Buzz
'I want eggs, Mommy'—those words will instantly break my focus and send me running to the kitchen. By the time my four-year-old says it, he’s already holding raw eggs, and if I’m not quick enough, they’ll be all over the floor. 'I’m sorry, Mommy.'
This is why I choose to pasteurize my eggs. Raw eggs may carry Salmonella bacteria, and while it's hard to assess whether the risk is incredibly rare or just 'probably not today,' it remains a concern. Every year, one million people in the U.S. get sick from Salmonella. Since children are more vulnerable to foodborne illnesses than adults, I avoid letting my kids handle raw eggs, track them around the house, and lick their fingers. A harsh truth of parenting is that this will likely happen at least once in your home.
Place the eggs in the water (no need for a plastic bag) at 135°F for 75 minutes.
You can buy pasteurized eggs, but it’s just as easy to do it yourself if you own an immersion circulator (the same tool used for sous vide cooking). Just follow Claire’s method and submerge the eggs in water (no plastic bag required) at 135°F for 75 minutes. Once done, I like to mark each egg with a letter 'P' to distinguish them from truly raw eggs in the fridge.
The eggs come out with their whites slightly cloudy and thickened. This might impact the texture of some recipes requiring raw eggs, so if you’re making something like meringue, you may want to add lemon juice or cream of tartar to help it whip.
Otherwise, they work perfectly in any recipe. I can let my kids 'help' me with making scrambled eggs without worrying about the usual reflex of wiping their hands on their shirts. I’ve also used them for making royal icing and other recipes that call for raw eggs. You can even use them for raw cookie dough, as long as you microwave the flour first (since flour can carry germs too). Whatever raw egg mishaps might happen in your house, pasteurized eggs make it a lot safer.
