And no, egg whites are not code for "semen"

March 23, 2014 12:51 PM

So I stupidly had some eggs in my backpack along with some books and notebooks, and while the eggs didn't break completely, they did crack a little and leak whites on my stuff. I wiped off the residue but it did get on the covers and a little on the outer rims of the pages. Does dried egg white go bad/rancid? Am I going to have to throw my books and notebooks out?
posted by Busoni to Food & Drink (4 answers total)

Best answer: I remember running across old-timey children's crafts books that recommended using egg whites instead of glue if it wasn't available when sticking paper together. It always seemed to me that there ought to be some caveat about salmonella and other raw-egg sanitation concerns, though.
posted by XMLicious at 1:01 PM on March 23, 2014

Doesn't mayonaisse go awfully rancid? That's just egg white and cooking oil.
posted by three blind mice at 1:02 PM on March 23, 2014

Best answer: Mayonnaise uses the yolk.

You should be fine. There are recipes out there for meringue cookies that you really don't bake, just dry.
posted by mochapickle at 1:08 PM on March 23, 2014

Best answer: If the egg white is still wet, wipe off as much as possible. Any residue that remains should be dried thoroughly. A small fan or blow dryer would work. Doing this should give you a hard, shiny, coating that you can rub/scrape off. A Magic eraser might do the trick. Any residue that remains can probably be cleaned off with a damp cloth,and again, dry thoroughly. I was going to point out what others above have noted-raw egg white is an excellent glue substitute! Make sure you separate any pages that might be stuck together. As far as rancidity or rotting goes, as long as you clean off as much as possible and THOROUGHLY dry the rest, there shouldn't be any problem.
posted by LaBellaStella at 1:17 PM on March 23, 2014 [1 favorite]