The recall of half a billion eggs for possible salmonella infection has a lot of us understandably whipped up with worry. Cocktail geeks are fearful, too, that bartenders will start cracking down (okay, even I’m cringing at these puns) on the use of eggs in drinks.
Now, I come across plenty of folks who, when I tell them I’m making them a cocktail with egg whites, scrunch up their face and say, um, isn’t that dangerous? Fair enough. And while you definitely don’t want to eat anything with salmonella in it, I’m hoping you won’t chicken out from trying cocktails made with them. They’re not only safe — they’re delicious. The trick, as always, is making sure you use the freshest, highest-quality ingredients, in your cocktails.
So here’s my two cents about selecting eggs, be they for a Pisco Sour or an eggs Benedict. It is true that raw eggs can harbor dangerous cooties such as salmonella, but if you exercise the same judgment you would in selecting any other food, you’ll be fine.
Here’s all you need to remember: Pick eggs that are Grade AA (best quality) and have the USDA organic emblem, which means they meet the standards of the U.S. Agriculture Department’s National Organic program. This means that, among other things, the birds are kept cage free and with access to the outdoors, they are not given antibiotics (even if sick), and their food is free of animal byproducts and made from crops grown without the application of pesticides, fertilizers, and/or raw sewage and that haven’t been irradiated or genetically engineered.
A quintessential and classic cocktail made with eggs is the Pisco Sour, the semi-official cocktail of Peru. Tangy grape brandy, and bright and slighty sweet citrus, are delivered on a velvety magic carpet of egg white. Don’t skip the drops of Angostura bitters, which give the drink an added depth (and just look cool).
This article appears in Sep 2-8, 2010.