Hey all 
Did a quick search for those words and turned up nothing, so hopefully I’m not replicating an earlier question…
I’m browsing through the home-made liqueurs section on recipezaar and noticed there’s a lot of warnings about using fresh eggs in homemade liqueurs because of salmonella.
I’d always been of the understanding that alcohol was a pretty good disinfectant, so I’m curious as to how salmonella would survive being soaked in whisky.
Can anyone enlighten me?
I don’t know how strong you are making your egg nog. I am unable to find any good cites on how much alcohol you need to kill Salmonella but things like yeast will not die until 10% to 12% alcohol and some strains can get up to 16% to 18% before they die. Online recipes for nog look like they are coming in at about 10% to 15% alcohol. The recipes also call for folding in whipped cream and egg whites so some of the egg does not get much contact with alcohol.
From Wikipedia:
"*Ethanol is used in medical wipes and in most common antibacterial hand sanitizer gels at a concentration of about 62% (percentage by weight, not volume) as an antiseptic. The peak of the disinfecting power occurs around 70% ethanol; stronger and weaker solutions of ethanol have a lessened ability to disinfect. (…) Ethanol in the low concentrations typically found in most alcoholic beverages does not have useful disinfectant or antiseptic properties, internally or externally.
Wine with less than 16% ethanol cannot protect itself against bacteria. (…) Because of ethanol’s disinfectant property, alcoholic beverages of 18% ethanol or more by volume can be safely stored for a very long time.*"
Is pasteurized liquid whole egg available in Australia? I’d recommend using this for all recipes calling for raw egg.
Can’t say I’ve ever heard of it, Fish Cheer, but I’d probably avoid it anyway. Real eggs are my closest substitute for living life on the wild side. 