Health Concerns

Disaster Averted: Pegu Club Serves Egg-White Drinks Again

Audrey Saunders shares some good news with us about the Department of Health inspection that caused her to temporarily take raw-egg drinks off her menu at Pegu Club: “The DOH has gotten back to us and said that with the appropriate warnings (both in print and verbal from our staff) in place, we are covered. We are now free to offer raw egg drinks again — and I am very happy with the outcome. Not just for us, but for any establishment who wishes to offer raw eggs as an option.” Yes, that means the Earl Gray MarTEAni is back on the menu. In case you’re curious, here’s the Libation Goddess explaining why exactly she’d never use pasteurized eggs.

Raw eggwhites foam better and faster than pasteurized or instant whites, whose proteins have been altered by the process. The more an egg protein is heated, the more inflexible it becomes, because the protein bonds have linked together, and have formed a permanent bond with each other. This can occur through heat or mechanical action. Think in terms of whipping eggwhites into a meringue — they will whip to a point, until they “break. Pasturized eggwhites are heated to 145 degrees — and because the protein bonds are affected by the heat, they will not aerate nearly as well as raw ones.

Something to think about while you enjoy that V-Day pisco sour.

Disaster Averted: Pegu Club Serves Egg-White Drinks Again