The Japanese know how to correctly cook and eat an egg (as well as process one). Sorry, American readers, but you’re probably cooking your eggs wrong. In the States it is an established fact that if you don’t cook your eggs until they are hard rubbery chunks you will get salmonella and die. In the U.S. it’s estimated that only 1 in 20,000 eggs contain the salmonella bacteria. I’ll admit that I wouldn’t eat a raw egg if I were immunocompromised, very young, pregnant, or elderly, but for healthy people the deliciousness of less-cooked eggs justifies the very very small salmonella risk. I’ll also admit that I wouldn’t be comfortable eating factory farmed eggs raw, but if you are getting fresh eggs from local farms… try making scrambled eggs that are a little runny and you’ll see what I mean. If you’re still concerned you can get pre-pasteurized eggs from some grocers that have been kept hot enough long enough to kill any potential salmonella without cooking the egg.

     In Japan eggs are eaten cooked to every potential doneness. They eat their eggs:

    We’ve noticed this cook-eggs-to-death thing is not just American – in the U.K. as well nobody knew what a “soft poached” or sunny side up egg was. Eggs, whether scrambled or fried, were cooked until rubbery – always.

    Fortunately we had rid ourselves of the egg-death fear long before we came to Japan, so we’re making the most of all these delicious, runny (and raw) eggs.

    6 Comments

    1. benjamin told me about his opinion on this post, so I thought I’d share mine: I thought this was super interesting and not at all highfalutin! I’m personally glad to know that eggs have more potential 🙂

      1. Thanks! I know the post comes off a little opinionated but as I told Benjamin I think that makes it more interesting to read.

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