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The difference between "cooking" and "pasteurizing" is only a few degrees: I've seen 138F for pasteurization while 142F starts to cook. I've never heard of egg
by dsizzle 5y ago
The difference between "cooking" and "pasteurizing" is only a few degrees: I've seen 138F for pasteurization while 142F starts to cook.
I've never heard of eggnog with literally cooked eggs (chunks of egg and yolk? Yikes.). I would guess they meant "cook" in the loose sense of heat to kill bacteria (rather than cross-linking the proteins to create a solid)!
- Mikeb85 5y agoThere's literally an entire class of pastry creams involving egg yolks cooked into cream. With the proper technique it stays homogeneous. - Egg nog - Crème anglaise (and offshoots like Bavarian cream) - Crème pâtissière/pastry cream (plus offshoots like millefeuille cream) - Lemon curd - Ice cream base Anglaise, pastry cream and lemon curd also form the base for the majority of thickened cream preparations that end up in layered cakes and other pastries.
- dsizzle 5y agoAh, so you stir it while heating or dilute it enough or something and that prevents coagulation?
- Mikeb85 5y agoYou also cook it to a temperature that causes it to pasteurize, thicken but not scramble. Or add starch which prevents it from scrambling for the ones cooked to a higher temperature. You stir while cooking very slowly until it reaches a specific temperature.
- dsizzle 5y agoOh, so my guess about stirring was wrong -- that doesn't matter (was thinking it would be like stirring ice cream while freezing)? How sensitive is the homogeneity to starch concentration when heating above 142F? Are there any other parameters in the technique besides temperature and starch concentration?
- Mikeb85 5y agoNo your guess about stirring was right I just added more info and specified (coagulation does happen but different protein molecules cook at different temperatures). It's very sensitive to starch in the sense a relatively small amount of starch will prevent scrambling. Temperature and starch are the main considerations WRT not scrambling the eggs. Anglaise/ice cream/pastry cream/curd all have varying amounts of fat (milk vs cream or mix), sugar and it'll all affect the consistency.
- chomp 5y agoI sous vide mine at around those temps which is below the coagulation temperature, and makes it perfectly safe with no chunks of cooked egg.
- dsizzle 5y agoI think you need to clarify "around those temps." From what I understand, if you stay below 142F, it won't coagulate. Are you just saying that sous vide is precise enough that you can do your own pasteurization? Or are you suggesting 142F isn't quite a hard cutoff? Either way, that's good to know.
- ortusdux 5y agoA standard $100 usd Sous Vide wand can easily hold ±1°f if you use it in a small insulated cooler. I regularly use mine to pasteurize and soft-boil eggs - I like to give eggnog as gifts and I hate a solid yolk. I've never actually tested the pasteurized eggs for salmonella afterwards. I wonder what test-strips cost?
- HillRat 5y agoCommercial eggnog definitely uses pasteurized and sugared egg yolks (generally in small quantities); they come as a homogenized liquid. For home cooks who don't have access to pasteurized (or to pasteurize) eggs, or don't want to have alcohol in their drinks for the raw "real" stuff, you can always make a cooked custard base, strain it to remove any coagulated bits, and then thin it with additional dairy before serving.