I was making "bird bread" -- a corn-bread based concoction that I feed my pet birds every morning. The egg that I broke open into the batter was ROTTEN. I have NEVER had that happen before. Anyway, I scooped out every bit of it that I could.

Then I didn't know whether it would be safe after baking or not. Instead of just throwing it all out, I decided to finish mixing (all I had left to add was water, so I wasn't "out" any more ingredients) and go ahead and bake it. I can still throw it out.

I baked it at 400*F for more than 30 minutes. Does anyone know if that is sufficient to kill any bacteria or mold? Thanks!

-- Joy F (S.Central Wisc) (CatFlunky@excite.com), December 01, 2001

Answers

Joy, I would throw it out. The baking would kill any mold and bacteria, yes, but bacteria excrete toxins, which is what makes you sick. The baking would not destroy the toxins. One would not consider roasting rotten meat and then eating it, and the same goes for eggs. On top of everything, you know how sensitive birds are... -Debbie in Missouri

-- Debbie Trimble (risingwind@socket.net), December 01, 2001.

Well, that's why they teach apprentice chefs to break each individual egg into a separate bowl (a cup would do) before adding it to the rest. When they're dealing in recipe's that talk of four dozen eggs, they really don't want to find out that about 95% of them were good, but the 48th one was the exception.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), December 01, 2001.

you should still be able to feed it to the birds,,, there arent too many birds that pass up a chance to eat something rotten anyways,, eggs or meat

-- stan (sopal@net-port.com), December 01, 2001.

I think stan is probably right.

Has anyone heard that a fresh egg lays down in a bowl of water, a rotten one floats, and in between aged eggs will still sit on the bottom, but point towards the ceiling???

-- Rick (Rick_122@hotmail.com), December 01, 2001.

Joy, I'd like to have that bird bread recipe, if you'd be willing to share it... Is it something the chickadees like, too?

-- Dawn (olsoncln@ecenet.com), December 01, 2001.

Wild birds (and chickens) are different than caged birds. Caged birds can be very sensitive to tiny amounts of toxins and the like. I wouldn't feed it to my caged birds, but I would feed it to my chickens.

-- Laura Rae Jensen (lrjensen@nwlink.com), December 01, 2001.

Thank you all for your answers. I have decided to put it out for any squirrels that want to eat it. I don't have chickens to feed it to, more's the pity. Having had overnight to think about it, I decided not to take the chance. I was just so bummed out last night, after all the work and the wasted ingredients. :-(

Yes, I will post the recipe later. I use all human-food quality ingredients, so it might be rather expensive to make for chickadees, but it's a pretty adaptable idea, so you might be able to change it a bit and make it for outdoor bird feeding.

-- Joy F (S.Central Wisc) (CatFlunky@excite.com), December 01, 2001.