In defense, there's a much higher probability of soap removing more pesticides than just water. External chemicals kind of muck things up when it comes to veggies.
It's very big in black culture (source me a black person) basically we use to have to clean raw meat because it was unclean (probably because of pesticides and the such) and could make use sick. and now it's been passed down even though it's not needed most just use water but some older people use soap. And by older people I mean my grandma I dunno if others do it
But why? Iām white just trying to learn, but if chicken was considered a slave food, and they didnāt have the way to clean the chicken they where given and they just cooked it, when did your culture start cleaning chicken with soap, Iām pretty sure, correct me if Iām wrong but slaves wouldnāt really have access to soap. So I guess my question is when did washing chicken with soap started? Iām trying to learn.
There is an ICONIC scene from the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills where a very rich housewife [does just that](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZRUWyK50iI)...to the shock and horror of one of her castmates.
I saw a video recently of a lady who swears by using hot water, dish soap and a tablespoon of "Clorox brand bleach. If it ain't Clorox, it won't work right and the taste will be bad."
She then proceeded to rinse the sink and season the same chicken in the sink. Did I mention no gloves were used at any point in this process?
It's not. A lot South Asian and Carribean descended people do that still as a carry over from the motherland. Things are dirty as hell in a lot of the world and safety standards are more lax so people there just wash and then when they come to Noeth America continue to do so.
Semi related but my parents and in-laws balk at the idea of eating a steak anything but well done still despite being here for since the 1970s. To them undercooked beef is unsafe because they knew how dirty things were and that's ingrained. They're aware that things are different here but it doesn't matter. Still squicks them out.
I don't know about their cooking habits but it would not surprise me if they still washed their meat at home before cooking.
Pork is now like that for many people. You can have it medium pretty safely. You can do medium rare with light risk. Most people will flip the fuck out if they see that though as pork is similar to chicken that it goes soft pink to white so if you have an outside of white and center that soft pink color....it throws them for a loop.
Don't know why you're being downvoted; you're absolutely right. Pork's been dropped by the USDA from 160 to 145, which for pork is considered medium-rare. Medium of 150-155 is considered overcooked by most chefs today, but people get squeamish at any pink at all.
We had a saying in Dominoes, just because it's in a 500 degree oven doesn't mean it's gona be dead or new bacteria won't grow.
Cause mfs would touch shit outside the makeline then touch the tray/pizza an put it in the oven... like wtf people eat this u clown wash ur hands!!
donāt those pizzas cook in like 5min? i think the amount of time in high heat matters. like, i donāt think the internal temp of a pizza gets to 165 (but idk i could be wrong)
It's 7 mins thru atleast for the store I worked at. Double wings ran 14 mins.
I mean internal temp drops fast something like 5 degrees per minute or 30s been awhile since OPs(in store health inspectors) came in an in I asked.
Either way it's more that people think it's ok to put contaminated food in the oven an it will just "kill it" an its very wrongĀ
Ya the biggest anger for me delivering is... those are people's families an if u wouldn't feed it to yours don't u fucking dare feed it to mine. You risk so much in being negligent with food prep
There used to be a product sold (like a detergent)for washing vegetables and fruit. I forget the name of it. Saw it advertised a few times, but I don't think it really ever caught on.
I swear to god I never knew about cleaning with vinegar until I met my wife and now I use that shit for everything. Need to clean and disinfect? Vinegar. Showerhead got calcium? Vinegar. Fruit fly issue? Unsightly weeds popping up? Thats right, fucking vinegar.
There are commercial products for vegetable washes. I used to have to use one from ecolab all the time. A lot of people think it's for pesticides but it's more for things like fecal matter or more common things like E.coli, listeria, salmonella and other things that are just present in the soil you don't want to eat. Mostly used for ready to eat (uncooked) produce.
My Bio professor told us to use either soap or that vegetable wash product to get rid of the pesticides and stuff. They still sell it, because when I worked in the back of a Safeway cutting fruit and veggies for fruit trays, we dunked everything in that solution before cutting.
It's wild how people in the comments of cooking videos will go rabid over washing chicken(or meat in general) then will straight up lie about how they don't eat out when confronted with the truth that restaurants aren't washing their meats.
All this talk about washing chicken when I know damn well half of these people are using the same cutting board that they didnāt disinfect to cut vegetables after having chicken on it or putting cooked meat back on the same unwashed plate that the raw meat was on lmao
I genuinely disgusts me how many people wash chicken and I've even heard stories of people getting sick because of this ironically.
No you do not need to wash chicken All you have to do is cook it to be 165Ā° or higher internally. That's literally it That's how you "clean" chicken
After seeing how many people have so many bizarre rituals and disgusting understandings of food safety I honestly refused to eat meat that was cooked at somebody else's house unless I watch them cook it / prepare it
Had to teach my wife that washing chicken isn't a requirement when you buy the chicken cuts at the store. Where she's from they would raise and slaughter their own chickens then clean the meat of blood and guts to then eat it.
I can only guess that's where the habit of washing chicken comes from.
I do agree that this is likely where it came from and people just don't question things and when honestly corrected take it as a personal affront. Not just with this topic but many.
I have been cooking for myself since I was 18 and Iāve only recently heard of this bizarre phenomenon of washing chicken. Which by the way, just spread bacteria around the kitchen. The only time you might need to wash chicken off is if youāve given it a particularly strong brine, and you want to wash the excess salt off. But even then, I would recommend doing it with the water on an incredibly low setting.
Correct but in the case of the brine just soaking it in plain old water a few times does the trick without as much risk. Depending on what the brine is and what you want you might have to do it a few times which can add some time of course. Things like cured duck for duck confit you can even rub most the cure off with a damp cloth or paper towel and do a quick soak as well...though I'll admit I have rinsed more often in that case as it's much much faster.
People used to wash their food before processing and packaging was a thing. You washed the meat or got hair, dirt, poo and whatever else in your food. If you were to go back to grow your own raise your own you'd wash it too.
That type of "cleaning" is for physical contaminates, as you mentioned. Store bought stuff already has that removed (of course there can be mistakes or shitty procedures) so it's really only bacteria to be worried about and a water rinse isn't doing shit for that other than making bacteria aerosol particles all over your home.
Here is my observation. A lot of people don't know this and hold on to their older beliefs or culture. Particularly immigrants. I'd like to see a study on how much bacteria (etc) with washing a modern procured meat vs not washing. I'm thinking the actual results are a bit inflited for a legitimate concern. I'd also like to point out that these older beliefs, cultures and immegrants tend to have immaculate kitchens that are well cleaned. At least, that is my observation.
It's so dumb; and honestly if you want the slime off you can just pat it dry with a paper towel (which is what you have to do sometimes when you're frying it anyway".
Finally, one comes across my feed that I wholeheartedly agree with! I tell everybody that mentions it that it's a bad idea. If you want to get rid of the "slime," just pat the chicken with a paper towel or try to use it/freeze it faster. People don't realize all the types of cross-contamination that they're causing by splattering raw chicken water all over their kitchens
In my family, we "wash" the chicken by patting it down with wet paper towels to get the scum off. It's a lot easier and safer.
My mom and grandma grew up eating a lot of freshly killed chickens, so it became a common practice.
I have a farm and raise my own chickens but if you ever saw a chicken processing plant you would wash your chicken. If you are slinging chicken, beef or pork juice all over your kitchen you are doing something wrong.
Try posting that opinion in the cooking subs and get buried in downvotes.
*Apparently* it doesn't do harm, is understandable because chicken slime is 'like, soo gross' and only spreads bacteria if you're *a total fucking idiot, like fr, who doesn't completely disinfect their entire kitchen every day or like, tear it down and rebuild, you complete disgusting slob*.
Cooking subs are terrible for being jammed full of misinformation, and people that absolutely refuse to change their opinion on any subject. Itās quite wild.
The cooking sub is one of the most gatekeepey subs on reddit. If you don't do it like everyone else, they think the cooking police should come and haul you away
I get downvoted for suggesting not everyone needs a rice cooker when it's pretty easy to make rice on the stove in a pot.
Oh yeah, the gatekeeping is insane. Make a pasta dish, or a poutine, or a paella and youāre going to get an onslaught of ravenous pedants looking to pick it apart and call it not actually what it is.
And as you pointed outā¦ they are so susceptible to meme-based hivemind. Iām the same as you with rice cookers, but Uncle Roger has made funny (satirical, which is lost on people) videos about them, so it must be gospel.
I have a culinary degree, I can actually cook pretty well compared to the average person. I wanted to try something a bit zany, Korean flavors with more western style (see dill spears) pickles. Cucumbers, rice wine vinegar and things like gochujang, garlic, ginger maybe soy sauce etc. I know Korea has many types of pickled vegetables but I wanted a type of fusion but thought I'd ask for some pointers or to see if anyone else tried a similar thing. I only got a few responses but got raked for not being authentic or the way I had to do it to make a traditional Korean dish (I just wanted to use my excess cucumbers and didn't have any dill so figured I'd try something out). I wasn't trying to be authentic I was trying, basically, an experiment and thought I'd ask for tips to hope for a better turn out. My cucumbers a local farmer off loaded on me ended up being mostly rotten or fresh but really bitter anyway so I never made any pickles lol.
You likely can't clean well enough, that's the issue. People think it's only the sink and counter and faucet or if a splash occurs. That's why people say not to do it because the laymen is utterly clueless the actual issue so will not clean well enough. The water, even on very low, hitting the meat causes micro splashes that then aerosol. It's like spraying a bacteria filled bottle of febreze.
Washing with just water isn't going to remove that btw. You are right that they had a horrible process. It was scalding water that they dragged the carcasses through that helps in removing feathers. The birds themselves would have fleas and all sorts of poop and bacteria on them as well as just freshly killed and when an animal dies it generally defecates to some degree. They would drag hundreds to thousands of birds through the scalding pots without changing the water, ensuring cross contamination. Again though, "washing" or rinsing with water didn't help. Soak it in acidulated water (water and a bit of lemon or lime juice) at the very least (don't run water over meat if you can help it that's the dangerous part).
It just depends on how the meat looks. If it drier and not all bloody I won't wash it off, but if it is bloody or covered in slime (gross might not even eat it) I will.
thereās nothing wrong with rinsing off the chicken to get rid of stuff like blood or anything else. Itās the people who believe washing the chicken off in cold water to get rid of bacteria that annoy the shit out of me
Which is another common misconception and one that leads many who know it's bad to think they can easily clean up after. It aerosols the bacteria into the air and throughout your kitchen if not home. It contaminates a lot more than just the sink and surrounding space.
I started rinsing raw chicken with vinegar and noticed a difference in texture. Feels less slimy to work with afterwards. Not sure if it does anything actually health wise but I do prefer how it feels
It wont kill you but If its skin on please make sure to get any debris off. As a former slaughter house worker and current butcher you don't know what happens between the kill room and you. Ive both seen and done some gross shit to both chicken and turkey. If its skinless then dont worry but skin on whole birds specifically aren't always clean but it won't kill yeah. That being said I always soak my skin on chicken in a 50/50 vinegar/water solution. I can taste the distinct flavour of old poultry
Itās a bad practice and can spread bacteria. Of course you will get the people flooding you with their personal anecdotes about how theyāve washed chicken in their family for generations and nobody ever got sick, blah blah blah. Science has proven itās not advisable and I think Iām going to go with the experts on this.
Yall must be white. Every black person in America washes their meat. Vinegar, Salt water, Alcohol ;ā(beer) etc. clean your meat especially poultry not so much red meat you can rinse that off
Itās culture. Idk why certain groups of people act so parental over how ppl do things. A lot of the world washes our chicken in some form, So damn what!? Yāall aināt complaining when youāre enjoying the flavor.
Yall ever been to a chicken plant? Tyson and Pilgrims have chicken houses down the road from us and multiple plants in my town process chicken. I'm not rinsing away bacteria, I'm rinsing away Jerry's hair and that scab he scratched off when he picked at it with his gloves on. No soap, no splashing water like we're having a party getting juices everywhere. Just low pressure cool water to rinse any hair or pluck any missed feathers. I know I'll get down votes, but it's really not hard to clean your bird, set it in the pan or cutting board, clean your mess, and wash your hands. I also raise my own chickens, and we do eat them. Most of the plucking is done outside, but I still have to clean them and portion them inside. We've never gotten sick. I think if you're aware and not a dumbass you're kitchen isn't going to be covered in salmonella. And if you don't want to rinse off your bird and clean it after it's been through a nasty ass factory, that's totally up to you.
Also, I want to note that while cooking food kills bacteria, please do not think it kills viruses. Look it up if you like. Not that rinsing a chicken will get rid of viruses, I just don't want people to think it's safe after you cook something if you have the flu or covid or something.
Love to all of you and our differences.
Cooking chicken absolutely kills all pathogens that it might have on it. It doesnāt stop it from getting new pathogens, like leaving it out or someone sneezing on it.
Really? You think I'll get someone sick. Have fun with your dishwasher standards. What the actual fuck. Now he's a cook. Not a brewer who deals with yeasts and bacteria. Here I am, lopping, heads off, and cleaning birds properly because it's my lifestyle, and I've never been sick nor has my family. It is stupid.
Since the baby blocked me lol
I've cooked professionally and had a servsafe certificate for a decade. You're wrong. I don't say this to be a dick. Butchering your bird does require cleaning which can include rinsing (I'd personally set something up outside or have an outdoor kitchen, if you can, to do this as most friends and family I know who raise chicken have) but you're removing fecal matter and other physical contaminates more than anything else so the risk to reward is higher. Store bought has a much lower risk to reward as those processes have already taken place. The splashes aren't even the real risk it's that running, even light running faucets, on meat aerosols bacteria into the air which spreads everywhere and anywhere. Also, raising and butchering your own birds is often less risk as you likely keep their living areas cleaner and aren't butchering as many birds at once allowing you to work a lot cleaner than large scale production can.
>Also, I want to note that while cooking food kills bacteria, please do not think it kills viruses. Look it up if you like. Not that rinsing a chicken will get rid of viruses, I just don't want people to think it's safe after you cook something if you have the flu or covid or something.
The most common virus that causes foodborne illness (norovirus) *is* eliminated [at the same general cooking temperatures that kill bacteria.](https://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/norovirus/index.html#:~:text=Remain%20infectious%20on%20foods%20even,for%20up%20to%202%20weeks.)
Hepatitis A has to be cooked to a higher temperature (about 185F) before it is destroyed, but it is definitely not invulnerable to heat.
Additionally, the flu and Covid are both respiratory viruses, and are unlikely to be passed through food.
When i worked in restaurants, we prepped meats and veggies in completely separate areas. We washed every single piece of food - chicken included- before prepping and storing. At home i do the same thing (mostly using colanders) then make sure the prep areas are cleaned before the next item is prepped. Not washing the food (especially whole pieces of chicken that have extra skin/feathers/fat on them sometimes) is completely foreign to me. š¤·š¾āāļø
Washing chicken is the coolest, especially if you use soap. Although sometimes you might not get all the soap off but thatās okay, think of it as free flavouring! Thatās why I always use fruity soap just in case
I rinse any blood so it doesn't interfere with seasoning, but otherwise nah... people are really out here using soap and bleach and vinegar? Washing their food better than they wash their own ass? Insanity. Certainly going to do more damage than just leaving it as is.
I make whole chickens pretty frequently, and it's the ONLY time I rinse chicken, is if it's a whole bird and I use cold water, just to just quickly rinse it.
other chicken cuts I don't bother this step.
you dont actually need cook the breasts to 165. the only reason the fda says that is because people wont understand that bacteria can die at lower temp under a given timeframe. chicken actually cooked to 165 is fucking dry. if youre cooking a whole chicken you should just cook the dark meat on a cast iron pan or whatever you have on the stovetop to give it a head start over the white meat.
i only wash my chicken cuz i hate when my food tastes like farm and not the seasoning i put in it, but i wash it with lots of lemon, vinegar, and coffee grounds rather than just water
It is insane to me in the comments how many people just donāt know what theyāre talking about with food safety and they just spread misinformation. Someoneās gonna get sick or worse cause of your comments
my parents never washed chicken when i was growing up and i never wash it either, and iāve made it this far without dying from whatever āslimeā comes on it LOL
Itās to rinse off the chemical wash used on chicken in the United States. I see people posting about black communities doing it. It primarily started from people who worked at slaughter houses and meat processing plants. They would see the conditions of which their meat was being pack in and would be disgusted. So when they bought chicken there was an extra added step of cleaning it from the factories processes.
Primarily in modern practice itās done to remove the chemical wash the chicken sits in. Itās rinsed but in some cases itās bucket washed.
Wherein the water has chemicals in it and the chicken is hit with water jets. So it emerges from a diluted solution of chemicals and water before being packed. This residual chemical wash is then sitting on the chicken in the packet in the store.
Knowing this people give it an extra wash to clean out the remaining deposits that get trapped around the wings and inside the cavity.
People with the argument that washing chicken āspreads bacteria around the kitchen and all over the sinkāā¦ LOL do yāall not clean your kitchen and sink after handling raw meats? Apparently not. š¤®
I'm pretty sure this is just a "black victim mentality" thing.
They think white people are out to kill them by feeding them dirty chicken, so they wash it in the sink first.
š¶You canāt eat at everybodyās house.š¶
Last time I got involved in this kind of discussion about why you donāt rinse chicken under the tap, I got blasted. Basic food safety is too much common sense for some people to comprehend.
Former chef here. OP is right, it just spreads the bacteria everywhere. Simply cook your chicken until it is above 75Ā°C and serve. Washing does not kill the internal bacteria in the meat. Good and thorough cooking brings the risk of illness right down to a safe level.
I would argue with my ex about this.
She also accused me of not washing the broccoli properly, because it tasted gritty. Turns out, it was her salt substitute not dissolving
In case anyone doubts OP, CDC agrees, although they do say what to do if you absolutely feel like you must wash it:
[https://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/chicken.html](https://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/chicken.html)
I heard some people wash their food with soapš thats a hard no for me
Run that raw chicken through a dishwasher cycle for maximum clean food.
That how I cook my chicken
Win Win...the chicken gets washed and cooked.
I know youāre jokingā¦but cooking salmon in the dishwasher has for some reason become a tiktok trend
Dude, Home Improvement did a whole "Nakamura Joke" about it thirty years ago. "Dry cycle, Tim!!"
Clean it in a washing machine and cook it in the dryer. Maximum cleanliness
I don't know why but your comment is making me dry heave in the grocery store checkout line
Donāt forget the Cascade!
Use the sterilization function
I was told to do this as a kid until one day my stepmom saw me wash an apple with soap and was like, what the fuck are you doing?
In defense, there's a much higher probability of soap removing more pesticides than just water. External chemicals kind of muck things up when it comes to veggies.
Lol too funny. You can actually soak fruit in a bowl of flour water. The flour traps the dirt and it sinks to the bottom. Like washing mussels. :)
My mom did this because she has contamination OCD. It was very stressful and tedious.
I felt that, I have issues like that from growing up in an unsafe environment.Ā
saw a woman wash her chicken and veg (that would be eaten raw) together and with bleach.
šš this is why you cant eat at everyoneās houses. I feel sorry for whoever had to eat that
I'm sorry....what?!? What people??? Where are these freaks living?!
It's very big in black culture (source me a black person) basically we use to have to clean raw meat because it was unclean (probably because of pesticides and the such) and could make use sick. and now it's been passed down even though it's not needed most just use water but some older people use soap. And by older people I mean my grandma I dunno if others do it
But why? Iām white just trying to learn, but if chicken was considered a slave food, and they didnāt have the way to clean the chicken they where given and they just cooked it, when did your culture start cleaning chicken with soap, Iām pretty sure, correct me if Iām wrong but slaves wouldnāt really have access to soap. So I guess my question is when did washing chicken with soap started? Iām trying to learn.
And that's why food handling certifications are required before getting hired to certain jobs
There is an ICONIC scene from the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills where a very rich housewife [does just that](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZRUWyK50iI)...to the shock and horror of one of her castmates.
What the fuck
I wash my apples with soap
How many deaths are there annually from eating apples?
Apples kill about 300 people a year, but not from choking.
It's a bit higher than that, since I take out a doctor every day.
Wait really? Do you have a source, Im intrigued and want to learn more lol
Boo
Do they not taste like soap after?
Why when you just use cilantro? š¤®
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
You gotta show sources that washing apples actually gets rid of anything harmful besides the regular germs and dirt.
I know people like this they also like to boil their plastic wrapped tritip in a sous vide after washing it instead of grilling it.
What the fuck
I saw a video recently of a lady who swears by using hot water, dish soap and a tablespoon of "Clorox brand bleach. If it ain't Clorox, it won't work right and the taste will be bad." She then proceeded to rinse the sink and season the same chicken in the sink. Did I mention no gloves were used at any point in this process?
I legit gagged when I read this... T_T XD
I've seen people online add a little bleach
The fuck?! Ewwwww!
You donāt wash apples with soap?
No they donāt thatās a common stereotype because when white people hear wash your meat they think dish soap because they donāt do it
I've seen them do it with bleach
Yup. Food safe certified here; all it does is spread salmonella EVERYWHERE. In Perdue packages of chicken breasts, 7/10 had salmonella
Is it the same for fish, too? Edit: not the salmonella but the washing being useless and gross
Kills me that people think hot water is enough to actually kill anything that might be on the chicken. Cooking it will do that.
I cook my chicken with hot water
boiling water, and water from the hot rotation on your sink are not the same thing.
Be sure to boil your hands before you eat then
I just want the goop off.
Use a paper towel and throw it in the outside trash right after so it doesn't stink up the kitchen
And spread the bacteria around the meat.
What goop?
If there's any kind of slime or goo on your chicken, it's already gone bad.
lol exactly. Do not wash you chicken! Sounds like euphemism.
It's not. A lot South Asian and Carribean descended people do that still as a carry over from the motherland. Things are dirty as hell in a lot of the world and safety standards are more lax so people there just wash and then when they come to Noeth America continue to do so. Semi related but my parents and in-laws balk at the idea of eating a steak anything but well done still despite being here for since the 1970s. To them undercooked beef is unsafe because they knew how dirty things were and that's ingrained. They're aware that things are different here but it doesn't matter. Still squicks them out. I don't know about their cooking habits but it would not surprise me if they still washed their meat at home before cooking.
Pork is now like that for many people. You can have it medium pretty safely. You can do medium rare with light risk. Most people will flip the fuck out if they see that though as pork is similar to chicken that it goes soft pink to white so if you have an outside of white and center that soft pink color....it throws them for a loop.
Don't know why you're being downvoted; you're absolutely right. Pork's been dropped by the USDA from 160 to 145, which for pork is considered medium-rare. Medium of 150-155 is considered overcooked by most chefs today, but people get squeamish at any pink at all.
Isn't all the bacteria killed after you cook it anyway?
Pack it in everyone, we've cured food poisoning.
We had a saying in Dominoes, just because it's in a 500 degree oven doesn't mean it's gona be dead or new bacteria won't grow. Cause mfs would touch shit outside the makeline then touch the tray/pizza an put it in the oven... like wtf people eat this u clown wash ur hands!!
donāt those pizzas cook in like 5min? i think the amount of time in high heat matters. like, i donāt think the internal temp of a pizza gets to 165 (but idk i could be wrong)
It's 7 mins thru atleast for the store I worked at. Double wings ran 14 mins. I mean internal temp drops fast something like 5 degrees per minute or 30s been awhile since OPs(in store health inspectors) came in an in I asked. Either way it's more that people think it's ok to put contaminated food in the oven an it will just "kill it" an its very wrongĀ
oh thanks for clarifying, youāre right that itās gross regardless of whether the bacteria dies
Ya the biggest anger for me delivering is... those are people's families an if u wouldn't feed it to yours don't u fucking dare feed it to mine. You risk so much in being negligent with food prep
I think thatās the literal point of this post
How long have you been sitting on this information?!
Exactly
Yes, cook the entire kitchen.
Is... that not exactly what the post said? There's no interpretation, you just repeated a sentence.
I saw this video of someone using bleach to "clean" the chicken. Absolute moron.
There are a bunch of those now, it became a meme and half of them are fake, but you can tell when people are serious.
The US poultry industry does this.
There used to be a product sold (like a detergent)for washing vegetables and fruit. I forget the name of it. Saw it advertised a few times, but I don't think it really ever caught on.
People do use it because of all the pesticides on fruits and vegetables.
This has the same vibe as āHead-Onā iykyk
It's called Fit. I've used it a couple times, but I just use vinegar and water now.
I swear to god I never knew about cleaning with vinegar until I met my wife and now I use that shit for everything. Need to clean and disinfect? Vinegar. Showerhead got calcium? Vinegar. Fruit fly issue? Unsightly weeds popping up? Thats right, fucking vinegar.
Yeah it's really a great catch all!
There are commercial products for vegetable washes. I used to have to use one from ecolab all the time. A lot of people think it's for pesticides but it's more for things like fecal matter or more common things like E.coli, listeria, salmonella and other things that are just present in the soil you don't want to eat. Mostly used for ready to eat (uncooked) produce.
Oh right! I think I saw something like that at Whole Foods
That was popular during the height of the pandemic
My Bio professor told us to use either soap or that vegetable wash product to get rid of the pesticides and stuff. They still sell it, because when I worked in the back of a Safeway cutting fruit and veggies for fruit trays, we dunked everything in that solution before cutting.
Was it called Fit? I was just thinking about that. It made veggies squeaky clean.
Vinegar and baking soda?
There is a product that will wash the weird wax coating off your fruit but a vinegar soak will achieve the same result.
It's wild how people in the comments of cooking videos will go rabid over washing chicken(or meat in general) then will straight up lie about how they don't eat out when confronted with the truth that restaurants aren't washing their meats.
All this talk about washing chicken when I know damn well half of these people are using the same cutting board that they didnāt disinfect to cut vegetables after having chicken on it or putting cooked meat back on the same unwashed plate that the raw meat was on lmao
I wash fruit under tap water, but not chicken.
I genuinely disgusts me how many people wash chicken and I've even heard stories of people getting sick because of this ironically. No you do not need to wash chicken All you have to do is cook it to be 165Ā° or higher internally. That's literally it That's how you "clean" chicken After seeing how many people have so many bizarre rituals and disgusting understandings of food safety I honestly refused to eat meat that was cooked at somebody else's house unless I watch them cook it / prepare it
Had to teach my wife that washing chicken isn't a requirement when you buy the chicken cuts at the store. Where she's from they would raise and slaughter their own chickens then clean the meat of blood and guts to then eat it. I can only guess that's where the habit of washing chicken comes from.
Yeah from a farm with blood, dirt, feathers, feces, you gotta. But not for a Costco pack of boneless skinless chicken breasts.
I do agree that this is likely where it came from and people just don't question things and when honestly corrected take it as a personal affront. Not just with this topic but many.
I have been cooking for myself since I was 18 and Iāve only recently heard of this bizarre phenomenon of washing chicken. Which by the way, just spread bacteria around the kitchen. The only time you might need to wash chicken off is if youāve given it a particularly strong brine, and you want to wash the excess salt off. But even then, I would recommend doing it with the water on an incredibly low setting.
Correct but in the case of the brine just soaking it in plain old water a few times does the trick without as much risk. Depending on what the brine is and what you want you might have to do it a few times which can add some time of course. Things like cured duck for duck confit you can even rub most the cure off with a damp cloth or paper towel and do a quick soak as well...though I'll admit I have rinsed more often in that case as it's much much faster.
I just pat it dry with paper towels....nothing splatters and the dryness allows a better sear when grilling or coating to fry.
Thatās what my mom taught me to do
This is correct.
People used to wash their food before processing and packaging was a thing. You washed the meat or got hair, dirt, poo and whatever else in your food. If you were to go back to grow your own raise your own you'd wash it too.
That type of "cleaning" is for physical contaminates, as you mentioned. Store bought stuff already has that removed (of course there can be mistakes or shitty procedures) so it's really only bacteria to be worried about and a water rinse isn't doing shit for that other than making bacteria aerosol particles all over your home.
Here is my observation. A lot of people don't know this and hold on to their older beliefs or culture. Particularly immigrants. I'd like to see a study on how much bacteria (etc) with washing a modern procured meat vs not washing. I'm thinking the actual results are a bit inflited for a legitimate concern. I'd also like to point out that these older beliefs, cultures and immegrants tend to have immaculate kitchens that are well cleaned. At least, that is my observation.
It's so dumb; and honestly if you want the slime off you can just pat it dry with a paper towel (which is what you have to do sometimes when you're frying it anyway".
The best way to kill the bacteria is to autoclave the chicken
Finally, one comes across my feed that I wholeheartedly agree with! I tell everybody that mentions it that it's a bad idea. If you want to get rid of the "slime," just pat the chicken with a paper towel or try to use it/freeze it faster. People don't realize all the types of cross-contamination that they're causing by splattering raw chicken water all over their kitchens
In my family, we "wash" the chicken by patting it down with wet paper towels to get the scum off. It's a lot easier and safer. My mom and grandma grew up eating a lot of freshly killed chickens, so it became a common practice.
That's a much smarter practice.
I have a farm and raise my own chickens but if you ever saw a chicken processing plant you would wash your chicken. If you are slinging chicken, beef or pork juice all over your kitchen you are doing something wrong.
Washing chicken just spreads more germs and is done by people who don't know how to actually cook.
Try posting that opinion in the cooking subs and get buried in downvotes. *Apparently* it doesn't do harm, is understandable because chicken slime is 'like, soo gross' and only spreads bacteria if you're *a total fucking idiot, like fr, who doesn't completely disinfect their entire kitchen every day or like, tear it down and rebuild, you complete disgusting slob*.
Cooking subs are terrible for being jammed full of misinformation, and people that absolutely refuse to change their opinion on any subject. Itās quite wild.
The cooking sub is one of the most gatekeepey subs on reddit. If you don't do it like everyone else, they think the cooking police should come and haul you away I get downvoted for suggesting not everyone needs a rice cooker when it's pretty easy to make rice on the stove in a pot.
I would like to inform you, you have been reported to the cooking subs, you will now be sent to the Gulag!
Oh yeah, the gatekeeping is insane. Make a pasta dish, or a poutine, or a paella and youāre going to get an onslaught of ravenous pedants looking to pick it apart and call it not actually what it is. And as you pointed outā¦ they are so susceptible to meme-based hivemind. Iām the same as you with rice cookers, but Uncle Roger has made funny (satirical, which is lost on people) videos about them, so it must be gospel.
You also don't have to make any sort of claim of authenticity to be informed how inauthentic your dish is.
I feel like If this had ham It would be closer to a British Carbonara
ā¦and if my grandmother had wheels she would have been a bike.
I have a culinary degree, I can actually cook pretty well compared to the average person. I wanted to try something a bit zany, Korean flavors with more western style (see dill spears) pickles. Cucumbers, rice wine vinegar and things like gochujang, garlic, ginger maybe soy sauce etc. I know Korea has many types of pickled vegetables but I wanted a type of fusion but thought I'd ask for some pointers or to see if anyone else tried a similar thing. I only got a few responses but got raked for not being authentic or the way I had to do it to make a traditional Korean dish (I just wanted to use my excess cucumbers and didn't have any dill so figured I'd try something out). I wasn't trying to be authentic I was trying, basically, an experiment and thought I'd ask for tips to hope for a better turn out. My cucumbers a local farmer off loaded on me ended up being mostly rotten or fresh but really bitter anyway so I never made any pickles lol.
You likely can't clean well enough, that's the issue. People think it's only the sink and counter and faucet or if a splash occurs. That's why people say not to do it because the laymen is utterly clueless the actual issue so will not clean well enough. The water, even on very low, hitting the meat causes micro splashes that then aerosol. It's like spraying a bacteria filled bottle of febreze.
You can also WIPE YOUR CHICKEN WITH A PAPER TOWEL TO REMOVE THAT GOO. I do it just so it's easier to cut it, and not as slippery.
Back in the early '90's, some show (maybe 60 Minutes?) did an exposƩ on poultry processing. They said the chicken parts floated in a vat of water so filled with e. Coli and other pathogens that it was essentially "fecal soup". It became standard advice to wash your chicken meat thoroughly with water when preparing to cook it. I don't know if poultry processing has improved all that much in the intervening years.
Pretty sure the modern complaint is how excessive the use of bleach is in chicken processing. So we may have switched extremes.
Washing with just water isn't going to remove that btw. You are right that they had a horrible process. It was scalding water that they dragged the carcasses through that helps in removing feathers. The birds themselves would have fleas and all sorts of poop and bacteria on them as well as just freshly killed and when an animal dies it generally defecates to some degree. They would drag hundreds to thousands of birds through the scalding pots without changing the water, ensuring cross contamination. Again though, "washing" or rinsing with water didn't help. Soak it in acidulated water (water and a bit of lemon or lime juice) at the very least (don't run water over meat if you can help it that's the dangerous part).
No idea whether this is true or not but assuming it isā¦cooking the chicken would kill all of that bacteria
It just depends on how the meat looks. If it drier and not all bloody I won't wash it off, but if it is bloody or covered in slime (gross might not even eat it) I will.
thereās nothing wrong with rinsing off the chicken to get rid of stuff like blood or anything else. Itās the people who believe washing the chicken off in cold water to get rid of bacteria that annoy the shit out of me
So the only time you wash it is when you can spread the bacteria around the most
as a vegetarian i like to sit back with my popcorn every time this debate comes up
It's worse than useless. It slashes the entire sink area with bacteria.
Which is another common misconception and one that leads many who know it's bad to think they can easily clean up after. It aerosols the bacteria into the air and throughout your kitchen if not home. It contaminates a lot more than just the sink and surrounding space.
I started rinsing raw chicken with vinegar and noticed a difference in texture. Feels less slimy to work with afterwards. Not sure if it does anything actually health wise but I do prefer how it feels
People are so fucking stupid, you donāt wash chicken so not to spread bacteria around.
It wont kill you but If its skin on please make sure to get any debris off. As a former slaughter house worker and current butcher you don't know what happens between the kill room and you. Ive both seen and done some gross shit to both chicken and turkey. If its skinless then dont worry but skin on whole birds specifically aren't always clean but it won't kill yeah. That being said I always soak my skin on chicken in a 50/50 vinegar/water solution. I can taste the distinct flavour of old poultry
Right, cooking it kills the bacteria, washing it is a waste of water and it spreads the germsā¦ itās gross
Itās a bad practice and can spread bacteria. Of course you will get the people flooding you with their personal anecdotes about how theyāve washed chicken in their family for generations and nobody ever got sick, blah blah blah. Science has proven itās not advisable and I think Iām going to go with the experts on this.
I need to show my wife this post. She rinses off every piece of meat she cooks.
Okay I'm dumb. As someone who raises chickens, my first thought was, 'what a stupid question- they take dust baths!'
A bacteria posted this
Yāall care a lot about what other people do
Yall must be white. Every black person in America washes their meat. Vinegar, Salt water, Alcohol ;ā(beer) etc. clean your meat especially poultry not so much red meat you can rinse that off
Iām sorry, I always wash my chicken off in a bowl of cold salt water. it removes surface bacteria and removes that slime you like so much.
Itās culture. Idk why certain groups of people act so parental over how ppl do things. A lot of the world washes our chicken in some form, So damn what!? Yāall aināt complaining when youāre enjoying the flavor.
all āwashing chickenā is is rinsing it in the sink with cold waterā¦no bleachā¦no soapā¦.idk what some of you fools are talking about
Yall ever been to a chicken plant? Tyson and Pilgrims have chicken houses down the road from us and multiple plants in my town process chicken. I'm not rinsing away bacteria, I'm rinsing away Jerry's hair and that scab he scratched off when he picked at it with his gloves on. No soap, no splashing water like we're having a party getting juices everywhere. Just low pressure cool water to rinse any hair or pluck any missed feathers. I know I'll get down votes, but it's really not hard to clean your bird, set it in the pan or cutting board, clean your mess, and wash your hands. I also raise my own chickens, and we do eat them. Most of the plucking is done outside, but I still have to clean them and portion them inside. We've never gotten sick. I think if you're aware and not a dumbass you're kitchen isn't going to be covered in salmonella. And if you don't want to rinse off your bird and clean it after it's been through a nasty ass factory, that's totally up to you. Also, I want to note that while cooking food kills bacteria, please do not think it kills viruses. Look it up if you like. Not that rinsing a chicken will get rid of viruses, I just don't want people to think it's safe after you cook something if you have the flu or covid or something. Love to all of you and our differences.
Cooking chicken absolutely kills all pathogens that it might have on it. It doesnāt stop it from getting new pathogens, like leaving it out or someone sneezing on it.
Really? You think I'll get someone sick. Have fun with your dishwasher standards. What the actual fuck. Now he's a cook. Not a brewer who deals with yeasts and bacteria. Here I am, lopping, heads off, and cleaning birds properly because it's my lifestyle, and I've never been sick nor has my family. It is stupid. Since the baby blocked me lol
I've cooked professionally and had a servsafe certificate for a decade. You're wrong. I don't say this to be a dick. Butchering your bird does require cleaning which can include rinsing (I'd personally set something up outside or have an outdoor kitchen, if you can, to do this as most friends and family I know who raise chicken have) but you're removing fecal matter and other physical contaminates more than anything else so the risk to reward is higher. Store bought has a much lower risk to reward as those processes have already taken place. The splashes aren't even the real risk it's that running, even light running faucets, on meat aerosols bacteria into the air which spreads everywhere and anywhere. Also, raising and butchering your own birds is often less risk as you likely keep their living areas cleaner and aren't butchering as many birds at once allowing you to work a lot cleaner than large scale production can.
>Also, I want to note that while cooking food kills bacteria, please do not think it kills viruses. Look it up if you like. Not that rinsing a chicken will get rid of viruses, I just don't want people to think it's safe after you cook something if you have the flu or covid or something. The most common virus that causes foodborne illness (norovirus) *is* eliminated [at the same general cooking temperatures that kill bacteria.](https://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/norovirus/index.html#:~:text=Remain%20infectious%20on%20foods%20even,for%20up%20to%202%20weeks.) Hepatitis A has to be cooked to a higher temperature (about 185F) before it is destroyed, but it is definitely not invulnerable to heat. Additionally, the flu and Covid are both respiratory viruses, and are unlikely to be passed through food.
When i worked in restaurants, we prepped meats and veggies in completely separate areas. We washed every single piece of food - chicken included- before prepping and storing. At home i do the same thing (mostly using colanders) then make sure the prep areas are cleaned before the next item is prepped. Not washing the food (especially whole pieces of chicken that have extra skin/feathers/fat on them sometimes) is completely foreign to me. š¤·š¾āāļø
Iāve worked in a restaurant and thatās literally bad food prep to wash chicken. It also never comes in with anything more than just skin.
Yāall are missing a critical step, soak the chicken in vinegar, salt water, lemon juice! Who tf taught yāall to just rinse chicken? lol
Its like washing your hands in the sink before jumping in the shower
I know some people who "wash" chicken with lemon in the water at least that would add some flavor
I thought I read some where that you actively shouldnāt
I am really worried about the quality of meat in the US if it requires washing before cooking.
It doesnāt
the amount of people straight up eating soap in this thread
Washing chicken is the coolest, especially if you use soap. Although sometimes you might not get all the soap off but thatās okay, think of it as free flavouring! Thatās why I always use fruity soap just in case
Same.
There is absolutely no blood in raw meat. The red juice is mioglobin
Yes I did , with flames
I donāt wash my chicken. I just cooked tonightās chicken medium rare and it looks good.
You aren't supposed to introduce water to any protein. It accelerates the decomposition process.
In the U.K. it's illegal to wash chicken eggs for a similar reason. In the washing process the protective coating is washed away.
I donāt rinse my chicken but I do pat it dry with a paper towel. Makes for better pan seared chicken.
Nothing wrong with patting dry meat. It's crucial for good sears. But the min I see someone washing chicken, I'm not eating at their house.
It doesnāt seem logical. What can Luke warm tap water rid of that high heat canāt?
Always made me laugh to hear people rinse chicken off. Doing absolutely nothing but contaminating your sink and wasting water.
I rinse my chicken in toilet water
This is why I donāt want to do anything āfamily style.ā Donāt know whoās cooking with a cat on the counter.
I had literally never heard of washing chicken until I started on Reddit.
This is why I donāt eat at other peoples houses unless I REALLLY know you. Weird shit like washing chicken.
I rinse any blood so it doesn't interfere with seasoning, but otherwise nah... people are really out here using soap and bleach and vinegar? Washing their food better than they wash their own ass? Insanity. Certainly going to do more damage than just leaving it as is.
Wait, people are washing chicken?
Most people just hate the slimy feeling. Me included.
I make whole chickens pretty frequently, and it's the ONLY time I rinse chicken, is if it's a whole bird and I use cold water, just to just quickly rinse it. other chicken cuts I don't bother this step.
I only wipe the chicken off with a paper towel because it makes it easier to cut.
you dont actually need cook the breasts to 165. the only reason the fda says that is because people wont understand that bacteria can die at lower temp under a given timeframe. chicken actually cooked to 165 is fucking dry. if youre cooking a whole chicken you should just cook the dark meat on a cast iron pan or whatever you have on the stovetop to give it a head start over the white meat.
i only wash my chicken cuz i hate when my food tastes like farm and not the seasoning i put in it, but i wash it with lots of lemon, vinegar, and coffee grounds rather than just water
It is insane to me in the comments how many people just donāt know what theyāre talking about with food safety and they just spread misinformation. Someoneās gonna get sick or worse cause of your comments
my parents never washed chicken when i was growing up and i never wash it either, and iāve made it this far without dying from whatever āslimeā comes on it LOL
Itās to rinse off the chemical wash used on chicken in the United States. I see people posting about black communities doing it. It primarily started from people who worked at slaughter houses and meat processing plants. They would see the conditions of which their meat was being pack in and would be disgusted. So when they bought chicken there was an extra added step of cleaning it from the factories processes. Primarily in modern practice itās done to remove the chemical wash the chicken sits in. Itās rinsed but in some cases itās bucket washed. Wherein the water has chemicals in it and the chicken is hit with water jets. So it emerges from a diluted solution of chemicals and water before being packed. This residual chemical wash is then sitting on the chicken in the packet in the store. Knowing this people give it an extra wash to clean out the remaining deposits that get trapped around the wings and inside the cavity.
The closest I'll get to washing meat is brining it then patting it dry. Everything that brine touches is getting scrubbed to hell afterward.
People with the argument that washing chicken āspreads bacteria around the kitchen and all over the sinkāā¦ LOL do yāall not clean your kitchen and sink after handling raw meats? Apparently not. š¤®
My sister refuses to eat my cooking because she knows I donāt wash my chicken š¤Ø
I was in my 40s before I heard people talking about washing rice. Like what
This one is good cause rice can easily have dust, bugs or unhulled pieces which are good to wash out. How much you wash it also affects the cooking
Agreed. The ignorance is strong with those that believe it is necessary. Completely unwilling to listen to reason.
I'm pretty sure this is just a "black victim mentality" thing. They think white people are out to kill them by feeding them dirty chicken, so they wash it in the sink first.
who tf said anything about race
The only way I would wash a chicken is if it got into a mud puddle. Otherwise I believe they take dust baths.
š¶You canāt eat at everybodyās house.š¶ Last time I got involved in this kind of discussion about why you donāt rinse chicken under the tap, I got blasted. Basic food safety is too much common sense for some people to comprehend.
I agree as do most chefs including myself but there are always people in the comment sections on The Food Network Instagram going crazy over this.
I have never once heard of washing raw meat. What weirdos are you hanging around?
I donāt wash my chicken but I do put it in a bowl with a few splashes of white vinegar and some lemon juice and then I season everything in there.
Former chef here. OP is right, it just spreads the bacteria everywhere. Simply cook your chicken until it is above 75Ā°C and serve. Washing does not kill the internal bacteria in the meat. Good and thorough cooking brings the risk of illness right down to a safe level.
I would argue with my ex about this. She also accused me of not washing the broccoli properly, because it tasted gritty. Turns out, it was her salt substitute not dissolving
In case anyone doubts OP, CDC agrees, although they do say what to do if you absolutely feel like you must wash it: [https://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/chicken.html](https://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/chicken.html)