Egg Farm Owners Called to Washington for Time in Hot Seat

I don't know what the facts of this will turn out to be but I do hate to see media spectacles of a bunch of career politicians virtually beating the hell out of people to score political points. We'll see how this one goes.

Here are the facts:

Salmonella has lived in the digestive and reproductive tracts of chickens for thousands of years. It couldn't infect the egg, though, so we came up with a whole bunch of foods based on raw or undercooked egg (egg-based dressings, hollandaise and mayonnaise, sunny-side-up or over-easy.)

50 or 60 years ago a strain of salmonella showed up that could penetrate the egg while it was being formed. Farmers and the FDA have been telling people to 'overcook' their eggs since this happened. Honestly this is kinda gross sometimes, because you can never order a properly-prepared egg at a restaurant anymore. But nobody ever gets sick from eating an overcooked egg.

The exact prevalence of infected eggs isn't well-advertised. It ranges somewhere from 1:10 to 1:1000 depending on farm, location and breed. Obviously this one company is just experiencing a pandemic. The eggs are totally safe to eat as long as you cook them properly.

The whole problem is that most people are really ****ing stupid and don't listen to good advice. They ate raw egg, got sick and died. Good riddance.

Now the opportunistic buzzards in the government-media circlejerk club are going to flay a bunch of farmers for letting this scary "evolution" thing happen.

^- All of the facts.

That's all very interesting, really, but what I meant was if the facts will show some overt negligence. I doubt it and I believe you are most likely correct although PETA-types will probably be able to demonstrate that the ranchers were "mean" to the chickens thus increasing the likelihood of salmonella in some arbitrary way.

It's possible. If I had to guess, I'd say that some feed or equipment was contaminated with this specific strain of salmonella, and it displaced the more benign strains.

If only sunny side up eggs weren't so delicious.

This must be some health code thing in Canadaland, because you can sure as hell order good eggs down here.

He means "fully cooked", dumbass.

Congress has to feel like they are important and of course the individual Congresspeople have to make sure they are doing everything to get that vote watch over the American public.

I always make my eggs scrambled. I just can't bare to eat eggs "sunny side up".

Sunny side up in the army has pretty much always meant mostly white on the bottom and mostly slimy on top and that always grossed me out. Generally, I'm a scrambled eggs kind of guy too (although, again in the army, that doesn't necessarily preclude slime or green for that matter) but when fried I do like what I've come to know as "over medium" which is essentially fully cooked whites with a mostly liquid yoke. I'm sure that's the type of egg that Jon`C might be happy if I die eating, though.

Just like the Nestle raw cookie dough recall last fall (or earlier this year, can't remember). It's raw cookie dough, duh. A bunch of dumb kids eat it and get sick, what the hell did you expect? I work in the dairy department at the local grocery store, and everyone asked why we pulled the Nestle cookie dough and I simply wanted to state, "Because people are ****ing stupid."

In the UK, all fried eggs are sunny side up unless you specifically ask otherwise. And nobody really does ask otherwise.

/loves me some dribbly egg.

On a related topic, my father in law is a judge and he sentenced a man for shipping in millions of eggs to the UK from sub-standard eastern european farms that were full of salmonella. I believe the man got six years.

I was told at work that if we don't cool down the chickens left over night, which had already been cooked, properly by splitting them down the middle; people would get salmonella. Is this true Massassi salmonella experts?

I prefer scrambled eggs. I'd never touch what most people call 'scrambled eggs' though.

I cook a mean egg.

I didn't know there was variations of scrambled eggs...

Sure there are. You can overcook them, beat them too much, heat them too fast, add too much water or too little water. A good scrambled egg forms polymerized 'bubbles' of denatured egg proteins around the water. It's light, fluffy and moist. A screwed-up scrambled egg is dry and flaky. When you really screw it up the egg won't hold the moisture anymore, and you end up with a mound of egg chips sitting in a pool of yellowish water.

I guess I've only ever had the good kind then

I like this method of making scrambled eggs:

It's clear to me in context that he meant you couldn't order a proper sunny-side up egg because of the health risks. Why don't you drop the insults, and let Jon'C respond to comments directed at him himself?

I like my eggs black with pepper. Yum.

Because his insult might have been buried too well beneath overly flowery language for you to get it.

For breakfast I made those exact eggs plus cheese because of your video, Emon. It was yum.

I had poached eggs at a diner once. I'll never order them again.

Poached eggs are good on toast or eggs benedict but I can't be bothered to make them that way. Over medium once again.

I like my eggs like I like my women.

Slimy?

Obviously they did them wrong. Poached is the best (and once you've got the knack) the easiest way to do eggs.

I can't be bothered to make hollandaise sauce to make eggs benedict either, but I often have them on muffins with bacon.

Actually, poached eggs on a split croissant is really surprisingly nice too.

I know what a good poached is and how to make one. Diner poached eggs are like 5 minutes short of hard boiled.

His scrambled eggs had the same texture, shape, and color of bird puke.

Oh good. I thought you were missing out on awesome eggs.

Ditto. Though I couldn't find fat cap mushrooms so I used baby portebellas. Very tasty.

Doesn't really seem to me that you should have to find too many ingredients, besides eggs, to make scramble eggs. Having said that, this seems an intriguing, if not overly girlie, way to make them.

Egg, water.

That's how I make mine. I used to add salt and pepper but I stopped that a long time ago. When I was a kid my parents used to use milk. Many years ago I remember watching some cooking show and the chef opined why water was better than milk. Haven't used milk since then.

I've started using Egg Beaters as an occasional replacement for eggs. Not to totally replace them but just to cut back on how much I used to eat, although lately I'm not eating that many regardless. I also picked up the egg whites for omelets sometimes. It always seems like a waste to separate them myself and discard half the egg. The first time I made an egg white omelet for myself I noticed that the cheddar cheese I added gave it the color I was expecting. Taste didn't seem to be significantly different, either.

I have yet to have a poached egg, but from what I read, they are pretty much the healthiest way to eat an egg (short of hard-boiling and then removing the yolk). I will have to give it a try sometime, but usually I just scramble or make an omelette.

I don't see why they would be particularly healthy unless you compare them to eggs fried in fats and oils. I would think modern non-stick cookware and sprays would eliminate most of that fat in most cases. Having said that, I do like poached eggs, they're just a bit of a pain to make.

It's easy:

(1) Have a pan of boiling water on the go
(2) Crack two eggs onto a saucer
(3) Swirl the water in your pan round with a wooden spoon (or whatever) such that you create a little vortex
(4) Slide your eggs into the still swirling water
(5) Cook for a few minutes (simmering not boiling)
(6) When the eggs are done they'll float to the top.

I find that the amount of time the eggs spend in the pan is about the same amount of time it takes my toaster to turn my bread into yummy golden brown toast.