Licking the spoon

we were always allowed to lick the spoon .
used to love eating a raw egg - just laid by the chicken ... ...
now it may take a week or more before the eggs lands in the store ... so it's probably somewhat different . i certainly won't eat raw egg KNOWINGLY now .
perhaps we've become too fussy also .

( just read that the cooking temperatures for meat - by the Dept of Agriculture -have been too high and have now been lowered )

Ordinarily I would say what the hay?! Why not?!
But out of curiosity I Googled the subject and one of the top listings was a NYTimes editorial titled EDITORIAL
Say No to Raw Cookie Dough
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/06/opinion/06mon3.html

And read this blog from Dr. Douglas Powell, an associate professor of food safety at Kansas State University.
http://barfblog.foodsafety.ksu.edu/2009/06/articles/e-coli/possible-poop-remnants-and-nestles-raw-cookie-dough/

The raw egg in the cookie dough is likely fresher than the egg in homemade mayonnaise that people eat with little hesitation. (who eats mayo within half an hour of it being made?)

Some people eat steak tartar - raw, freshly ground steak mixed with raw egg and freshly ground black pepper.

There was something on the Food Network the other night - one of the competition shows - raw egg was a main feature of one of the dishes.

I fear not raw egg (don't love steak tartare as much as I used to, and cookie dough never turned my crank - but give me some of that homemade mayo)

Yes. And the chocolate cake batter. And a homemade eggnog. (Egg, milk, sugar, nutmeg or cinnamon, blender/mixer/fork, drink up!) The problem isn't in the raw egg itself, it's salmonella bacteria on the outside of the shell, which gets transferred in when you crack the egg. So wash the egg first, and lick away!

Give the kids the spoons? Never! I save that for myself!

we'll know more if I can check in tomorrow

I realized, after posting, that I'd had fresh garlic aioli at lunch today. I'll be this week's guinea pig.

I'm not sure that's a good analogy ehBeth, I haven't met a single person in my life who has ever made homemade mayonnaise. I don't think that many people actually do make their own mayonnaise these days.

Only once had to rush a kid to the hospital after allowing him to lick the spoon. Of course that was because he fell off the step stool he was using to reach the table and the bowl. Kid got 4 stitches. Cake baked perfectly in the residual heat of a hastily turned off oven. Live dangerously I say!

I'll have to introduce you to some of my foodie pals the next time I come to New York. There's barely anyone in that circle who would consider using a mayonnaise they hadn't made themselves.

Good restos that are serving aiolis have made them fresh - with raw eggs.

I use both, store mayo and my own homemade aioli. As an adult who has been pretty impervious to food borne illness I wouldn't think twice. Might for my young child if I had one around.

I worked at a restaurant years ago that made caesar salad table-side (big production) with raw egg yolk in the dressing. Has this gone by the wayside too?

Isn't mayo usually pasteurized? Your comparison with steak tartar is fair though.

My mother would always let us eat dough when she made cookies. Some of the doughs contained raw egg. Nothing bad ever came of it, unless you count the contribution to my overweight. I'd let Sozlet lick the spoon.

Store type mayo is pasteurized, not homemade (natch)..

noooooo homemade mayo isn't pasteurized

what kind of home cook would have pasteurization equipment?

Sapori Trattoria in Toronto still makes the traditional caesar salad with raw egg yolk in the dressing. http://www.toronto-restaurants.com/sapori.html

Some of the old-school steak houses still do it as well . Barberian's, Jacobs and Harbour 60 all come up on chowhound as making a "proper" caesar. I can't imagine Toronto's the only place where that's still happening.

I don't have kids. I like the spoon. I do not let my niece and nephew like the spoon unless they clear it with their parents. I think as the kids get older, the sister doesn't worry about it so much.

ooh, here's a neighbourhood resto where someone apparently had raw egg a coupla weeks back

http://platoputas.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/meat-eggs-at-the-citizen/

Oh -- you meant hommade mayo. Sorry, my bad.

Dammit, now I'm compulsively thinking how one would build pasteurization equipment for homecooks. I don't see why it would have to expensive. "Pasteurization equipment" is basically an oven with a feedback loop to keep the food's temperature within a very narrow range. This narrowness is the only tricky thing about it. (The food has to be warm enough to kill any bacteria on it, but cold enough to keep its own protein from denaturating. If I remember correctly, the "just right" range is 162-166 F.)

But that's nothing a good control loop couldn't handle. The electronics for it might have been too expensive a generation ago, but nowadays they're dirt cheap. Do you think there would be a demand for this kind of thing among home cooks? I know an unemployed physicist who might like to develop equipment of this sort for fun and profit.

No.

On the other hand, one can buy pasteurized eggs.