Why can baked goods like cookies and cake be left out on the counter that contain eggs, but scrambled or fried eggs would need to be refrigerated?
In: Other
So cookies can sit out for two weeks (and more); cooked eggs can only sit out for two hours. They are both “cooked”, right? Yes and no.
The cookies are made with sugar and some salt. They are also dried in an oven. The moisture in them is evaporated or locked up in the sugar and salt. Without ‘free’ moisture, it is hard for the bacteria to get going.
The eggs are all protein. The cooking changes the structure of the protein and dries it out some (or a lot if you cook the hell out of it), but most eggs still have some moisture. And they don’t have anything to lock up that moisture and keep it away from bacteria. So instead it provides a whole bunch of food + moisture for the bacteria to use to grow upon. If you leave the eggs out for two hours and come back to it, you’ll see that it has started to “sweat” somewhat, and that moisture provides a great home for bacteria.
Fun fact: you can let an egg sit out a very long time…by salting it. You can crack an egg yolk into salt and then cover it in more salt and it will preserve it. Eventually, a good bacteria shows up and it results in lactic acid on the egg, which preserves it.
Also, there are dried eggs – they are dried very quickly in industrial dryers and become “powdered egg” and can last 5 year.
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