Runny Eggs Are Raw Chicken
+JMJ
Note: When I started this blog, I was determined not to pressure myself into having a quota of “happy” or “positive” posts. I am, by nature, quite cynical and more of a pessimist than an optimist. (I totally don’t mind if you said, “Thank you, Captain Obvious!” just now.) It was only this year that I admitted this to myself and made the decision that I was not going to beat myself up over it.
I also refuse to use the euphemism “realist” to describe my disposition. I don’t doubt that actual realists exist, but I suspect that many who call themselves realists do so because they are too ashamed to call themselves pessimists. I believe that pessimism and optimism, in and of themselves, are morally neutral. What we do with them can be right or wrong, but I do not believe that it is inherently “better” to be one or the other.
With that in mind, I am still VERY interested in including light-hearted, fun, and/or heartwarming posts on this blog. This one will be in the light-hearted category.
I am also VERY interested in hearing your ideas for topics in these categories. (I am open to hearing your ideas about “heavier” topics as well, but I have no shortage of those.) If you have any ideas, please feel free to share them with me via the Contact Form on here or offline if we know each other there.
The 18th season of Hell’s Kitchen premiered this Friday, and this reminded me of a recurring theme that I’m sure every viewer of the show will recognize. In just about every episode, there will be at least one instance of someone sending up undercooked chicken and Gordon Ramsay yelling, “It’s RAW! You’ll KILL someone!”
As my mom pointed out several years ago, Gordon and the other Masterchef judges have double standards when it comes to undercooked chicken vs. undercooked eggs. You don’t see it much on Hell’s Kitchen, but many episodes of Masterchef show the judges fangirling over dishes featuring “runny eggs,” such as eggs Benedict and egg yolk ravioli.
Is there really any difference between undercooked chicken and runny eggs, in terms of salmonella risk? This is both a rhetorical and actual question. My guess is that there is not, although I don’t know that for sure. (And I am also open to the belief that salmonella risk in the U.S. is sometimes overblown. I also admit that I want that to be true. I am not prepared to commit to a lifetime without raw cookie dough.)
I don’t think that Gordon & Co. are under the impression that runny eggs are safer than undercooked chicken. So I think their biggest problem with undercooked chicken is one or both of the following:
1) A perception problem, in which case it would be more accurate for Gordon to say, “It’s RAW! They’ll think you’re trying to KILL them!” ; and/or
2) An aesthetic problem, in which case he could say, “It’s RAW! You’re going to GROSS THEM OUT!”
(I realize that these lines are clunky and wouldn’t play well on TV, so they were not real suggestions.)
FYI – my mom is grossed out as much by runny eggs as undercooked chicken. I used to feel the same way until I tasted the awesomeness that is a runny egg. Disclaimer: I don’t eat them very often, and I don’t eat them on literally everything like a lot of hipsters and “foodies” do.
Fun fact: I consider myself a “poorly aspiring foodie.”
Translation: “I’d like to be a foodie, but I love the drive-thru too much.”
The struggle is real.
Verso l’alto,
Megan