Fat Tuesday: Creme Brulee and Refrigerated Eggs

Let me lay it on you plainly. I have not felt like cooking lately. There are no gastronomic creations brewing in my brain and I have little motivation to go the grocery store. Sunday I literally had a green pepper and some peanut butter and that was about it. 

So, I don't have an amazing recipe to share today, but what I do have is a delectable treat that I had recently on a delectable night. 

I've been venturing downtown on nights I've been bored with the intent of finding some good photographs when there aren't many people around. However, I've been both pleasantly surprised and mildly irritated to visit downtown and see it teeming with people. Including a Thursday night a few weeks ago when I strolled past the fountain at Campus Martius because of the abnormally large crowd gathered there. 

And what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a band in the band shell, and cafe seating next to the fountain! I abandoned my pursuit of photos and opted for a glass of wine and dessert seen here:

Nope, those swirls of syrup are not painted on the plate. 

I'll be honest, I don't know much about creme brulee. I think it has a weird texture and an odd combination of sweetness and pastiness. Nevertheless, the after picture looks something like this:

Except it was creme brulee and not chocolate cake. 

It was tasty and I enjoyed it, along with the music bouncing off the downtown buildings. 

Are you ready for a great segue? So, creme brulee has a few ingredients, one of which is eggs. Which reminds me of a conversation I had this weekend where the question came up, why do we refrigerate eggs? 

(See great segue!) The question arose as I was listening to my friend share tales of her stint while WWOOFing. While staying at the farm, she noticed that the farmer did not refrigerate eggs. While at the time I forgot, I later remembered my sister sharing that in Europe eggs are purchased off the shelf, not the refrigerated section. 

While no consensus was reached, it was decided that Google would need to be consulted later. (Side note, Google is not a strange word in spellcheck.) During my trip to the grocery store (remember I only had a green pepper and peanut butter) I remembered this question as I pulled eggs out of the refrigerator, only to notice that the package says to keep eggs chilled at 40 degrees or cooler. 

How can it be that a farmer in Georgia can keep eggs out for weeks, but we consumers need to keep our eggs chilled? Well, I spent some time trying to find an answer to this question and didn't find anything really concrete. Most of these sources are not exactly what I would call reliable, but I think it gets the gist. 

Apparently, eggs produced on massive farms are more highly susceptible to disease, such as salmonella, which I read is found in hen poop. Because of this, farmers are required to wash their eggs (and because we don't really like hen poop). 

While washing gets all that nasty hen poop off the egg, it apparently also takes off the natural protective coating that protects the egg from other diseases. Since that protective coating is no longer there, we now have to keep the eggs cool, lest disease gets in. 

Therefore, in countries where eggs are not required to be washed, eggs can stay out longer without refrigeration, but we are led to believe that they are more susceptible to hen poop. In other words, if you know where your eggs are coming from (i.e. small farms like the one in Georgia or the Alps of Switzerland) then you are less likely to see disease and able to get away without washing or refrigerating eggs. 

Naturally, after this breakthrough, I found the Egg Safety Center's website (Egg Safety Center!!!) to help clear up some loose ends.