My mom always made this pie at Christmas using crushed candy canes. She has never told my dad that this pie contains raw eggs. On that note, I've always dunked raw eggs into boiling water for about fifteen seconds before I break them. I read somewhere that that will kill salmonella on the shell, but use your own best judgement in this regard. I'm sure an equivalent amount of pasteurized egg product would work too, I've just never tried it.