# louis pastuer, you can kiss my keister **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 7, 2000, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-pastuer-you-can-kiss-my-keister/28384 "2000-08-07T05:35:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jb\_farley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9d8465/32.png) [@jb\_farley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jb_farley)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2000, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-pastuer-you-can-kiss-my-keister/28384/1 "2000-08-07T05:35:25Z")
how exactly does pastuerization work? no, i know the mechanics and theory. I want to know why- a) pathogens are killed but b) the stuff doesn’t get cooked. why is it that the proteins and whatnot that make up the pathogen are destroyed/altered, but not say the milk proteins? how come egg white doesn’t turn white? thank you for your time. jb ---
**Author:** ![Gunslinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gunslinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gunslinger)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2000, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-pastuer-you-can-kiss-my-keister/28384/2 "2000-08-07T06:02:57Z")
It doesn’t stay hot long enough to cook; 15 seconds or so at ~200[sup]o[/sup] F is usually enough to do the job. ---
**Author:** ![jb\_farley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9d8465/32.png) [@jb\_farley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jb_farley)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2000, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-pastuer-you-can-kiss-my-keister/28384/3 "2000-08-07T06:29:54Z")
right, but if it’s hot enough to destroy whole cells, why are the pathogen cells selectively destroyed? why not the beef cells, or simple proteins? ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2000, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-pastuer-you-can-kiss-my-keister/28384/4 "2000-08-07T17:07:19Z")
I guess the kind of pathogens that egg white has in it are the kind of pathogens that are killed by a quick flash of heat. This is why egg substitute can be pasteurized without cooking it. If egg whites didn’t happen to harbor pathogens that could be killed that quickly, we wouldn’t be blessed with the food substance known as “egg substitute”. ---
**Author:** ![APB9999](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB9999](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB9999)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2000, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-pastuer-you-can-kiss-my-keister/28384/5 "2000-08-07T17:21:56Z")
Well, I’ve brought milk to a boil without the proteins denaturing, so obviously it’s not a problem with milk. With eggs, I don’t know; I’m surprised a flash of heat strong enough to kill pathogens won’t denature albumin. I never really thought about it. ---
**Author:** ![jb\_farley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9d8465/32.png) [@jb\_farley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jb_farley)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2000, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-pastuer-you-can-kiss-my-keister/28384/6 "2000-08-14T15:21:53Z")
don’t mean to resurrect an obviously dead thread for no reason, but this came up in the unmelting thread. [2nd Law said](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=34540) “When the protein in an egg is raised to approximately 156 degrees F. it coagulates.” if gunslinger is correct, or even just in the right neighborhood, it stands to reson that the albumin would be cooked. what gives, yo? ---
**Author:** ![Shaky\_Jake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90db22/32.png) [@Shaky\_Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shaky_Jake)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2000, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-pastuer-you-can-kiss-my-keister/28384/7 "2000-08-14T15:56:04Z")
Apparently, the inventor of the egg pasteurizing process played with the time/temp variables. It seems pasteurization is not “160 deg F for 15 secs” as I always thought, but more a descriptive term, rather than a hard-and-fast receipe. This quote, from an [article](http://www.wichitaeagle.com/news/health/docs/healthy0627_txt.htm) on the inventor and his process > [@](#): > > Instead of heating the eggs to 160 degrees, the common method for destroying salmonella bacteria, Davidson’s heats the eggs to 130 degrees for a long period of time, Mullally says. The process allows the eggs to remain liquid while destroying all traces of bacteria, he says. I also found a detailed article on the process in The Scientist. You need to register at the site to gain access to the article, but it is located at [http://www.the-scientist.com/yr1998/july/hoffert\_p1\_980720.html](http://www.the-scientist.com/yr1998/july/hoffert_p1_980720.html) in case anyone is interested. I haven’t figured out how to do multiple embedded links, or whatever the thing I did with the new article is called. Shaky Jake