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Thursday, October 29, 2026Oct 29

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Side Orders: Memories of eating raw cookie dough

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Who can resist temptation when it comes to sneaking a bite of raw cookie dough? Come on, I know there are some of you out there. Just writing this makes me want to whip up a batch of chocolate chip cookies so I can have a spoonful of the sweet, buttery dough.

For baby boomers, memories may be filled with thoughts of Mom in the kitchen, reaching out with beaters fresh from the batter in hand, lovingly offering them to children anxiously awaiting their first lick before tackling the bowl.

photo Anne Braly

But eating raw batters can be considered culinary Russian roulette since raw eggs are a no-no, and most batters and doughs contain them. But we did it in our childhoods and are still here to talk about it, so perhaps those of us who “do it” on a regular basis have built up some kind of immunity?

“No, no, no,” says Dr. Karen Neil, medical epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Foodborne, Waterborne and Environmental Diseases.

There are many different strains of salmonella and E.coli – those terrible germs lurking in raw eggs used to make the delicious doughs and batters, she says.