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Is it okay to eat raw cookie dough?
Uh, no. Ready to bake doesn’t equal ready to eat, until after you’ve cooked it.
But it tastes so good! I've done it a lot growing up, but now I'm told it is dangerous.
It’ll melt in your mouth. And then the bacteria in the raw dough could melt your insides.
That’s rather graphic.
And so it is. And you really don’t want to be puking and pooping so much it could
land you in the hospital.
It’s the eggs, isn’t it?
Well, yes, mostly. The eggs are a source of salmonella, but even the flour could be laden
with bacteria.
I’d never heard of that.
In 2009, there was an outbreak of E. coli linked to the flour in a major vendor’s
slice and bake cookie dough. Though usually it is the eggs to blame.
Then I’m stuck with cookie dough candy and cookie dough ice cream.
A fair substitute might be dry cookie mixes that only say to add milk. Add milk and then
it is safe to eat.
What about the eggs?
For mixes where you just add milk, it uses powdered eggs, which don’t have a disease
risk.
What about the mixes that say to add eggs?
You certainly can’t eat it if it requires fresh eggs. But it is safe if you add powdered
eggs or vegetarian egg substitutes.
A lot of people eat it without getting sick.
And the one time they do, they really regret it.
What’s the solution?
Bake the cookie dough, then eat them when they are still warm and melty.
Well, not when they are hot enough to burn your mouth.
You’re the one who wanted to risk a week of living in the bathroom, making regular
offerings to the porcelain god. Which risk are you willing to take?