....on licking the bowl

[British Red]

A nice slice of Danish Blue with that...

dribbling just typing it.

Has to be a smooth mature cheddar - and a sliced crisp apple too

 

[Whittler Kev]

Here we go Jul (Yule) cake. A bit like Christmas cake but no icing or marzipan and the like. decorated with candied fruit and nuts.

Jul Cakes by British Red, on Flickr

now they look nice. Come on recipe and do you do swaps?

 

[Toddy]

Those do look good I like glacé cherries and nuts on a cake like that
Good, real cake, is a pleasure. I like cheddar but the Danish blue's very tasty with it too, and a bit of apple goes very nicely.
Something hot drink with it, and it's a meal in itself

J's Fiona has a recipe for a gluten free clementine cake that is absolutely brilliant. Tomorrow's baking

M

 

[British Red]

now they look nice. Come on recipe and do you do swaps?

I'll type up the recipe when I get a minute. Mine is just a personal variant and basically a primitive ingredient fruit and nut cake (molasses, musovado, prunes and the like rather than refined sugars). Tastes somewhere between Dundee cake and plum pudding.

I guess I could always make another batch for swaps - but this is the third batch - a dozen are already spoken for

 

[Tengu]

Oh go on, you know you want to lick the bowl again

 

[British Red]

I have to make the prune and walnut loaves first - my wife loves them!

 

[oldtimer]

I used to lick the bowl when my grandma made cakes and carried on doing it after I was married and kept on doing it until last year when my granddaughter told my wife off for letting me do it and they stopped me on health and safety grounds at the age of72. "My OTHER grandmother says it is dangerous because of the raw eggs," she said primly. *** in-laws!

 

[Mesquite]

It#s an absolute must for me... been doing it since I can remember and I intend to keep doing it until the wife stops baking

 

[Toddy]

Eggwina Curry has a lot to answer for.

M

 

[British Red]

my granddaughter told my wife off for letting me do it and they stopped me on health and safety grounds at the age of72.

When she is older than you she can tell you what to do.

 

[mountainm]

My wife has a worry about the raw egg in cake mix. Makes me sigh!

We now have very safe eggs. Much safer than the US in fact. Our chickens are vaccinated whereas American eggs are pressure cleaned. This means American eggshells are more susceptible to infection andb must be stored in the fridge. Ours are much less likely to be dangerous.

So go make some egg nog or mayonnaise . Enjoy.

 

[santaman2000]

We now have very safe eggs. Much safer than the US in fact. Our chickens are vaccinated whereas American eggs are pressure cleaned. .....

Depends on where you but your American eggs. None of the egg farmers I knew ever pressure cleaned their eggs. Just a quick rinse and bleach before crating and selling. Some aren't even crated, just loose in the basket in the fridge of the farm shop.

 

[mountainm]

Depends on where you but your American eggs. None of the egg farmers I knew ever pressure cleaned their eggs. Just a quick rinse and bleach before crating and selling. Some aren't even crated, just loose in the basket in the fridge of the farm shop.

I believe it's the bleaching process that also thins the shell. Only going off what I read online though.

 

[santaman2000]

I believe it's the bleaching process that also things the shell. Only going off what I read online though.

I suppose it might, I really don't know; but I've never heard of them being pressure washed. Of course that doesn't mean they aren't, just that nobody selling locally does it.

Of course if you really want "safe" to eat raw eggs you can just get the pasteurized ones. Not that I've ever had any problems licking the spoon and/or eating raw cookie dough anyway. Like others on here, I like my fried eggs over easy or over medium (runny yokes) and my scrambled eggs done as a soft scramble (barely done)

 

[John Fenna]

We produce eggs on the Care Farm I work on. They are packed into mainly re-used egg boxes (papier mache types) after a quick rub with a damp cloth. The chicks are all ex battery and live free range. They forage for their food but also get corn, pellets and crushed seashell grit.
Great tasting eggs that I have as cakes to poached. I like my poached eggs runny. I have yet to get ill from my food....

 

[British Red]

Depends on where you but your American eggs. None of the egg farmers I knew ever pressure cleaned their eggs. Just a quick rinse and bleach before crating and selling. Some aren't even crated, just loose in the basket in the fridge of the farm shop.

Any form of washing of an egg removes a protective film called the cuticle. This film protects the egg from bacteria amongst other things since eggshells are porous. In general unless an egg is nest soiled, washing it is a bad idea and contributes to more rapid spoilage.

However food safety regs are likely to say that they must be washed when bought from a commercial source.

 

[John Fenna]

Some of our eggs come sparking clean straight from the chicks bum - others would require cemtex to get the "nest soiling" off them!
As I generally get my eggs the day they were laid (as opposed to buying Super Market eggs that can be a month old and still sold as "fresh") and eat them within the week, bacterial have little time to penetrate the shell
And, boy oh boy, can you taste the difference between fresh and "Super Market fresh"

 

[British Red]

That's the way to do it alright. When I walk "over the back" to buy eggs from my buddy usually sells out within the hour. When I tell him I need some he says

"you can go squeeze a chicken if you like"

- which means go rummage through the nest boxes for any late layers. Nice to use egss that are still warm from the Hen

Looking forward to getting our own chooks in Feb / March next year

 

[mousey]

I don't wash my eggs. do wash my potatoes and carrots but only just before using them. And my kids lick the bowls - I unfortunately am way down on the list for licking privileges

I remember my mum wondering if we should be licking the bowls when I was younger but she decided to let us - I think there were far more dangerous things we were doing as children that she didn't know about, sometimes I think its a miracle we survived.

 

[mountainm]

tracked down the article

http://boingboing.net/2014/12/08/making-egg-nog-for-the-british.html

This is because US farming practices rely on a chemical power-wash to keep diseases off of eggs. In the UK they have been vaccinating hens since 1997, and focus on cleaner farming practices.
This is also the reason Americans put their eggs in the fridge and the British don't: The US power-washing method can damage the cuticle of an egg, which means bacteria can spread if the egg isn't kept cold. Eggs do not inherently need refrigeration to stay 'fresh'.