Joy wrote:Has anyone tried pasturized eggs? These are raw, in-the-shell, in a carton right next to the regular eggs in the supermarket cooler.

the idea of pasturized eggs intrigued me from the standpoint that it seemed to eliminate the risk of raw eggs. I had visions of ceasar salad, steak tartare, hollandaise sauce and other good things made with raw or lightly cooked eggs -- things that had been eliminated from our regular rotation when raw eggs became risky.

I have seen them at the Jewel in Evanston for example.
Jewel
1128 Chicago Avenue
Evanston, IL 60202
(847) 869-7950

--Joy

I have tried the pasteurized eggs. Be aware that they do not behave (if behave is the right word) in the same way non-pasteurized eggs do. The whites take much longer to beat stiff. I have used them in a much-loved family recipe for chocolate mousse that uses raw eggs when serving to little kids and very old, fragile relatives. I would think with a meringue, the whites' different consistency might be a problem. If you are very concerned about the possibility of illness caused by raw eggs, the pasteurized ones are a passable substitute, but YMMV.

EvA wrote:

Joy wrote:Has anyone tried pasturized eggs? These are raw, in-the-shell, in a carton right next to the regular eggs in the supermarket cooler.

the idea of pasturized eggs intrigued me from the standpoint that it seemed to eliminate the risk of raw eggs. I had visions of ceasar salad, steak tartare, hollandaise sauce and other good things made with raw or lightly cooked eggs -- things that had been eliminated from our regular rotation when raw eggs became risky.

I have seen them at the Jewel in Evanston for example.
Jewel
1128 Chicago Avenue
Evanston, IL 60202
(847) 869-7950

--Joy

I have tried the pasteurized eggs. Be aware that they do not behave (if behave is the right word) in the same way non-pasteurized eggs do. The whites take much longer to beat stiff. I have used them in a much-loved family recipe for chocolate mousse that uses raw eggs when serving to little kids and very old, fragile relatives. I would think with a meringue, the whites' different consistency might be a problem. If you are very concerned about the possibility of illness caused by raw eggs, the pasteurized ones are a passable substitute, but YMMV.

If getting them whipped stiffly is the only problem with them, then it might not matter much where your macs are concerned as you don't want to beat them that much anyway...you just want to get them to "glossy."

Not to freak out people too much, but traditional macaron recipes often call for leaving the egg whites out on the counter uncovered for a couple of days to evaporate some moisture before whipping.

rickster wrote:Not to freak out people too much, but traditional macaron recipes often call for leaving the egg whites out on the counter uncovered for a couple of days to evaporate some moisture before whipping.

Yes, that's true (and has been discussed passionately upthread), however, I can't honestly see how much it matters since you're not eating them raw in the macs. I've left them out (not for a couple days, though--I have success with them leaving them out for a day--covered--tops) and generally have experienced no problems with my macs only leaving them out until they got to room temperature, as well.

Joy wrote:the idea of pasturized eggs intrigued me from the standpoint that it seemed to eliminate the risk of raw eggs. I had visions of ceasar salad, steak tartare, hollandaise sauce and other good things made with raw or lightly cooked eggs -- things that had been eliminated from our regular rotation when raw eggs became risky.

The rate of salmonella in eggs is something like 1 per 30,000. That means an average person will need to eat 15,000 raw eggs before catching it. You might get the short end of the stick, but the risk is still reasonably low.

I'd say the perceived difficulty of making macarons is one of the oddest things. Anybody can make these, and make them well. Which is why I get so annoyed when macarons sell for ridiculously high prices, are not served fresh, etc. I was recently sad to hear that the macaron truck ceased operating because I think they were doing some of the better macarons in town, and in great flavors. While I generally think Vanille makes great macarons, on multiple occasions I've purchased macarons from Vanille that were represented to be fresh and I found out the hard way that they were past their prime.

Anyway, my go to recipe is from the La Maison du Chocolat cookbook which I picked up years ago after tasting macarons at their shop in Paris. I know they now have a shop in NYC, but I haven't sampled the wares there.

Although I'm not sure the LMdC recipe is on the web, it's as easy as sifting together almond flour, powdered sugar and unsweetened cocoa. You then fold that mixture into egg whites beaten with some more powdered sugar. Fill a pastry bag and pipe them onto parchment covered baking sheets, bake for about 20 minutes at 350, remove from oven, dab parchment lightly with water (don't touch the macarons though), cool and fill. There's no leaving egg whites out, there's no propping the oven open, and I find the results to be excellent. This past weekend, I went with chocolate-almond macarons filled with a nutella ganache. Here's a look: