Lemon Mousse

Yesterday I made a lemon mousse from my Bill's book. He's the Aussie gourmet who's actually not hard to follow. Even so, there was one surprise that didn't jump out at me until halfway through the recipe - while the egg yolk mixture gets cooked in a double boiler, the egg white mixture doesn't get cooked at all.

Hmm, raw eggs, what to do? When I check out the internet, though, it turns out raw eggs are really par for the course when it comes to mousse. The question is how to deal with them.

Do you avoid them at all costs? Do you offer a disclaimer? Do you heed warnings? Buy pasteurized egg whites? Cook them yourself until they reach 160 degrees? Surprisingly, few cooking sites fully endorsed the strict FDA line, which is to avoid raw or undercooked eggs at all costs. Many noted the number of recipes that would be lost forever (Chocolate mousse! Baked Alaska!), stressed the relatively rare occurrence of salmonella, and suggested just risking it.

So what did we do? We risked it. And it tasted great!