA eggs. If the egg smells strange or if it's discolored, then throw it away. Secondly, you can pasteurize raw eggs before making dishes with them. When you pasteurize eggs you bring them up to about 140-150 degrees for 3-5 minutes depending on the age and the size of the eggs. If the temperature goes any higher you start to cook the egg. Pasteurizing eggs won’t completely eliminate the risks that eating raw eggs bring, it will however drastically reduce the chance of contamination. You can purchase pasteurized eggs at the grocery store, but it’s really easy to do yourself.
How To Pasteurize Raw Eggs
Place the eggs in a pot with cold water. Put the water on medium heat and stand by to watch as the temperature rises. You don’t want the temperature of the water to exceed 150 degrees. If you want to be exact, you can keep a thermometer probe in the water, if not 140-150 degrees is the stage before bubbles start to form. At that temperature, you can just about keep your finger in the water for a few seconds before you burn yourself. When you reach this temperature, try to keep it. So lower the heat, and watch so the temperature doesn’t rise, then keep the eggs in the water for about 3-5 minutes.
If you want to be even more careful, you can soft boil the eggs as this will work for some recipes. Some dressings for example that call for a raw egg yolk, will taste fine if you utilize a soft-boiled egg yolk, or even better sometimes. If however, you’re making chocolate mousse or parfait, then you’re better off pasteurizing the egg and not soft boiling it.
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