How To Pasteurize Eggs For Tiramisu, Ceasar Salad Dressing, Any Sauce and More

Learn how to pasteurize eggs at home in a few easy steps! This baking guide covers how to pasteurize whole eggs, whites, and yolks so that you can confidently make any sauce, tiramisu, caesar salad dressing, or dessert that calls for raw or partially cooked eggs!

Jump to:

• Why pasteurize eggs?
• Can you pasteurize eggs at home?
• How to pasteurize eggs at home
• 1. Pasteurizing whole eggs in their shells
• 1.1. Pasteurize eggs on the stove
• 1.2. Pasteurize eggs with sous vide
• 2. Pasteurizing egg yolk
• 3. Pasteurizing egg white
• Are eggs from the grocery store pasteurized?
• Is it safe to eat unpasteurized eggs?
• Equipment notes
• Pasteurizing eggs FAQs
• More Baking Guides
• How To Pasteurize Eggs For Tiramisu, Ceasar Salad Dressing, Any Sauce and More

Why pasteurize eggs?

Sometimes you come across a recipe that calls for uncooked or partially cooked eggs. This is where pasteurized eggs make the difference.

So what are pasteurized eggs? They are eggs that have been rapidly heated to a certain temperature for a specific amount of time while still in their shells. Pasteurizing is done to prevent food borne illness. The biggest one being salmonella.

The pasteurization process is what allows us to consume uncooked eggs in dessert recipes like Tiramisu as well as in savory recipes like mayonnaise. 

Can you pasteurize eggs at home?

Yes, you can pasteurize eggs at home and it is easy to do! This baking guide explains in great detail 3 different ways how to pasteurize eggs with all the steps involved. And because it’s not always easy to find pasteurized eggs in the market, it's a great skill to learn that you can use over and over again any time a recipe calls for raw or partially cooked eggs.  

How to pasteurize eggs at home

It’s not always possible to buy pasteurized eggs at the grocery store or cost-effective, so learning how to do it yourself is a great skill to have. And while it may sound like a science project it’s actually a quite simple process and will put your mind at ease the next time you whip together a recipe that calls for raw eggs.

1. Pasteurizing whole eggs in their shells

There are 2 different ways that you can quickly pasteurize whole eggs in their shells. One way does require using a sous vide machine, which does it perfectly every time. Yet, we don’t all own a sous vide. But not to worry! The other way only requires a simple saucepan and with the help of a digital thermometer works just as well!

1.1. Pasteurize eggs on the stove

1. Put room-temperature eggs into a saucepan and then fill it with cold water.
2. Heat the eggs over medium heat to 60C /140F. 
3. Keep the eggs consistently at 60C /140F for 3 minutes.
4. If the water begins to get too hot add cold water to the saucepan. It’s important to keep the eggs at this temperature to keep them from cooking.
5. After 3 minutes, put the eggs in an ice water bath for 5 minutes to stop them from cooking.
6. Use the cooled eggs right away or store them in the fridge.

1.2. Pasteurize eggs with sous vide

Wonder how to pasteurize eggs without a thermometer? Use a sous vide!

1. Preheat the sous vide to 57C / 135F and give it time to warm up. 
2. Put the in-shell eggs into the heated water using a slotted spoon.
3. Set the timer to 75 minutes.
4. After the timer goes off, transfer the eggs to an ice water bath for 5 minutes.
5. Use the eggs or store them in the fridge.

2. Pasteurizing egg yolk

Wonder how to pasteurize eggs for mayonnaise? Follow these easy steps.

1. Put the egg yolks into a saucepan.
2. Add 2 tablespoons of liquid or sugar from the recipe per egg yolk. If using liquid you can use milk, vinegar, or lemon juice, but do not use oil. So if you have 2 egg yolks you will need to add 4 tablespoons of liquid.
3. Heat the egg mixture over low heat while gently stirring until it reaches 71C / 160F. 
4. Once the mixture hits 71C / 160F remove it from the heat immediately and put the saucepan in an ice water bath for a few minutes.
5. Use the pasteurized egg yolks for your recipe right away or wait for them to come to room temperature.

3. Pasteurizing egg white

1. Fill a saucepan with a few inches of water and bring it to a simmer.
2. Put your egg whites in a heat-proof bowl that fits over the saucepan. You basically need to make a double boiler.
3. Add 2 tablespoons of sugar per egg white OR ⅛ teaspoon of cream of tartar and 1 teaspoon of water per every 2 egg whites. Then mix it together.
4. Place the heatproof bowl over the saucepan of simmering water and heat the mixture until it reaches 71C / 160F. You need to gently stir it constantly to prevent the whites from coagulating.  
5. Once the mixture hits 71C / 160F remove it from the heat immediately and put the bowl with the egg whites in an ice water bath.
6. Use the pasteurized egg whites in your recipe right away.

Are eggs from the grocery store pasteurized?

No, they are not. Eggs that you that you buy in the United States are not pasteurized. This means there is still a very small risk of salmonella. Yet, the USDA does require that all egg products such as liquid eggs be pasteurized. So that’s where it can be a little confusing. However, it is possible to find pasteurized in-shell eggs if you go searching.

I also want to point out the differences in how the US and Europe deal with the potential risk of salmonella. In the United States eggs are just washed before being sold. Yet, the washing process strips them of their protective cuticle which helps to prevent contamination. So you must then refrigerate the eggs in order to keep bacteria out.

However, in Europe, it’s totally illegal to wash eggs. Europe deals with salmonella by vaccinating their chickens against salmonella to produce safe-to-eat eggs rather than having to clean them later. In most countries, you do not have to refrigerate eggs in Europe.

Is it safe to eat unpasteurized eggs?

So is it safe to eat raw unpasteurized eggs? No, in the USA it’s never safe to eat partially cooked or raw unpasteurized eggs. In fact, it is advised against eating raw eggs for vulnerable groups like the elderly, kids, immunocompromised, and pregnant women. Having said that, the risk of getting salmonella from a raw egg is about 1 in 20,000, however, it is better to be safe than sorry,

Please note that fully cooked unpasteurized eggs are absolutely safe to eat.

Equipment notes

How to pasteurize eggs at home is a really easy process and doesn't require any special skills. Yet, you do need a few tools depending on what part of the egg you’re pasteurizing and which method you use. 

For whole eggs, if you do it on the stovetop all you really need is a saucepan, a digital thermometer, and a slotted spoon. And if you want to get fancy you can use an infrared thermometer to make it even easier. 

However, if you want to learn how to pasteurize eggs sous vide, which is the more high-tech way, you’ll need some type of a sous vide. You can either go all out and use a sous vide machine or you can just use a sous vide immersion circulator. The difference between them is that the machine includes a pot that holds water and everything that you need. While the immersion circulator is like a wand that you attach to a stock pot. Both of these options work great!

But when it comes to how to pasteurize egg yolks or how to pasteurize egg whites, you’re in luck! You just need a few of the same tools like a saucepan and thermometer. It’s also really handy to have a rubber spatula to stir the eggs as they heat as well as a double boiler to pasteurize egg whites.

Pasteurizing eggs FAQs

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