Licking the spoon

(souffles are easy - nothing pretentious about them - just don't let them get a draft - easy peasy)

I agree there's nothing pretentious about souffles. There is something pretentious about claiming expertise beyond one's experience.

Yes - my kids are a bit older now - 11 and 7 and I figure a little lick ain't gonna kill them - besides I do it all the time and I can't fudge the rules for them.

And Ceasar salad (true Ceasar salad) contains raw egg.

Ooops you beat me to it - if you make it the way it is supposed to be and in most good restaurants it would be made with raw egg.

A bit of a segue but, back in the olden days when I was in gradual school, the department chairman (dean of the gradual school) insisted that everyone in the PhD program (all 10 students) meet every thur morning at the sleezy bar in the slum which was home to our academic environment, where we each and every one had a raw egg in a shot of cheap canadian whisky. This bar was hardly noted for maintaining high standards of cleanliness, I doubt the raw eggs were even refrigerated.

Most eggs pick up salmonella in the poultry processing areas, it's why
large-scale facilities have more problems. More animals smashed together makes for bigger odds. Never use an egg that has even a small crack or looks dirty. By law, even the smallest farms have to wash eggs before selling them. I wouldn't worry too much as adult if you get a case of salmonella, but children under 10, the already sick and the elderly are at risk for much more serious consequences. That said, I would worry more about things like e-coli and lysteria in meat products or the 17 year old boy who doesn't wash his hands after using the bathroom and is in charge of keeping the salad bar tidy.

Darn right!

You're right ebeth, they are excellent for cooking, but unless you doctor them up they aren't great shakes by themselves.

When I use them for a meal, I'll add them to various cominations of sauted onion, porcini mushroom, potato, avocado, tomato, bits of bacon or sausage, shredded sharp cheddar cheese (not velveeta or cheese whiz, gack) etc etc etc.
It's really very good in these ways. If you use mostly the veggies it's very healthy.

I wouldn't give raw egg containing uncooked dough to a little one, but bets are off as they get older. Or.. to immune depressed folks. On the elderly, we vary. I'm not giving up aioli any time soon.

To Sozobe, dunno. I'm sort of doubtful. Any little thing you ate differently than EG earlier in the day?
Last I heard, salmonella took some hours to cause a problem - my old boss and an employee ate sandwiches from a local deli at noon and both got violently sick in the middle of the night. They both were at work and fine the next day, to talk about it. He knew it was salmonella, not sure how, maybe the specifics of the process + a guess (he is an immunologist) or maybe he knew the history of the deli and its health reviews. I presume timing varies with whether one has a little dab of doo doo ingested, or a bunch, in terms of bacterial growth numbers, but not sure.

My memories of reading about salmonella poisoning involve big reactions, not a usual stomach upset - but maybe those are the ones that get written about.
Haven't googled to check this opinion of mine.

Mom made some home made sugar cookies last week. I think I ate more raw dough then I ate cookies... And I am still alive and cooking.

Really interesting & informative conversation, soz. I've learned a lot. Thanks.

I used to feel perfectly happy about spoon licking when I was a child. But now? Nah, just can't come at it. Even the idea of salmonella puts me off. I buy free range eggs exclusively, but you, know ..... are they really free range?

It is more likely (in my opinion) that bacterial infection will be contracted from bench tops and dish rags or cutlery.

Our lifestyle continues to harm us all. We make things (food) so "clean" that the slightest touch of an aggressive bacteria or virus makes us really sick.

Small doses of e-coli, salmonella and other agressive bacteria are actually good for us in that they build immunity in the body, Immunity that will assist us to combat larger doses if they happen.

Send your kids outside to play in the dirt. Eat as much raw cookie dough as you possibly can. pick and eat vegetables raw and direct from the garden (washng carrots under a running tap might be a good idea.) All good practices for raising your childrens immunity.

Yeah, I don't know anything for a fact either. Nothing stands out as being a possible problem except the cookie dough. Had a pretty boring day. Cereal for breakfast, water to drink throughout, I think leftover stew for lunch (no problem eating it for dinner the night before and no problem when the rest of the leftovers were eaten later... warmed up thoroughly, etc.).

Still undecided what to do in the future -- as always, trying to calibrate that line between not taking unnecessary, significant risks and not being an anal-retentive worrywart (which has its own drawbacks). Right now maybe leaning towards using Eggbeaters for recipes that might involve spoon-licking.

Now that's a good point. I'm definitely in that school of thought in general -- anti-bacterial soaps bother me and I'm very much in favor of playing in the dirt. I hadn't realized that it was an immunity/resistance thing, I thought it was more that if you are exposed, you get sick).

not intending to segue but I find it far more worrisome to consider being run over by Phoenix wearing her blue wig while driving a Olds Vista-Cruiser through the parking lot in front of the local PigglyWiggly grocery as I run in for a quick purchase of all-natural yoghurt, a quart of Silk soymilk and a half-gallon of RockyRoad ice cream. So eat the cookie dough with great relish and avoid PigglyWiggly grocery store parking lots.

I'm pretty fine on raw cookie dough, but I haven't run into that 1/20,000 bit of salmonella and the egg or the lesser numbers. I think the worry is little re toddlers, I'd still watch it, because some can be pathogenic - but I'm freaked at any effort to make toddlers germ free - their immune systems need the priming.. Those who say salmonella vary re routine in our bodies are right.

Un huh. There are even diseases that can't be acquired without a certain quantity of organisms being present. I think it's the most contageous ones that need huge quanties to reach the disease threshold. Colds and flu come to mind, and the incubation period is relatively short.

Put this in the column marked "gossip". It's just something I recall reading many years ago.

Those are viruses. Re bacteria, as in salmonella, they have a proliferation routine, mucho multiplying over hours in good conditions.

Colds and flu incubation, some can be longish. But I am talking out of my hat re viruses, haven't followed them as a subject for a while.

I saw a short doco recently comparing the general health and some specific aspects of children on a remote pacific island where food and play is not affected by western ideas on cleanliness. compared to a less remote village where most of the food was packaged and children in (i think) Brisbane Queensland. The researhers drew the conclusion that the remote children suffered not at all from asthma and certain skin rashes. Asthma and skin rashes were increased in the less remote village and highly increased in the city environment.

I am not able to find a reference to check my facts but the general direction of the research conclusions were clear. More exposure to pathogens at an earlier age improved the immune system and that when our immune system remains unchallenged it may in fact be turning on the body and creating problems in order to keep the immune system working well.