Did you ever hear the joke:

"I'm a Great mom, always let my kids lick the mixer beaters, of course I turn the mixer off first"!!

Share and share alike at my house! When I was little, my younger brother usually won the battle because he was a whiner and spoiled rotten. Boy, was he ever in for a shocker when I began to do the cookie baking!

I didn't think people were doing that anymore because of the risk of salmonella (from the raw eggs). I survived a serious case of salmonella years ago, but it was from eating liver, not eggs.

Don't forget that tasty cake batter too. And cannot pass on the Egg Nog (with proper ingredients).

I think there is more risk with salmonella on packaged raw foods...like meats than eggs..haven't heard about a "salmonella" warning with eggs in years.

Yep batters are eaten here too.. Usually just me and Kamren...

Sorry, I don't care to eat batters or dough of any kind that you bake. Not a fear of catching anything, just don't care for it.

Sue

Alisande, I'm with you.

Restaurants buy pasteurized eggs and egg products for dishes that will be uncooked (like a fresh caesar salad dressing). Store bought egg nog is always pasteurized.

The CDC advises that raw eggs and anything containing uncooked eggs should not be consumed. That's good enough for me.

I like cookie dough if made with butter....

I don't share the beaters with Philadelphia Cream Cheese frosting.

There used to be disputes at our house over which of three boys' turn it was to lick the dish and spoons (no beaters about 1940).

When one lives alone ... one can lick out the cereal dish ... to be all ready for the soup at supper time. Saves on hot water and dish soap, as well.

o j

I'm the spatula licker :o)

sheilajoyce had to cheat and bring up Cream Cheese. But honesty counts. Yum.

Licking the bowl and the beaters was a given at our house when I was a child. Mother gave no thought that, in many cases, we were eating raw animal products. We were lucky. I recommend against this practice if the mixture contains raw eggs, raw milk or cream, stc.

(We had raw milk, cream, and butter made from raw cream since we lived on a farm in the 1940s.)

I don't eat raw batter, with flour and oil and not much taste, but I do enjoy frosting. I remember my Mom made frosting with the Sunbeam stand mixer she had received as a wedding gift. She had a recipe of powdered sugar, melted butter, milk and vanilla extract. She'd unhook the beaters and let me lick them. Thanks for the memory.

LOL When one of my Texas granddaughters was little I gave her a beater to lick with mashed potatoes on it. She thought it was wonderful! In a few minutes she said, "Mamaw, would you load this again for me?" I took the beater to the sink, washed it carefully, dried it and "loaded it again" for her! LOL

Yep, we lick beaters, if it's something that's good and won't make ya sick as a dog.

My favorite cookie batters would be choc. chip, peanut buttet, and ginger snaps. :-)

My chances of getting sick from raw eggs in those few tastes are MUCH less than with all of the raw fruits and veggies that I eat.

A lemon pie that I have made for 50 years, and is a favorite of everyone in the family, has raw egg yolks as an ingredient. Not one of us has ever gotten sick from eating it. Maybe the acid from the lemons counteracts the raw eggs....?

Hi jae TN,

Maybe it's your tough constitution.

Were you brought up in the days when we were told that we had to eat a peck of dirt before we died?

When we were young and short of milk for cereal or drinking from a glass at breakfast, dad'd send me to the barn to get some of the night before's milk, which can had been sitting overnight in a large tub of cold waer.

The cream had risen to the top ... and I'd give it sort of an excuse for a shake ... sort of "perfunctory", shall we say.

What went to the house in the pan was ... rather creamy.

Grandma'd complain, that the test for butterfat, which influenced the price that we got for the milk at the nearby cheese factory, would be low.

Dad would sort of a grin and say that he didn't suppose that it'd hurt the butterfat test too much.

They dipped out a little milk from our 10-gallon milk cans daily to put into a little bottle with preservative, to test at the end of the week? month? to check the butterfat levels, which was usually around 3.5% or so. Each farmer had his own bottle ... and a man who brought a wagon load of milk cans from half a dozen to a dozen farmers had to be sure which one was which.

That was about the late '30s or 1940 - just before all of the dairies had to install pasteurization equipment.

ole joyful

We make homemade ice cream with raw eggs....been eating that way for over 70 years.... :)

I once lost a week of my life to food poisoning caused by the raw egg in a restaurant's Caesar Dressing (about 10 years ago). Since then, I don't eat anything with raw eggs--no cake batter, no cookie or brownie batter. Only cookie batter I will eat is something like shortbread--made with just butter, flour, vanilla and sugar. It's true you're not going to get food poisoning every time you eat raw egg, but having it once is more than enough to make raw egg unpalatable for the rest of one's life. I really do hope no one else goes through what I did.

Usually I am home alone when I am baking, so I get to lick the bowl. I worry about salmonella or anything else. All the nasty animals I handle and clean up for every day....if a germ bites me, it dies.

"..been eating that way for over 70 years..."

The thing is, 70 years ago, no one was exposed to the consistently contaminated raw foods from farm factories as we are today. The world has changed, so too should your habits.

Over 300 people got so sick from Foster Farms chicken that their cases were reported to public health authorities. The number actually affected could have been 10 x or more greater.

Reread azzalea's experience. Anyone who thinks it won't happen to them is foolhardy and in denial. I'm a person who's pretty comfortable taking reasonable risks, but there's no element of carelessness with food safety that I think is worth any risk.

Eggs are pasteurized which reduces the chance of getting salmonella or other food borne illness. I'll take my chances with licking the spoon - life's too short not to, IMO. You can live your life in fear or you can just live your life.

"Eggs are pasteurized which reduces the chance of getting salmonella or other food borne illness. I'll take my chances with licking the spoon - life's too short not to, IMO. You can live your life in fear or you can just live your life."

Nope, not the case, most in shell eggs aren't pasteurized. There's one brand I know of - Davidsons - that produces pasteurized eggs. In my area, they're not always easy to find. Pricey too

I don't live my life in fear of any kind, believe me. I also try not to live my life in ignorance.

If you consider yourself a thrillseeker, try licking your fingers after handling raw poultry or hamburger. (Bacterial contamination of poultry runs over 50% with some producers). It's no worry, you just avoid cross contaminating other foods by using different counters and utensils for raw things, wash everything well with soap and water (including your hands), and cook until done.

I like the cookie dough more than the cookies. I try to restrain myself though!

I made oatmeal raisin cookies last night. I licked the spoon and the rubber scraper, but not the bowl. Yum, yum.

There were three kids in my family one of us got the bowl, two of us each got a beater.

Ha, when I was a kid I used to bake a lot, and I'd generously give my brother the beaters and take the bowl for myself. :) I will taste raw batter now to make sure it tastes ok but I don't eat much of it.