Salmonella or any other bacteria that might infect eggs, and pasteurizing eggs also solves the

problem. All liquid egg products (shelled and sold in bulk either whole or separately as egg

white and yolk) must be pasteurized in the U.S. They heat liquid eggs to 140°F (60°C) for 3½

minutes, a temperature not high enough to coagulate either the white or the yolk, but high

enough to destroy the bacteria.

Studies since the food poisoning episodes of the 1980s show that the infection rate from

eggs is extremely low, perhaps one in 10,000. Even if you eat an infected egg, you are getting a

relatively small number of bacteria if the egg has been handled properly all along the distribution

route. Salmonella doesn’t multiply in cold temperatures, and it takes millions of bacteria to make

a healthy person sick.

Unlike in a commercial kitchen setting, where contamination can become a problem, you

can control the risk at home by handling eggs appropriately. I still don’t recommend you use raw

eggs. But hard-boiled eggs and runny omelets are perfectly safe. Cooking eggs at 145°F (63°C)

for 15 seconds kills all harmful bacteria. Since egg white coagulates between 144°and 149°F

(63°and 66°C), you have reached the safe temperature by the time the whites are no longer

liquid. Yolks coagulate at a higher temperature, so the egg is perfectly safe to eat even if the yolk

is a little runny. When cooking an omelet or scrambled eggs, keep in mind that the combined

white and yolk coagulate at about 156°F (69°C). Once the mixture becomes solid (and dry),

you’ve gone well beyond the safety factor. You can take a perfectly safe omelet off the heat

when it is just barely set.

When in an unbroken eggshell, the egg is only slightly perishable. Once you crack the

eggshell, what’s inside becomes as perishable as dairy products and meats. Separated egg whites,

however, remain safe even raw. Bacteria doesn’t grow in the white, partly because it is not a

nourishing environment to bacterial growth, but also because it contains an enzyme (lysozyme),

which inhibits bacterial growth. Don’t worry about the little floating islands of beaten sweet raw

white foam on top of eggnog in a punch bowl or folded into mousse and fruit fools. Egg yolk, on

the other hand, is very hospitable to bacteria, even more so at warm temperatures.

Egg cookery

Cooking an egg properly is not as easy as boiling water. You can ruin eggs, or dishes

containing eggs, in seconds, and there’s no bringing them back to edible. The major problem in

cooking eggs is that they are as sensitive to heat as rubber—and heat them too fast or just a little

too long, and they’ll will be like eating rubber. But first let’s explore their uses.

Besides being a good source of nutrition, eggs also perform three culinary tasks with

profound significance in western cookery:

1. Binding—for example, in custards the yolks and whites act together to thicken and

bind other ingredients in the liquid. You activate this by low heat until both coagulate,

solidify and incorporate the rest of the ingredients into their structure.

2. Emulsifying—for example, in mayonnaise, salad dressings and hollandaise sauce. It is

the egg yolk that permanently suspends oil in water. Yolk is an emulsion, which makes it

an efficient emulsifier with other ingredients. Emulsions are complex systems that form

according to physical and chemical laws.

3. Foaming—as in sponge cakes and soufflés. The albumen in the egg white is able to

hold enormous quantities of air in its structure when you beat it, and it forms a semi-

stable foam. Here beaten egg whites act alone in two similar capacities—as leavener to

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