LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Aug 3, 2017 10:49:32 GMT -5
I was trolling through Buzzfeed Tasty and stumbled on this post suggesting that many people wash (or really, "rinse") their raw chicken before cooking it. Do you do this? |
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Aug 3, 2017 10:53:40 GMT -5
Obviously I don't, but if you do or know someone who does, I'd really love to know why. Some of the comments on the post suggest that there is a cultural tendency here, and that washing raw chicken is more common in African American households. But I don't know.
I will sometimes wash big hunks of meat that have been cryovac sealed, like whole pork shoulders or briskets. Things like that which I'll be putting a rub on I may wash and then dry before applying said rub. I mean I could understand rinsing a whole chicken, again especially a cryovac sealed one. But just a few chicken breasts?
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monodrone
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Post by monodrone on Aug 3, 2017 11:32:22 GMT -5
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Post by King Charles’s Butterfly on Aug 3, 2017 12:04:36 GMT -5
I typically wash after cooking the raw chicken…so to speak.
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Smacks
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Post by Smacks on Aug 3, 2017 12:57:32 GMT -5
I don't exactly wash it, but I tend to give it a quick pass through the cold water coming out of the faucet to get any of the stickiness or excess blood off it. I voted yes, in case that counts. Is it really that weird?
Edit: I think chicken is the worst protein ever anyway, so I probably only buy it once a year, if that. I do rinse my steaks.
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Post by Liz n Dick on Aug 3, 2017 13:13:42 GMT -5
I don't ever wash any meats. And it can be pretty touch-and-go whether I'll wash vegetables, too. I enjoy eating filth, apparently.  |
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Post by Lt. Broccoli on Aug 3, 2017 13:13:50 GMT -5
I don't but my wife does. She also does lots of other crazy things like "wash fruit" and "not eat expired food".
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Aug 3, 2017 14:54:02 GMT -5
I don't exactly wash it, but I tend to give it a quick pass through the cold water coming out of the faucet to get any of the stickiness or excess blood off it. I voted yes, in case that counts. Is it really that weird? Edit: I think chicken is the worst protein ever anyway, so I probably only buy it once a year, if that. I do rinse my steaks. My practices are pretty similar: if it's coming from the grocery store and not fully defrosted, I might run it under the tap to clean off blood and/or take the skin off. If it comes fresh from the halal butcher, no need to clean. But generally, the less time you spend handling raw meat, the less likely you are to spread germs that should be killed in the cooking process. Therefore I'm voting no. |
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Post by Ben Grimm on Aug 3, 2017 16:34:19 GMT -5
I immediately answered yes, thinking "of course," and by the time I got down here, realized that I don't. At least most of the time.
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dＬᵒ
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Post by dＬᵒ on Aug 4, 2017 1:07:10 GMT -5
Does brining count as a bath?
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Post by Albert Fish Taco on Aug 4, 2017 6:12:25 GMT -5
I'd long ago heard that washing chicken (with dish detergent) was an African-American thing (as an explanation for some chicken I did not particularly care for), but wondered if my leg was being pulled or if it was just explaining away one individual bad cook.
Similarly, for an embarrassingly long time I assumed that Chicken & Waffles was either completely made up or just an eccentricity of a friend's family.
While we're on the subject of cultural food assumptions.....when people talk about having crackers with Texas BBQ, do they literally mean crackers as in a bunch of Saltines or is it Texas humor and they really mean something like Texas Toast? I always assumed the latter as the whole point of a bread with BBQ is to soak up flavorings/sauce, and you need some level of softness for that.
In terms of washing raw food, the only thing I do is for frozen shrimp, which is really not to clean as much as to speed defrost/separate.
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Post by pairesta on Aug 4, 2017 7:26:44 GMT -5
While we're on the subject of cultural food assumptions.....when people talk about having crackers with Texas BBQ, do they literally mean crackers as in a bunch of Saltines or is it Texas humor and they really mean something like Texas Toast? I always assumed the latter as the whole point of a bread with BBQ is to soak up flavorings/sauce, and you need some level of softness for that. Central Texas Barbecue (the most distinctive kind, and what people generally think of when they say "Texas Barbecue") came from German and Czech-owned butcher shops that would smoke their meats to preserve them. Migrant workers from the South would come through Texas to help with the cotton crop. They'd stop by these stores and buy hunks of smoked meat, mistakenly calling it "barbecue" since that was their point of reference. These butcher shops wouldn't have any sides, so they'd buy the dry goods there just for something to have with it: pickles and crackers. So to this day, the old skool Texas BBQ joints that used to be meat markets have crackers available for their barbecue. |
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Post by pairesta on Aug 4, 2017 7:31:33 GMT -5
I used to all the time. Then I read on Amazingribs (or maybe Alton Brown) not to because it disperses bacteria. I generally don't for the broken down cuts. Whole chicken--ironically the cut you apparently REALLY shouldn't wash--gets tacky or even an off smell if it's been in cryovac for a while, so I give it a rinse or rubdown just to get rid of that. I don't wash my whole turkeys anymore. Mostly because I always put them in a brine anyways as dＬᵒ points out. |
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Post by The Sensational She-Hulk on Aug 4, 2017 9:09:49 GMT -5
I tend to rinse off any meat after it comes out of a cryopack. I'm not obsessive or anything, but I figure it certainly can't hurt. And given that I clean out my sink quite thoroughly every time I finish cooking - with bleach and hot water - and not to mention any other surface that's even been near food, I'm not too worried about spreading germs around. Those guidelines are for people who don't know what they're doing in the kitchen.
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Post by Bastard Son of Dean Friedman on Aug 24, 2017 23:25:09 GMT -5
I don't wash any meat, but I don't tend to buy it cryo packed. I'm very careful about handling it, though.
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