In my experience it's not people that are worried about getting sick. It's that they just don't like eggs that much and raw eggs are even worse. So the idea of plopping an egg white into a delicious whiskey sour makes them want to gag.

I have one convert so far, but he didn't see me make the drinks, just the final result.

I'll have to try chickpea juice though since it seems logistically easier than dealing with an egg for a drink.

A lot of bartenders use aquafaba exclusively, because they can have a squeeze bottle of it behind the counter for hours, unlike egg whites.

I've seen the data being 1:10,000 to 1:20,000 eggs in the US or Europe have salmonella present. The whites are theoretically the safest part.

Immunocompromised individuals may still find these risks unacceptable, and then aquafaba or pasteurization is a great option.

Being from Europe I actually wondered how much of a difference there can be between US and EU when it comes to that issue, and this[0] StackExchange message was particularly interesting to see EU cases being much more prevalent than US ones.

I grew up with unwashed eggs and never gave it much thought, but now I guess that's one more thing to keep in mind (although I live in North America these days)

Somehow a little (probably incorrect) part of me likes to think that the unwashed eggs are more "authentic" and lead to better food - it's not rational thinking at all, and I'm not waiting for salmonella to hit me before I work at changing my mind about that :)

[0] https://cooking.stackexchange.com/a/67006

The big downside with washed eggs is the shelf life from what I understand, I happily keep unwashed eggs at room temp for ~a month, whereas I from what I understand eggs in the USA would need to be refrigerated and still wouldn't keep as long.

I get 3 weeks with my (refrigerated, American) eggs no problem. I think our American fridges probably tend to be larger than European ones, so space in it isn't at a premium.

I keep chickens and therefore get as authentic of an egg as possible.

I can't taste the difference in my eggs vs a store bought, white, washed egg.

I can easily see it, though, with a more orange yolk in the fresh eggs, which most people attribute to eating more bugs.

Serious Eats came to the same conclusion in their taste test: https://www.seriouseats.com/2010/08/what-are-the-best-eggs-c...

Thanks for this article.

The one thing I'd love to see however is whether we'd find the same proportions of nutrients in a more scientific breakdown too. Humans aren't necessarily able to know purely from the experience itself if something is healthier than something else for them, we're more wired to detect if something is problematic or not and also prone to a whole lot of suggestion. While the tasting test seems to show that the immediate experience isn't conclusively discernible, it doesn't tell us anything about long-term health effects (understandably so, they're not egg-researchers dedicating decade-long funding to figure that one out!).

Ive had the same experience, but it does feel better to crack a spotted green egg than a chalk white one.

In the UK eggs are unwashed and unrefrigerated by law, but as that other StackExchange answer says, eggs sold in supermarkets are all from vaccinated chickens, so salmonella from eggs is basically non-existent. The NHS even says it's fine for pregnant women to eat raw eggs.