4 ms·
I don't know much about the subject, but does cooking a salmonella infected egg neutralize the bacteria?
by darxius 14y ago
I don't know much about the subject, but does cooking a salmonella infected egg neutralize the bacteria?
- ElliotH 14y agoWiki suggests that food thoroughly heated to at least 75 degrees will be free of salmonella.
- VLM 14y agoNot as many people cook with a thermometer as should... the big problem is egg whites start to coagulate around 65 or so. Your fried egg is not safe unless its frankly somewhat overcooked. If its runny, you're totally rolling the dice. I do not eat eggs, especially at restaurants, I'm tired of food poisoning (which hardly happens every time, or even occasionally, but since fried eggs are greasy and rubbery and gross and the only thing worse than fried eggs is food poisoning symptoms, I don't mind not eating them anymore). In baked goods I don't mind even though unrisen cookie dough is full of raw egg. Its too bad because from a technical standpoint I think sous vide "hard boiled" eggs would be very interesting, but not interesting enough to risk food poisoning.
- tspiteri 14y agosince fried eggs are greasy and rubbery and gross Either your eggs are terribly cooked, or you have terribly bad eggs, or we have terribly different tastes.
- mauvehaus 14y agoIt's why cooked eggnog is safe (and delicious). I'd be interested in knowing how much alcohol you'd have to put in uncooked eggnog to render it safe. The recipe in The Joy of Cooking suggests 4 to 6 cups (a liter to a liter and a half) for 18 servings. That seems like rather a lot from a drinking standpoint, but maybe not that much from a sanitizing standpoint considering that there's also 2 cups (half a liter) of heavy cream and a pound (half a kilo) of sugar.
- ars 14y agoYou can mix the egg and alcohol first, let it stand and kill the bacteria, and only then add the rest of the ingredients. (I've never made eggnog so not sure if the recipe demands a different order.)
- mauvehaus 14y agoThank you for the light bulb moment. Joy says to do exactly this "to dispel the eggy taste". I suppose that's more appealing than "to kill any bacteria that might make you ill".
- sliverstorm 14y agoRubbing alcohol is typically 80%+, so I'm not surprised if weak beer levels of alcohol are ineffective at sanitation.
- mauvehaus 14y agoAlarmingly enough, that's a liter of /liquor/ the recipe calls for. Ars picked up on the importance of mixing the eggs with it first to have a high concentration of alcohol for sanitation before adding the other stuff.
- oftenwrong 14y agoFor eggnog and other recipes that necessitate raw eggs, one can always use pasteurized eggs. It is easy to DIY if you have an immersion circulator. If not, some stores sell them now.