Are you ill, elderly or have a compromised immune system? If not, I'd say Don't Worry About It. I've been making ice cream this way for years and have never gotten sick from it.

Just be aware of food safety. Keep your cold things cold, don't cross-contaminate, and bacteria shouldn't be a problem. If you're really concerned about it, choose a recipe that has you cook the custard. Those are not my favorite I've discovered, but still have a better texture than what you were using.

Here is what Ben and Jerry's ice cream book says about using eggs: ''Most homemade ice cream has eggs or egg yolks that act as an emulsifying agent suspending the butterfat particles. (Many commercial ice creams use polysorbate 80.) Eggs also add texture to ice cream and improve its whipping ability. All in all, they help make a richer, creamier ice cream, that holds up better in storage. If you have personal or dietary objections to using eggs, you can make your ice cream without them. Just be sure to eat it all right away, because it won't store well.''

More and more stores are now selling pasteurized eggs that are safe for raw egg uses such as these.

I have made ice cream calling for raw eggs and used egg beaters with no problem. If you are worried about the raw eggs, go ahead and use the egg beaters. Or, if you are lucky enough to have a bulk food store available to you, you can purchase powdered eggs.

Tami

Also, I've read that the main issue with salmonella from eggs comes from the outside of the shell, which is the part that's in direct contact with the inside of the chicken and any nasty stuff during the laying process. Not to mention human hands. So supposedly if you choose eggs with strong-looking, uncracked shells, then wash the eggs before breaking them open, you reduce the chances of problems. It makes a certain amount of sense, doesn't it?

I do it all the time, but I have my own chickens and my own eggs, so I have a level of control that many don't.

Even before I had my own chickens, I did it. About 40,000 people get ill from salmonella annually, approximately 1 in 194, but not all from eggs, that's from all food items.

Don't counjt on my opinion though, I'll kiss a horse on the lips!

Annie

LOL Annie.

As was said previously, if you are ill, elderly or have immune problems then ... maybe avoid and sure you can use eggbeaters. But... this post reminds me of when I was a kid, a couple million years ago, we got our eggs from the Bea Charles the Egg Lady a few house down the road. She had lots of chickens, geese, few turkeys, etc. We always got our eggs from her. She didn't have refridgeration and the eggs were not the cleanest. We would often have eggs with a bit of stuff stuck to them or a bit of feather stuck to some poop. My mother loved eggnog. Not the fancy kind made with a custard but just the common eggs, milk, vanilla and nutmeg/cinnamon. I don't think any of us ever got sick. Then again my sister used to eat dirt. Smiles. And I've kissed a cow on the nose before and a horse on the lips... lol..

Thanks guys... I feel much better now.

I think hubby and I both have very strong immune systems.... I kiss my horses every night, kitties sleep with us, I have a dog as a shadow, and I feed our goats right out of my hand (and may forget to wash them occasionally!!!). LOL

"More and more stores are now selling pasteurized eggs that are safe for raw egg uses such as these."

In shell? Are they clearly marked as pasteurized? Are they generally by the regular eggs? I have been looking for years and have yet to see them. And I have no shortage of large, well-stocked markets in my area.

"approximately 1 in 194"

One in 194 what?

Stump,

Here's a link to some good information on where to get pasteurized eggs.

http://culinaryarts.about.com/b/2008/09/18/buy-pasteurized-eggs.htm

1 person in 194, if 40,000 U.S. residents were diagnosed with salmonella, that's 1 person out of every 194.

Annie

I've always made homemade ice cream with raw eggs, so did my Mother. I read somewhere if you use raw eggs to add a tablespoon of lemon juice, not really sure why or the reasoning, but I do it!

Annie, either your math is off or mine is. There are about 300 million people in the US. 40,000 with salmonella works out to about 1 in 7500, not 1 in 194. To be 1 in 194 it would have to be about one and a half million people getting salmonella.

Maureen, that doesn't seem to be the theory anymore. They say that salmonella can be inside the egg from when it was formed in the chicken.

But I still eat food with raw eggs. I didn't do that while I was on chemo because of lowered immune system and I don't do it in foods that I'm going to serve to others because you may not know if someone has a situation that is compromising their immune system. But now that I'm recovered from chemo, I'm not worried by tasting the cookie dough or the occasional eggnog.

Alton Brown has given instructions on his show about eggnog about how to gently heat the eggs enough to kill salmonella without cooking them solid. That probably can be found on line.

"I read somewhere if you use raw eggs to add a tablespoon of lemon juice, not really sure why or the reasoning, but I do it!"

The acid kills salmonella bacteria.

One of the tricks to homemade mayo is, after making it, leave it out on the counter for about 8 hours for the vinegar, lemon juice, etc., to do its work on any salmonella bacteria.

Apparently if you refrigerate it, it GREATLY reduces the effectiveness of the acid.

Sorry, cloudswift, I pulled those numbers off the CDC website, of an "estimated 1.4 million cases", approximately 40,000 are actually confirmed cases. I've copied and pasted that portion here:

Prevalence: An estimated 1.4 million cases occur annually in the United States; of these, approximately 40,000 are culture-confirmed cases reported to CDC.

Incidence rate: approx 1 in 194 or 0.51% or 1.4 million people in USA [Source statistic for calcuation: "estimated 1.4 million cases (CDC estimate/NIAID, many unreported)"

Although their math is confusing, I read it as 1 person in 194 are estimated to contract salmonella through all sources. However, only 40,000 of those cases are confirmed and not all of those confirmed are connected with chickens and eggs.

Does that make more sense? Yeah, I know, I shouldn't post when I'm in a hurry. Also, if you like your eggs runny, as in sunny side up or over easy, or you add eggs to something that's under cooked (i.e. that meatloaf that isn't quite done in the middle or undercooked stuffing) you have that chance of salmonella, it's not just from raw raw eggs.

OSU even goes so far as to say that household pets have been found to harbor salmonella in their systems and so all pets should be banned from the kitchen.

So, to avoid any chance of getting that approximately 1 in 20,000 contaminated eggs and getting sick, I'd have to cook all eggs until the yolks are hard, keep all pets out of the kitchen, cook my beef well done and probably stop kissing my horse on the lips.

Instead, I make sure I clean my hands and counters and utensils well when I deal with raw chicken and I wash the eggs right before I use them. (they have a protective coating that prevents bacteria from entering, so I refrigerate them right from the nest and wash before using). I make sure there is always clean bedding in the nests so I get cleaner eggs. I still kiss the horse, I still make ice cream with raw eggs, I still eat my eggs soft, usually sunny side up, and I'll always eat my beef next to raw. Pancho is usually on the floor at my feet when I'm cooking and I've done that balancing act that makes me feel that I've taken reasonable precautions but haven't gotten phobic about possible issues.

Annie

Thanks everyone....

Annie.... sounds like my household! It drives hubby crazy to see my Aussie/Border Collie laying on the rug in the kitchen (under my feet)... but it is such a common occurance, I'm used to working around her and I don't even realize it. Wouldn't be the same if I didn't have to work around a dog or cat.

By the way.... a made a second freezer of ice cream from the same recipe... OH MY, it was just as good as the first. Freezes so much faster and creamier than my original recipe. The leftovers are also much better, don't freeze as hard and is easier to eat.

So... unless someone gets sick from this recipe... It's a keeper!!

Well, all this talk of ice cream inspired me to go make some. I had a recipe to choose from with eggs and one without; it wasn't hard to choose which one to make! Right now I have Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream cooling in an ice bath, ready to go in the freezer. I hope it's good, but what's not to like? I'm glad you tried the eggs, and liked it!

Not every egg is contaminated with salmonella. I can't find recent statistics for the US in the web, but it used to be fairly small....and more prevalent in the North East.
The salmonella risk grows with the age of the eggs...and the length of time they are unrefrigerated.
Big "farm flocks" are much more likely to have contaminated eggs ( and chickens too) than small bug eating, scratching chickens are.
So...if you keep your eggs cold, and buy fresh often even if you buy from supermarkets which buys from a big box st9ore, your chances of getting a salmonella contaminated egg are not huge...
Add to that the number of eggs you hard boil, use in flan, in cakes and muffins etc etc....and the risk is really not huge.
For my money, the chance of getting salmonella is much larger from eating fried chicken made by someone who really doesn't know how to be sure the chicken is well cooked, or raw onions or salad from a fast food place who may not be careful about washing and their sources.
I grew up eating an egg nog every morning and fed my kids egg nogs too. I share an ice cream cone with Chabby and she sleeps on a pillow next to my face... if I had a horse I am sure I would kiss it too...
And tomorrow I go to my friend the chicken farmer....who will be butchering!
I trust her so much...that if I liked it I would eat those chickens rare!
Linda C

Thanks for filling in the gap between the two numbers Annie.

Like Annie, I eat foods with raw eggs and prefer my steak and even my hamburgers (which are more risky because when you sear a steak with the inside medium rare, the inside was never exposed directly to external contamination but the some inside of your hamburger was on the outside) medium rare. And I eat raw fish in sushi. So far the only two times I've had food poisoning were when I was on business trips. The more recent time, nothing that I had eaten was a typical suspect so my guess is that the restaurant wasn't careful enough about cross contamination or had an employee not washing hands carefully enough.

And we use to make quick eggnog (milk with a raw egg and some vanilla in the blender) for my kids one of whom went through a period as a very picky eater so it was one way to get some protein into his diet at the time.

I also keep in mind that it the higher the bacterial load the more likely it is to make you sick. A few salmonella cells in a raw egg that has been kept refrigerated will probably be fought off by my immune system. I wouldn't for instance make eggnog, let it sit on the counter for half a day and then drink it. Just in case (IIRC the likelihood that an egg carries salmonella was something like 1 in 20,000) the egg had salmonella, I don't want to let something with raw egg sit at a danger zone temperature for an extended period of time. Ice cream has an advantage there - you know it has been kept cold since it was made.

On the other hand, if I had guests over, I would at least let them know that there was raw egg in something and have an alternative because I think they should be able to make that decision for themselves and who knows who has a compromised immune system. And my son and DIL don't want my granddaughter to be fed food with raw eggs. Since children under 5 have salmonella diagnosed at a higher rate than adults (perhaps because it takes less to get them dangerously dehydrated or because they have less immunity?) that seems to be a sensible precaution.

I've put in the link for how to cook eggs enough to kill salmonella while still being able to use them in raw egg recipes. This is a compromise for those who need it. I remember reading that someone tested the pasturized egg whites vs regular egg whites and they didn't whip to as much volume.

That link also mentions using acidity to kill salmonella. You have to get the PH down to 4.0. If you make mayo and let it sit for a while before you mix it with something else, that may do it. Just tossing some lemon juice along with the egg into your ice cream mix probably wouldn't because the acidity of the lemon juice would be diluted too much by the other stuff.

Here is a link that might be useful: instructions for cooking eggs to use in raw egg recipes

Starlightfarm,

Care to share the recipe? I ordered an ice cream recipe book but the ice cream maker got here before the book.

joanm.... I've got a batch going in my little Cuisinart as I am typing!! I had to make some calculations to reduce the recipe to 1 1/2 qts to fit in the smaller freezer.... as soon as it is done, I'll let you know how it turned out. If it is as good as before... I'll post the updated recipe.

I also used raw eggs in my homemade icecream. we had left overs. How long will this keep in the freezer?

I'm assuming you can use any ice cream recipe and just not cook the eggs when the recipe calls for that...Just throw it all together and then freeze it..I can't wait I have my own goose eggs...should be yummy and loaded with Vitamin A.