Is there any way I can sterilize my eggs without cooking them (i.e. leaving them in liquid form)? I know they can be sterilized by pasteurizing, but I can’t get a hold of egg beaters or pasteurized whites where I live.
Eh? Why?
Eggs come in a shell. They don’t need to be sterilized.
[quote]Spry wrote:
Eh? Why?
[/quote]
I think he lives in China.
[quote]
Eggs come in a shell.[/quote]
True.
[quote]
They don’t need to be sterilized.[/quote]
Unless you get one of the unlucky ones and get salmonella.
It is amazing how many people on this site ignore food-borne illnesses and decry the means we have used to eradicate them.
The OP has a legitimate concern.
Actually, I decry the sources of food-borne illness, which are conventional confinement-based livestock production systems. You are not going to get food poisoning if you are eating fresh eggs from healthy chickens.
I think the question we need to ask is why are we pasteurizing our food in the first place?
[quote]swordthrower wrote:
Actually, I decry the sources of food-borne illness, which are conventional confinement-based livestock production systems. You are not going to get food poisoning if you are eating fresh eggs from healthy chickens.
I think the question we need to ask is why are we pasteurizing our food in the first place?[/quote]
There were food-borne illnesses before we changed agricultural methods. There was also a lot less food.
Get rid of 90% of the people on the planet and we can all have safer food and cleaner drinking water without the efforts we use today.
My guess is the OP wants to consume his eggs raw to keep the proteins from breaking down in the cooking process.
Well, I don’t know if it’s true, but I heard that the actual whites and yolk of the egg are always sterile, and it’s the bacteria on the exterior of the shell that comes in contact with the whites and yolk when you crack it open that cause the problems.
If that’s true, then cleaning the exterior shell with some sort of disinfectant to kill any bacteria PRIOR to cracking it open should do the trick. Perhaps rubbing alcohol or soaking in a saline solution.
OK I found where I thought I read that the whites and yolks are always sterile. Seems I was mistaken.
http://www.eggwhitesint.com/faq.htm
(scroll down to “What is salmonella”)
According to this site, (which may be total BS) whites and yolk are free from contamination 90% of the time and MOST contamination comes from the shell.
Either way, thoroughly disinfecting the shell prior to cracking may still be highly beneficial even if it doesn’t 100% guarantee safety from illness.
[quote]swordthrower wrote:
Actually, I decry the sources of food-borne illness, which are conventional confinement-based livestock production systems. You are not going to get food poisoning if you are eating fresh eggs from healthy chickens.
I think the question we need to ask is why are we pasteurizing our food in the first place?[/quote]
Well, the reason that they started pasteurizing milk was due to the filthy conditions in the dairy factories. However, with the hygenic conditions in modern facilities this is no longer a problem. Pasteurization destroys a lot of good enzymes in dairy. Luckily, I live in California where it’s legal to sell raw dairy products.
I don’t drink milk, but I do eat raw butter and cheese. In addition to any added nutritional value, raw butter tastes so much better than regular butter. Then again, maybe it’s the fact that it comes from grass-fed cows and not the fact that it is raw that makes it taste so good.
An interesting book that goes in-depth on this subject is “The Untold Story of Milk” by Ron Schmid.
[quote]Zap Branigan wrote:
Spry wrote:
Eh? Why?
I think he lives in China.
[/quote]
Really? I missed that.
Rinsing the shell before cracking the egg open would be good enough.
You don’t have to sterilize them. How did we eat eggs before 1900 (or when ever some bright spark learned all about bacteria and heat and shit)?
[quote]entheogens wrote:
I don’t drink milk, but I do eat raw butter and cheese. In addition to any added nutritional value, raw butter tastes so much better than regular butter. Then again, maybe it’s the fact that it comes from grass-fed cows and not the fact that it is raw that makes it taste so good.
[/quote]
What’s the going rate for raw dairy products?
[quote]Schwarzenegger wrote:
What’s the going rate for raw dairy products?[/quote]
It is quite expensive. I don’t remember off-hand how much raw milk is (since I dont drink it I dont pay attention). The 16 ounce (453 gram) grass-fed raw butter I have cost me around 10 or 11 dollars.
I’ll get back to you tomorrow on the prices,as I will visit the store tonight. At the Whole Foods Market here, you can get raw butter, raw cheese, raw cream, raw milk and even raw colostrum. All are from cow, although they do sell some raw goat chesses.
Unfortunately, I don’t see raw yogurt (which I could eat). Maybe I should buy some of the milk and make yogurt on my own.
[quote]Spry wrote:
Really? I missed that.
In my profile.
[quote]Rinsing the shell before cracking the egg open would be good enough.
You don’t have to sterilize them. How did we eat eggs before 1900 (or when ever some bright spark learned all about bacteria and heat and shit)?
[/quote]
We have been cooking meat for quite a while before 1900s. Why? People probably got sick from not cooking meat (and eggs) and quickly pieced together that every time they ate eggs, they got sick. You don’t need a sophisticated Germ Theory to figure that out.
[quote]Fiction wrote:
We have been cooking meat for quite a while before 1900s. Why? People probably got sick from not cooking meat (and eggs) and quickly pieced together that every time they ate eggs, they got sick. You don’t need a sophisticated Germ Theory to figure that out.[/quote]
There is no definitive evidence for why we began eating meat, or even why we began cooking it, but based on anthropological evidence the following is the most popular theory. Humanoids (Australopithecus) used to be scavengers and would eat food as they came across it, though this included only very small portions of meat as they came across dead carcasses. As these humanoids developed over time and gained intelligence they began eating more meat.
Based on estimated brain size, profiles of teeth, and archaeological food remains (trash) of these humanoids, their brain size and the intake of meat simultaneously dramatically increased. This time corresponds with the emergence of humans as we know them (Homo), which had much larger brains and thus intelligence, problem solving, etc.
Homo was much less of a scavenger-only people, as they frequently transported food with them in order to travel long distances with nourishment. While the exact reasons behind cooked meat are unknown, it is known that cooked meat became more mainstream as Homo became more mobile, and would make sense as cooked meat is more easily digestible and allows for longer storage times.
A sophisticated Germ Theory breaks down here, as that really had nothing to do with the development of cooking meat, though indirectly I guess “germs” would lead to meat going rancid in storage.
[quote]Spry wrote:
…
You don’t have to sterilize them. How did we eat eggs before 1900 (or when ever some bright spark learned all about bacteria and heat and shit)?
[/quote]
I think people cooked them.
[quote]entheogens wrote:
…
Well, the reason that they started pasteurizing milk was due to the filthy conditions in the dairy factories. However, with the hygenic conditions in modern facilities this is no longer a problem. …[/quote]
Kind of funny, in recent days people have been complaining on our filthy modern practices.
I agree with you on milk. Things are pretty clean and raw milk can be tested for problems. Is it in California?
It is unlikely that egss can be effectively tested so eating uncooked eggs is a risk.
[quote]Schwarzenegger wrote:
What’s the going rate for raw dairy products?[/quote]
Ok, checked this morning. For 8 dollars you can get 1.8 litres of raw milk (grass fed cows).
[quote]Zap Branigan wrote:
Kind of funny, in recent days people have been complaining on our filthy modern practices.
[/quote]
I watched a History Channel special on the meat industry the other night, and I was surprized at how clean and sanitary things were…at least in terms of the conditions. Of course, the cow bits getting in the feed is another problem. Aside from that, it would appear that we are far away from the days of Sinclair Lewis. Obviously I am just going by appearances. May be deceiving.
Yes, it is in California. It is my understanding that the raw dairy farms are held up to more scrutiny than regular dairy farms…and understandably so.
Hmm, the Georgia Egg Commission says you can pasteurize them yourself.
[quote]HoratioSandoval wrote:
Hmm, the Georgia Egg Commission says you can pasteurize them yourself.
http://www.georgiaeggs.org/pages/pasteurization.html
[/quote]
Good find!
i want to fertilize my eggs, how should i go about doing that?