Cooking makes lots of things more nutritious. The two main reasons: heat destroys some antinutrients, and it helps to break down proteins.

Egg whites have a protein called avidin, which binds to the B vitamin biotin and keeps it from being absorbed. Cooking destroys avidin and makes the biotin more available. There may be another reason, but I can't remember it.

I go through phases where I will stand at the sink, crack open an egg, let the shell and white fall into the sink and pop the creamy yolk in my mouth. I may do 3-4 yolks at one standing. I do this for maybe 3 days in a row and then I wont want to do it again for maybe a month. Yolks are definitely NOT slimy at all, if you make sure to drain all the white off of them. They are like a yummy unsweetened vanilla-ish custard! :yum: :thup:

Gosh why am I grossed out, when I eat eggs regularly? :lol:

There are issues with raw egg white and the absortion of some vitamins. Avidin is a glycoprotein, which is found in raw egg whites, and blocks the uptake of Vitamin B6 and Vitamin H (Biotin) causing a vitamin deficiency (it binds to Biotin and iron making them unavailable). You must cook/pasteurize the egg white to neutralize the Avidin and allow your body to safely digest the protein and utilize all its amino acids.

From http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=540518

I can't stand to have any white attached to my yolk, and it's hard to break that protein thread when it's raw. I usually soft-boil my eggs when I want a runny yolk. It's such a great experience to taste the yolk in its pure state, but there's an amazing variety of flavor. Some yolks - even from supposedly really good eggs - are just disappointing. Others are delicious. I had a really good one a couple days ago.

I've been eating a lot of hard-boiled yolks lately. It's such a convenient snack.

I know what you mean about the white being gross. I even will separate the gross membrane thing from the yolk and pull it out of my mouth (definitely not a pretty sight :o )

My co-op has these local eggs called Fred's eggs that they only have a few times a year. They are from Ameracauna (sp) chickens and have greenish blue shells. The yolk from these are amazing! dark orange and very creamy. Im seriously considering getting a few of these chickens!

We get some of those blue eggs sometimes. I think the quality of the yolk depends more on what the chickens eat, though. I bet Fred feeds his birds very well.

I have them raw all the time in shakes. I have been doing this for decades so no one scares me about salmonella. I know that wasn't your focus. It's just what you usually hear.

I think they are better for you raw. That's what I've heard, anyway.

Please do not eat raw eggs!! Samonella, if a hen has it, is int he oviduct and therefore inside the egg shell. Heating the egg for 30 seconds does not kill the bacteria. Nor does sanitising the outside. Organic, free range, these terms do NOT indicate free of samonella. The poultry farms have worked hard to eradicate this, but it still occurs. Eating a raw egg has it's risks. Some farms are tested samonella free. But not many. KNow you are taking a risk to eat raw eggs. I have given up my chocolate malt shake with eggs! :( But not an occassional bite of cookie dough! Know the risks.

No raw eggs for me. My SIL is the foremost expert on Salmonella in the U.S. and she does not recommend it.

Here is a link to an article about her research

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/artic...ous-to-virulent


I have never let my kids even eat raw cake batter or cookie dough because of the raw egg in it. I've had salmonella before from chicken and believe me, if you ever have it you will never take even the slightest chance of getting sick with it again. It is not something you get over in 24 hours... You are very very sick for a long time. I was sick off and on for months after having a bad bout of it when I was in college.

Just saw this thread for the first time. I have a dear friend who is a county extension home economist, and I got this information from her. I have my own hens at home - spoiled rotten they are - so I never worried much about my eggs, but I'm prone to guilt, and would feel awful if my homemade mayo made someone in my family sick.

So....here is how to pasteurize eggs at home. I've done it, and they do get hot all the way through (paranoid me has cracked some and temped the center of the yolk with a probe thermometer) They feel really hot when you first take them from the water, but they are not cooked at all at this temperature.

I'm copying-pasting my own post on another forum:

My friend the food safety lady posted about how to pasteurize eggs.

Basically, you put enough water to cover the egg/s in a pan and bring it to 140 degrees. Put the egg/s in, monitor the temp as keep it as close to 140 as possible for about 5 minutes (to allow temp to penetrate through the egg). Use or chill in cold water, and then refrigerate.

I tried it yesterday, and when I took the egg out of the water, it felt so hot - I was sure I'd have a partly cooked egg. It was actually perfectly raw, and worked great for my second batch of mayo.

And then, if you want to make mayo, eat them raw, whatever, you can without worry. Hope this helps. :)

catinhat: I wish I had known this when my kids were little! I could have done this and let them eat the cookie dough!

Maybe next time my dh makes chocolate chip cookies he can do this and they can FINALLY have some raw cookie dough!

I do know that my SIL told me that you really don't have to heat salmonella that high to kill it.

You don't have to heat it all that high...but that 5 minutes is important. My friend said 2 minutes, and I was doubtful that the heat could penetrate that fast. So I tested it. We came up with 5 minutes (eventually) and had scrambled eggs that night for supper, since I'd opened so many with my experimenting. :)

You can do one or a dozen, and put them in the fridge for future use. I do not pasteurize all my eggs...just the ones I use to make mayo.

I like them blended with water and a packet of splenda, very milk-like.

Lately I've been compromising and just separating out the whites, cooking them in the microwave, then mixing in the yolks. Totally foolproof, compared to soft-boiling.