Growing up in UK, one of the great pleasures of baking a cake with my mum was licking the spoon/mixing bowl after the cake was in the oven. However now I have my own daughter and my Italian wife is horrified as it has raw eggs in it and she has forbidden me from giving her the mixing spoon. Is this a thing in your countries as well?
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Raw eggs are fine! If you look for the lion stamp on the egg that means the hens were vaccinated.
Oddly, raw flour is far more likely to poison you. (It’s still mostly fine)
I also did this as a kid until my mother, one day, thought about the raw eggs and decided we wouldn’t do it again. Now I bake vegan cakes so I lick the spoon š
My mum let us because she’s just not someone that cares about these things in general (like she’ll also eat stuff that’s been standing on the kitchen counter for three days). Nowadays I wouldn’t do it.
This took me back OP. I used to do exactly the same and so does my son. Never did either of us any harm- well apart from the calories in the cake of course!
Italian here and I feel what you’re saying, everyone is always saying “don’t eat that, there are raw eggs!”
I’ve grown up thinking that raw cake is unhealthy, but more like “don’t eat the whole cake raw” and less “even a taste is very wrong”.
Australian here! We are the same on licking the spoon and mixing ball, thatās some of the fondest memories right there. Precious.
However I get the concern, but I feel it is still low chance of riskā¦ besides isnāt there raw egg normally served with steak tartare and there is a Japanese raw egg dish served with rice as a breakfast meal, so maybe itās just cultural fearā¦ idk seems harmless
I did that too growing up! It’s already been commented here but I’ve also heard that flour is actually more dangerous than the eggs. Tbh I still eat raw dough rests from the bowl and just live with the riskš
Yes, always got to lock the spoon/scrape the bowl out and eat it lol. Was just told not to overeat it.Ā
Iād say the irony is that it was probably not super safe when I did it when I was growing up (80s) but nowadays it is.
In northern France there is even a special word for it “ratrucher” and when you bake you typically call the kids to do it
Spoon, bowl and any other utensils covered in unbaked cake…TBH, I wouldn’t even bake the stuff if my wife would let me.
If you grew up in the UK during the time of Edwin Currie and the salmonella scandal, eggs went from being a basic, healthy food stuff overnight to being something that you’d reprocess at ~~Calder Hall~~, ~~Windscale~~ Sellafield. At the same time she practically destroyed the UK’s egg industry.
Anyway, I’m off to whip up another batch of mayonnaise – I have a good bottle of olive oil that really needs some egg yolks, dijon mustard and some lemon juice blended into it.
One of my greatest childhood joys was when my mom or grandma made cake was licking the mixing bowl. I also ate egg yolk (raw) mixed well with sugar. We call it āou frecat cu zaharā and it was a quick and easy thing to make if you wanted something sweet. Mayonnaise is alao made with raw egg yolk mixed with vegetable oilā¦Raw eggs are fine.
Depends on where you are from. Atleast in the Nordics the eggs are completely safe to eat raw. And I know a classic japanese breakfast is one raw egg on rice.
In fact there is a lot more risk with the flour (salmonella and E. Coli) but I’ve been nibbling on raw dough and batter for all my life and never been ill.
It has all to do with food standards. Germany for example eat raw minced pork without getting ill.
It’s very common in France too.
And I’m very please that my son…… hate it! So I can continue to lick it myself!!
Norway. Did that too. Raw eggs are completely safe to eat here cause we donāt have salmonella in eggs. But Iām cautious abroad, some countries have more of it than others I guess
I would eat all kinds of dough and pancake batter, wiping the bowl with my finger. An egg and sugar mixture is used to smear bread products to make them more brown. My mother would give leftover egg for me to eat.
I think this may be a constitutional requirement here ā you have to lick the spoon when baking.
The salmonella risk from eggs in most of Europe is significantly lower than the U.S., which is where a lot of these statements tend to come from and get absorbed.
Also doesnāt Italian cuisine sometimes use raw eggs? Carbonara? Properly made TiramisĆ¹ ā¦ etc etc
British and Irish cake icings often contain raw eggs btw.
Why bake a cake if you can’t lick the utensils after using them? That’s weird. My mother used to call it the quality test/taste test. Although I must admit that my grandmother always took a fresh spoon for tasting and never licked the utensils.
Raw eggs can have salmonella. But eggs with the lion stamp are from salmonella free flocks. Maybe they don’t have a scheme like that in Italy?
We used to fire over the spoon…
Licking the spoon was the best part of baking with mom. Raw eggs are perfectly fine if youāre in a country with salmonella control
I used to do this as a kid and now continue to do it as an adult who bakes relatively often and it hasn’t caused any problems so far.
Sure we do. But my son does not like raw dough, so it is still my responsibility to ‘clean up’ when we bake a cake.
It’s still one of my greatest pleasures in life… I actually prefer raw mixture to the final product! Unless there’s a compelling reason not to, my children can carry on with the licking š
Depends on how fresh the eggs are…
And one very important rule: If you also lick the blender/mixing utensils, unplug it first š
Hungarian here. I grew up licking the bowl, and never had any trouble. My mother in law tho is scared of raw egg, she would’t even let a dog eat it.
We licked the spoon, and so does my kids.
However when i was little we used to make an egg drink by mixing raw egg and sugar, then there was a big salmonella outbreak and everyone stopped making it. But not the spoon licking, never
As a kid, it was always a treat, but the frosting mixing beater was even better.
I bake a lot, and always taste batter. Haven’t gotten sick yet.
Not a problem, our eggs are fine. It will also support their immune system, and the odd spoon will not give them type 2 diabetes. As you know, Italians give their kids wine (watered down), that’s probably more risky.
I’m italian andxI always licked the spoon, that’s the best part, also lots of italian dishes have raw eggs like tiramisĆ¹ and carbonara.