eggs and carbonara

The rule with carbonara, as with nearly all Italian dishes, is that the freshest and highest quality raw ingredients rule. If that happens to be organic, great. Otherwise get what you can. (Historic note: it's believed the dish was actually invented after WWII with powered eggs donated as food aid by the US. Freshness then took a back seat the availability).

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Thank you for the prompt reply and interesting facts. I was actually more worried about the possibility of getting ill from the organic eggs, versus the regular pasteurized ones.

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ChefOno added about 1 year ago

The risk is the same with conventional and organic shell eggs, which is low but not zero. Advances in safety place current estimates of contamination at only 1 out of every 20,000 eggs.

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ChefOno added about 1 year ago

…in the U.S.

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Thank you, that helps a lot.

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bigpan added about 1 year ago

Organic or not, only you will know. Any egg "taste" is covered with the taste of the pancetta and Parmesan. The trick is to slightly temper the beaten eggs in a bowl with a small bit of the pasta water - then stir into the pasta off the heat so the egg thickens with the heat of the pasta alone.
My Italian ex mother in law also added fresh peas to the pasta - which added a nice taste and color.
Make sure to use pancetta and not the overly chemicalized package bacon.

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