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From: kleonard@gvlv1.gvl.unisys.com (Ken Leonard)
Newsgroups: rec.food.cooking,sci.bio,rec.gardens
Subject: Re: Mayonaise (Homemade)
Message-ID: <800@gvlv2.GVL.Unisys.COM>
Date: 10 Jul 90 12:44:59 GMT
References: <629@iss-rb.SanDiego.NCR.COM>
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Reply-To: kleonard@gvlv1.UUCP (Ken Leonard)
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Organization: Unisys Defense Systems, NISD, Great Valley Laboratory
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In article <629@iss-rb.SanDiego.NCR.COM> donnam@palomar.SanDiego.NCR.COM (Donna Mitchell) writes:
* Question to people who make their own mayonaise:  What do you do about 
* the raw egg?!!!  Because of recent warning against them, what do you
* do to them to make them safe?
--
Well, first, the hazard is that bacteria, particularly salmonella, which
are present on the outside of virtually any egg, might get into the food
and have opportunity to grow to siginficant numbers (or produce a
significant amount of waste-toxin) before the food is consumed.
--
So, when intending to use (essentially/nearly) raw eggs...
==Use only eggs which have no cracks in the shell,
==Rinse and wipe the eggs (tepid water and a "dobie pad" are quite enough),
==Crack carefully, so that nothing "outside" gets "inside,"
==Use soonest and/or keep well refrigerated.
All of which are easy enough to do for home cooking quantities.
--
It is true, as another poster(s) said, that the big hazard is in
large-quantity (i.e. institutional) cooking where things might sit around
at room temp for a long time before cooking, where cooking might not
be very thorough, where hazards tend to multiply faster than bacteria, anyhow.
--
We make our own mayo frequently, only in small batches because who wants
3-day-old mayo anyhow, always well chilled because who wants soupy mayo,
always the uncooked kind because it's the best tasting.
--
Public health authorities tend to be emphatic about such warnings because
how else do they get _anyone_ to listen _at_all_.  And newspapers (etc.)
tend to sensationalize a bit because that's what sells.  
--
The best bet, as usual, is to read/ask/dig enough to get down to the
reason/origin/root of the problem--which lets one make a reasonable/reasoned
evaluation of the hazard in one's own actual situation and, then, take
reasonable steps to deal with it. (Like using undamaged eggs and making sure
they are clean and using good preparation procedures)
--
Gee, there are _so_many_ areas of food-preparation where all this applies!
----------------------
regardz,
Ken
((do it right, and ENJOY))