Pasteurizing your eggs for egg creme

[Free Indeed]

I’ve been reading a lot about egg creme and wanted to try them, but like others I’m a tiny bit afraid of salmonella. Soooo, I did a google and found a post at this website by someone named “doc.”

raw eggs a good idea?

BTW, all of the sources I google say the same thing that 142 degrees for about 3 minutes pasteurizes eggs or 160 degrees for less time. But this guy sounds like he knows what he is talking about. He also in his post says “If you eat non-pasteurized eggs/egg products your body cannot utilize the protein in them due to the presence of a protein inhibitor.”

It’s an interesting post – worth a read IMHO and he also tells how to pasteurize eggs. I read everywere I google that you have to heat them to 140 degrees for 3 minutes or 160 degrees for a shorter period of time, but I kept thinking that would cook the egg white. He points out that eggs don’t begin to cook until they reach about 160 degrees so it sounds like the secret to pasteurizing eggs is to hold them in water that is 140 degrees for 3 and 1/2 minutes, then put them in frig in a tightly covered container (I’m guessing so they don’t pick up frig bacteria). I cut and pasted part of his post below and anyone who is interested can go to the url above and read his entire post.

-----------doc’s post

“If you want to save some money you can do this at home.It is possible to pasteurize eggs at home - and easily, too! Pasteurization is simply a process of heating a food to a specific temperature for a specific amount of time - designed to kill specific bacteria. It is known that salmonella bacteria are killed at temperatures of 140 degrees in about 3 1/2 minutes (or a higher temperature in less time). If a room temperature egg is held in a bowl of warm water - say, 142 degrees to be safe - for 3 1/2 minutes, the bacteria will be killed and the protein inhibitor neutralized. It takes 5 minutes for extra large or jumbo eggs.

Place the room temperature eggs in a colander, and lower them into a pan or bowl of 142-degree water. Use an instant-read thermometer to be sure of the water temperature, and leave the thermometer in the water, to be sure that the temoerature is maintained. For medium or large eggs, leave them in the water for 3 1/2 minutes; for extra large or jumbo eggs, allow 5 minutes. Then remove the eggs, dry them, and refrigerate them, in a tightly-covered container.

Eggs begin to cook at about 160 degrees, and will be "scrambled eggs" at 180 - but if the 142 degree temperature is maintained, the result is a safe egg that will act like a raw egg in recipes and will provide a fully usable protein source.”

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[Madam De Leon]

I was searching for something else on here, but glad to have come across this post, since I haven't been able to find pasteurized eggs locally, and want to make my own caesar dressing, mayo, etc.

Thanks for the info!

[Free Indeed]

I looked it up for the same reason. After I found out how to pasteurize my own eggs, I go into the same market I always shop at and low and behold - they have not only pasteurized eggs but kosher pasteurized eggs now. Well, they said something about passover so they might not always have them since passover was this weekend so it's good to know I can do it myself when I need to.

Glad it helped!

[hummingbird11]

Originally Posted by Free Indeed

I’ve been reading a lot about egg creme and wanted to try them, but like others I’m a tiny bit afraid of salmonella. Soooo, I did a google and found a post at this website by someone named “doc.”

raw eggs a good idea?

BTW, all of the sources I google say the same thing that 142 degrees for about 3 minutes pasteurizes eggs or 160 degrees for less time. But this guy sounds like he knows what he is talking about. He also in his post says “If you eat non-pasteurized eggs/egg products your body cannot utilize the protein in them due to the presence of a protein inhibitor.”

It’s an interesting post – worth a read IMHO and he also tells how to pasteurize eggs. I read everywere I google that you have to heat them to 140 degrees for 3 minutes or 160 degrees for a shorter period of time, but I kept thinking that would cook the egg white. He points out that eggs don’t begin to cook until they reach about 160 degrees so it sounds like the secret to pasteurizing eggs is to hold them in water that is 140 degrees for 3 and 1/2 minutes, then put them in frig in a tightly covered container (I’m guessing so they don’t pick up frig bacteria). I cut and pasted part of his post below and anyone who is interested can go to the url above and read his entire post.

-----------doc’s post

“If you want to save some money you can do this at home.It is possible to pasteurize eggs at home - and easily, too! Pasteurization is simply a process of heating a food to a specific temperature for a specific amount of time - designed to kill specific bacteria. It is known that salmonella bacteria are killed at temperatures of 140 degrees in about 3 1/2 minutes (or a higher temperature in less time). If a room temperature egg is held in a bowl of warm water - say, 142 degrees to be safe - for 3 1/2 minutes, the bacteria will be killed and the protein inhibitor neutralized. It takes 5 minutes for extra large or jumbo eggs.

Place the room temperature eggs in a colander, and lower them into a pan or bowl of 142-degree water. Use an instant-read thermometer to be sure of the water temperature, and leave the thermometer in the water, to be sure that the temoerature is maintained. For medium or large eggs, leave them in the water for 3 1/2 minutes; for extra large or jumbo eggs, allow 5 minutes. Then remove the eggs, dry them, and refrigerate them, in a tightly-covered container.

Eggs begin to cook at about 160 degrees, and will be "scrambled eggs" at 180 - but if the 142 degree temperature is maintained, the result is a safe egg that will act like a raw egg in recipes and will provide a fully usable protein source.”

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awesome info, thanks for sharing!

[DarleenMB]

All you have to do is coddle your eggs before you use them. Bring a pan of water to a boil, dip the egg in for about 10 seconds and THEN use it. it will kill any bacteria residing on the shell.

Everyone has an opinion. That's mine.

[Madam De Leon]

After reading Free Indeed's post about pasteurizing eggs, I made the mistake of googling pasteruized eggs, to see if there was any chance that there were any pasteurized eggs available in my area stores.

There weren't of course, but at the same time, I came across dozens of sites about whether or not to attempt to pasteurize your eggs at home.

Well... one site said it's dangerous to try to pasteurize your eggs at home, another said you can coddle them instead, others said sure go ahead and pasteurize them, and here's how... so then one said they need to be 160F, another said you'll cook them at 160, just hold them at 142 for 5 minutes, another said just dip them in boiling water for a second...

Getting frustrated at the conflicting directions, I tried to find out what the risks really are: one said only the whites have the salmonella, another said only the shells have salmonella, another said the entire egg can harbor salmonella... One site said only one in every 20,000 eggs has salmonella, another said only one in every 80,000 eggs has salmonella... another said organic eggs don't ever have salmonella, another said there's no proof organics have any less salmonella than regular eggs.

I gave up at that point, it was driving me crazy.

I think I need to call some of the local stores and find out if they can possibly get pasteurized eggs to sell to me, seems there's only one company in the US that does them.

[hummingbird11]

I wouldn't worry too much. I don't! I enjoy 3 raw eggs (organic & cage free) every morning!

Check-out this article:
The Butterfly Connection
The Health Benefits of Raw Eggs

Here's an excerpt from the article:
Poisoning from salmonella has been exaggerated in the past. A study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2002 indicated that only 2.3 million, of the 69 billion eggs produced annually, are contaminated with salmonella. In other words 0.003% or 1 in every 30,000 eggs. The bulk of these come from battery chicken eggs and chickens kept in unhealthy conditions - only sick chickens lay salmonella contaminated eggs. If only healthy chicken eggs (organic and free range ideally) are consumed, then far less than one in 30,000 eggs are contaminated. Salmonella is a common micro-organism found almost everywhere, and is just as likely, or more likely, to proliferate on cooked food kept in the fridge. Infection is normally mild gastric symptoms, but in rare cases where the immune system is very low such in the elderly who have had much anti-biotic use, and the source is greatly contaminated, death can result. But such a person is highly lightly to contract one of many common micro-organisms and die from that. To give some perspective, in the highly unusual situation of contracting Salmonella, in a healthy person, an infection is nothing to worry about and is easily treated with high quality pro-biotics every half an hour until you feel better.