Here’s how you can pasteurize eggs at home on the stovetop.
Why Pasteurize Eggs?
You may be wondering: why pasteurize eggs at all? The reason is salmonella. We largely associate salmonella with chicken meat, but raw and partially-cooked chicken eggs can carry salmonella bacteria, too. And lots of absolutely fabulous recipes—mayonnaise, royal icing, hollandaise—call for raw or partially cooked eggs. How big of a risk is salmonella infection via eggs? Billions of eggs are produced commercially in the U.S. every year, and while the American Egg Board reports that only one in 20,000 commercially produced eggs may contain salmonella bacteria, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration estimates 79,000 cases of food-borne illness and 30 deaths annually can be traced to eating eggs contaminated with Salmonella. This is why the CDC recommends pregnant women, adults older than 65, infants, young children, and people with compromised immune systems avoid eating raw (or undercooked) eggs. What if your eggs are farm fresh? Aren’t eggs supposed to be totally protected from bacteria as long as they’re still in the shell? Well, no. Salmonella can exist on the outer eggshell and spread to the egg once the shell is broken. But salmonella can also be in the egg white and yolk of a totally intact egg. You can’t count on freshly cracked eggs being safe. So, do you have to swear off chocolate mousse and Caesar salad for life? Gladly, no. If you don’t want to take any chances, pasteurized eggs are the answer! Pasteurizing brings eggs to a temperature that kills dangerous pathogens.
Are Unpasteurized Eggs Safe?
You can crunch the stats many ways and still come out with different outcomes for possible risks. We live in a world where eating peanut butter or raw onions can give you salmonella. Real talk: I eat unpasteurized raw and undercooked eggs from time to time, but I also have a great immune system and like breaking rules. Would I feed raw or undercooked eggs to someone else unless I knew they were okay with it? No. The vagaries with all this fade away if you simply decide to stick with pasteurized eggs when you’re making recipes with raw or undercooked eggs. The choice is up to you.
Can You Buy Pasteurized Eggs?
Some grocery stores sell refrigerated in-shell pasteurized eggs, though not all stores carry them. Look for them next to the regular eggs. Pasteurized liquid whole eggs sold in cartons are another option, but only for recipes calling for whole eggs. Egg white powder and meringue powder are pasteurized and will work in recipes like royal icing.
Pasteurizing Eggs on the Stove
The only surefire way to pasteurize eggs at home is out of the shell. Put the whites, yolks, or cracked whole eggs in a saucepan over low heat (or, for egg whites, a heatproof bowl over pan of simmering water) with either a portion of the liquid or sugar from the recipe. Stir the eggs the entire time as you heat them, using a silicone spatula to scrape the bottom of the pan or bowl. Once the eggs reach 160°F, proceed with the recipe. If the eggs need to be cold, set the pan or bowl in a bowl of ice water and stir until cool.
Why You Shouldn’t Pasteurize In-Shell Eggs Yourself
For in-shell eggs to be pasteurized, the entire egg (including the center of the yolk) needs to reach 140°F, and then be held at 140°F for 3.5 minutes. If the center of the yolk drops below 140°F, the timing of the 3.5 minutes needs to be re-started from the beginning. We spoke with Elisa Maloberti, a food safety expert with the American Egg Board. She explained how it’s all but impossible to know when the center of the yolk still in its shell reaches 140°F, which makes DIY in-shell pasteurization methods shaky. (Many home pasteurization methods found online call for placing whole, in-shell eggs in a bath of 140°F water and holding the water at that temperature for the 3.5 minutes.) But there are just too many variables involved in using a water bath method at home for it to be effective. What about sous vide? Even though a home immersion circulator allows much more accurate temperature control than stovetop cooking, Maloberti still advises against it. The pasteurizing methods used commercially are highly regulated, using precision equipment and constant monitoring, than anything you can do at home in the shell. So if you’re pasteurizing eggs yourself, do it out of the shell with the methods we share below. These procedures weredeveloped for home cooks by the American Egg Board.
How to Pasteurize Whole Eggs Out of the Shell
Note: You’ll need a small saucepan and an instant-read or candy thermometer.
How to Pasteurize Egg Yolks
How to Pasteurize Egg Whites
Note: Pasteurized egg whites take longer to beat to soft peaks than unpasteurized whites. You definitely need all the help here — lemon juice or cream of tartar, some sugar or salt, anything to help the meringue get structure. (For example, in our Hollandaise sauce, which calls for 3 egg yolks, you can add the tablespoon each of lemon juice and water called for in the recipe, plus an additional 4 tablespoons.)
