Cocktail Queries: Is Egg White Safe in Cocktails?
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Cocktail Queries is a Paste series that examines and answers basic, common questions that drinkers may have about mixed drinks, cocktails and spirits. Check out every entry in the series to date.
If you’ve ever consumed a drink at a cocktail bar with “fizz” in the name, there’s a good chance you were drinking something infused with the luxuriant texture of egg whites. That may initially be cause for alarm—aren’t raw eggs dangerous to consume?—but the truth of the matter is that the risk inherent in consuming these eggs in a modern setting is really quite low. Allow us to explain.
Egg whites are used in a variety of very different drinks to achieve the same purpose, which is a rich texture and silky foam that sits on top of the glass. Vigorous shaking of these classic cocktails, which include the Pisco Sour, Ramos Gin Fizz or brandy flip, whips the egg whites into a frothy texture that infuses the drink with a particularly silky mouthfeel. Trying to make these specific cocktails without any egg white results in drinks that are so far removed from what is intended, they must be considered something else entirely. With that said, there is one popular alternative that qualifies as vegan: Aquafaba, which is simply the water left behind from a can of chickpeas/garbanzo beans. This water is infused with similar protein content as egg whites, making for a similar generation of foam … although the cocktail purists will tell you that it can’t approach the silkiness of eggs.
Historically, cooks and bakers have been warned not to consume raw eggs out of fear that they might harbor bacteria, particularly salmonella. This is part of why we instruct home cooks not to lick their blender beaters or eat raw cookie dough, but it’s only part of the story. In reality, the most dangerous aspect of eating that lump of cookie dough isn’t because there’s raw egg involved—it’s because of the raw flour, which can very easily harbor salmonella or equally nasty bacteria like E. coli. Raw flour is particularly dangerous, as far as potential for infection is concerned.