I don't usually watch Good Eats on FoodTV network, but I watched it tonight because he was making Egg Nog. Since he gets scientific about the stuff he cooks, I said to myself, well, let see what he has to say about Egg Nog.

Well, sure enough, he talked about the issue of eggs in Egg Nog and the risk of getting sick from it.

He said that because of issues of government ruling on the unsave consumption of raw eggs, that you could "cook" the egg mixture with milk mixture until it reaches 160 degrees.

He first boiled the milk mixture and then added the beaten eggs with the sugar into it. Then he took the temp on it to make sure it had reached 160.

He however did do the recipe without cooking the eggs and drank it in front of the TV viewers to show that it was okay, but did say that because of government regulations, he had to show the other way of doing it, for those who were worried about getting sick from it.

Oh, he uses the whole egg in the recipe, and beats the egg whites separately. He said you could use pasteuirzed egg whites when using the cooking egg yolk method.

I saw this the other day and found it very interesting. Alton always does a good job of giving you the scientific reasoning behind cooking!

I've also heard the gazillion odds of getting sick from an undercooked egg, however, with the luck I have, I'd be in my IMBC

Thanks for posting that, some good info!!

Be careful with those raw eggs. I am one who didn't use to worry about stuff like that (USE TO are key words here....) I got salmonella food poisoning from under cooked eggs ~ along with about 400 other folks one weekend at a restaurant in Dayton Ohio. It was all traced back to the the eggs that weren't completely cooked through. I am mighty careful now, it is soooo not worth it.