Question About Cake Bible And Raw Eggs?
Decorating By brittanydear Updated 12 Jul 2007 , 5:23am by CoreyV
So,
I just got the cake bible and am super-excited. I would love to make the recipes for the buttercream. However, I have noticed that the classic buttercream and neoclassic buttercream contain uncooked egg yolks. What is up with that? In this day in age of all the food poisioning scares and salmonella outbreaks, does anyone actually still make these?
If you do, do you offer some disclaimer- contains uncooked eggs - eldery, children, pregnant women, and peopel with comprised immune systems should avoid (I always see this on menus and appreciated it when Iwas pregnant, as getting sick coudl be REALLY bad then)? I would really love to try these, but am scared too, plus I would feel bad serving them to friends without warning them, but then that seems like to much of a downer - enjoy your cake, it has raw eggs in the frosting which could make you sick!
From what I could tell, almost none of the buttercreams in her book reach 160.
Where do you get pasteurized egg yolks? Is the stuff safe to use if it is pasteurized? Thanks!!!
if you use pastuerized eggs, then it is completely safe. I learned in school that the sugar you add to the egg yolks/whites "cooks" the eggs and makes them safe for consumption. That being said, I remember always using pasteurized egg product anyway. I know at a bakery I worked at all we ever used for swiss meringue buttercream was real egg whites. Im not to sure on what the health codes require for eggs in meringues and buttercreams, but my chef swore that the fresh egg whites whipped up better and it was a very popular upscale bakery and never once had a problem. Now I want to investigate this further. Hmmmm....
On page 237 there is a brief snippet about egg safety, but it doesn't go into much detail. It's in the "Understanding" section of the "Classic Egg White Chocolate Buttercream" recipe.
Bec
I always use pasteurized egg whites for bc recipes that call for whites. Be aware that the cartons specifically say that they won't "whip up" for meringues...that's not true, they actually do, you just usually have to whip it longer. Powdered ew work very well too, tastes almost exactly the same (only discernable difference is if the frostings are side by side). That stuff smells to high heaven when you first whip it up but the final frosting is 100% delicious.
I can't speak for egg YOLK recipes though. I agree, I wouldn't dare use a raw one. Most food safety sites will agree that it is unlikely the temp reaches high enough to kill the scary things. Salmonella incidents are like, 1 in 20,000 but I don't care, I don't want my cake to be the 1 in 20,000!
I don't know if they sell pasteurized yolks???
Undercooked eggs are generally a minor concern as far as food safety goes. I am a food safety zealot but not at the expense of making quality dishes. I serve and eat "undercooked" omelets and beef, sushi, ceviche and heaven forbid unpasteurized cheese (when I am lucky enough to find it). That being said pasteurized eggs are 100%safe to use raw. If you are feeling saucy buy some pasteurized eggs and have a breakfast of champions like Rocky did in the movies
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