Can someone please tell me, for once and for all -

[needsdirection]

is there a risk (however small) of getting salmonella from one of those chocolate puddings (cake that's not cooked all the way through, so the hot chocolate mixture oozes out of the middle - eg. Nigella's Gooey Chocolate Puddings)?

Are the eggs in the batter cooked enough to destroy any bacteria that might be present or not?

Thank you!

You are right that it is raw, uncooked batter in the middle and so is not cooked enough to kill all bacteria.

Salmonella

Salmonella bacteria are killed by temperatures above 55°C (130°F). The rate at which bacteria are destroyed depends on temperature, species, acidity (pH), and humidity (Angelotti et al.). Ten minutes at 65°C (150°F), or less than two minutes at 70°C (160°F), are both about as effective as an hour at 60°C (140°F). These times and temperatures are sufficient to kill 99.9999% of a particularly heat-resistant strain (S. senftenberg), in custard. (At any given temperature, the proportion of surviving bacteria killed in a given time is constant: it takes one sixth of these times to destroy 90% of the bacteria; one third of the time to kill 99%; half the time to kill 99.9%, and so on. A lethal dose may be as few as 500,000 bacteria.)

from here

So buy a probe & test the temp

Thanks, this is useful. Nigella's cakes are cooked for 12 mins at 200°C - so probably ok? But I will definitely buy a probe.

Yes - it is cooked for an hour at 60 but how hot is the centre you should test it when it comes out of the oven, then 1 minute later, then 2 minutes later

If the temp at zero, 1 & 2 re all above 70 then you are OK

If it isn't then when you cook the next one you leave it in longer

Sorry 12min

Probes cost about £15-£20

But remember you are talking chocolate

Thank you. Definitely need a probe. What do you mean about the chocolate?

Well it would be worth spending £50 if it meant you could eat chocolate, wouldn't it?