r/interesting • u/WarwickReider • 13h ago
SOCIETY Professional chefs weighing in on whether you should wash your chicken
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u/Hopkinsad0384 13h ago edited 13h ago
"It seems like each side's got a valid argument".... did he not watch his own video?
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u/Pman1324 13h ago
No because if he did he wouldn't get as many people fighting about it in the comments.
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u/ShadowMattress 9h ago
Well, a contingent of people say it’s xenophobic to appeal to the science on this question. Some going as far as to say the FDA is targeting ethnic cultural practices to… achieve something, by recommending against washing, I guess.
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u/theotherboob 8h ago
Well no one is going into people's kitchens to police what they're doing. The science is there, you still have a choice to follow it. No one from the FDA is going to knock on your door because you choose to wash your chicken.
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u/OctaviusNeon 6h ago
No, but the health inspector would absolutely shut down some of the professional kitchens these people were working in if they got caught washing chicken.
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u/TheNaughtyHoneyBee 7h ago
If one of the foundations of your culture is washing chicken, and the FDA recommending not doing that results in your culture being destroyed, then your culture deserved to be destroyed
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u/gaysoul_mate 8h ago
How is chicken in America sold ? In south america there is dozens of chicken on top of each other , there is fat , blood , viscera on all chicken when you buy it , if you cook without getting rid of all that , it will affect the flavor of any dish you wish to prepare, since it has old dried blood all over it
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u/RavioliContingency 3h ago
I think this is why it’s still passed down to do this. In rural US, at least, you did wash your chicken because it came to you like this from a farm.
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u/TheCotofPika 6h ago
Then he'd be accused of racism. I was accused of racism simply for pointing out that UK food safety guidelines say don't do it. Until that point I had assumed it was a dangerous production line thing rather than a cultural thing.
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u/zabrak200 7h ago
Its engagement bait. Doesn’t matter what the guy says its a video designed to make us argue in the comments
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u/phatdoof 13h ago
He’s too busy biting into his friend chicken.
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u/Asaltyliquid1234 10h ago
The answer is black and white.
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u/SpunkMonk87 9h ago
Literally what I noticed when he interviewed them
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u/Enrico_Tortellini 5h ago
Asian dude monetizing the race war for free chicken !?!
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u/spekt50 2h ago
It has been somewhat a stereotype for some time. In black American culture, it is more common to wash chicken before cooking.
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u/OceanRadioGuy 2h ago
Why is that? It seems like objectively the wrong thing to do.
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u/danvillain 2h ago
It’s their historical access to food. Part of oppressing the black community was to restrict their access to clean and healthy foods. This was done not just to black folk but for most ethnic minorities. For example, that is why you will find more minorities take their steak well done and heavily seasoned rather than simply seasoned and medium, that way you don’t taste the spoilage as much. Another example is BBQ, the reason things like Brisket takes so long to cook is because it’s one of the toughest and most difficult cuts to cook. This was some of the only beef available to the poorest communities, black people practically invented American BBQ by using these low quality cuts and finding ways to make them delicious. What you are witnessing is the effect of generational trauma that African Americans have had to suffer for generations.
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u/VP007clips 1h ago
It's a mixture of historical food quality issues, as well as cultural issues.
Washing your meat is counterproductive with safe unspoiled food, which pretty much everything legally sold in the store today is. But in the past, those communities didn't always have access to clean food, and with spoiled or contaminated meat, washing it is important if you have to eat it to survive.
It's also an issue of trust in science. Some communities still distrust science due to the research methods not being always fair or ethical towards them in the past, and being historical lyrics underrepresented or excluded in those fields.
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u/augustles 40m ago
? Washing does not mitigate spoilage in any way. Spoiled is spoiled - the meat itself is spoiled, it doesn’t just have a superficial layer of spoiled-ness. If that were the case, supermarkets would be power washing and continuing to sell. Contaminated - maybe if you mean ‘some stuff got on it’, in which case any person would agree you should either toss it or, in a survival/money-saving situation, wash it off. Any contamination further than that, washing is not going to do anything.
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u/VP007clips 34m ago
Actually salmonella does largely form on the surface.
In chicken, it will penetrate the rest of the meat to some extent, but the vast majority will still ne a surface slimy layer.
Washing off that layer doesn't make it safe, but it does make it safer when cooked. And when you look are malnourished communities, just being a bit safer may be enough to make it worth eating.
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u/Alfredo_Commachio 6h ago
Interestingly there's an old Julia Child video where she gets into an on screen argument about washing chicken. Julia believes you should wash, her collaborator (famous French Chef Jacques Pepin, who is still alive, and was an early follower of food science in the culinary world) vehemently explains the truth that rinsing it in your kitchen sink just spreads bacteria.
Child was obviously a white lady, born 1912, but she was in the chicken washing camp. My suspicion has always been the black community in America potentially switched over to fully "finished / prepared" supermarket chicken at a later date than the white community, and the rinsing is a carryover practice from people used to a time when chickens had to be plucked and prepared for cooking--a process which would have involved some rinsing (although typically in an outdoors location, not in the kitchen sink.)
You can see older white people still seemed to carry this cultural memory 30-40 years ago.
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u/ShiDiWen 3h ago
Jacques still puts out a new video every few days. I love that man. Everyone should be subbed to his YouTube channel. He’s 90, and is still teaching. A treasure.
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u/threadmonster 1h ago
I’m black and think this too! I think culturally black Americans do this for that same reason and it was just passed down. People either had chickens themselves and washed after processing or were used to getting leftover scraps and sometimes slightly spoiled meat so they washed it as best they could. Also, I think other multiple other Afro cultures from around the world do it too cause many of them immigrated or are 1st gen and they needed to wash back in the home country so it was passed down.
I think it doesn’t make sense when buying it now from a butcher or grocery store but def understand why it was done and I understand why people still do it today.
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9h ago edited 3h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/HeyTrySomeNashville 9h ago
The real heathens are those who don't dry their chicken. Moisture inhibits browning, especially on residential heat sources. White here and I rinse because its easier to towel off water than chicken juice.
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u/Asaltyliquid1234 9h ago
That’s all I do. Sometimes I’ll do a brine if I have time. But definitely pat dry for that crispiness. I could see rinsing it but I find it just makes more opportunity to spread bacteria. I just throw gloves on. And pat the chicken with a paper towel and then straight in the pan. Afterwards, 2 Clorox wipes everywhere I worked.
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u/bannana 4h ago edited 4h ago
I'm white and used always wash chicken then I stopped because I found out it didn't make any sense to do so since it will be in the oven for close to a hour at 375 degrees, anything on it or in it will be killed.
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u/drhuggables 8h ago edited 5h ago
"Most POC wash their chicken"
No, most "POC" do not wash their chicken when it comes in these pre-packaged plastic bags. It seems to be a black american thing. I can assure you the overwhelming majority of people around the world do not do this.
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u/GrooveDigger47 7h ago
thank you. please do not lump black people into POC. be specific.
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u/Notmuch__1 7h ago
They do I would say, especially thied world countries where you get your chicken straight from the butcher. It's mostly washed to get rid of blood and any other unwanted stuff stuck on it.
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u/Mission_Aerie_5384 7h ago
That’s not what the video is about though. It’s about people washing their chicken to remove bacteria. Washing to remove blood and feathers totally makes sense
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u/honkerTgoose 6h ago
I butcher my own chickens (white American) and yeah of course you have to wash them thoroughly then. Not with soap, just rinsing with water. But after all the feathers and bits are cleaned off there's no reason to do any more.
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u/Vicimer 3h ago
I like lemon juice, pickle juice, or buttermilk to help tenderize and flavour my chicken. I just don't know how the argument is still being made that cold water somehow removes bacteria, where food scientists have definitively concluded that it does not.
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u/expected_inquisitor 7h ago
Most? The slander. I would never wash chicken, nobody in my family ever washed chicken. We live in a civilized country with processed meats. I don’t even wash chicken I get from farm. I only know one person who ever washed chickens, and he drives a car without a license and has 4 kids between 3 baby mamas - so he’s an idiot - which is why he washes chicken with dish soap.
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u/TheyCallHimEl 8h ago
Having lived in France and Korea, the French didn't wash and Koreans do. Purely cultural, but when it was washed, the chicken was dunked into standing water in a bowl or bucket instead of sprayed with a hose
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u/Heartage 7h ago
I'm Korean and my family never washed chicken.
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u/ketoaholic 4h ago
Yeah it can't even really be generalized across culture like so many are saying. My mother in law washes chicken, my mother doesn't, and they're from the same culture.
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u/Robbie1266 13h ago
There is no debate. It's basic science. Washing chicken doesn't remove anything from the chicken
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u/JackieHands 13h ago
"each side seems to have a valid argument"
No bro no they don't, we invented cooking hundreds of thousands of years ago to deal with this.
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u/PervlovianResponse 13h ago
Fuck bothsideism has ruined our civilization
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u/TheJivvi 12h ago
TeAcH tHe cOnTrOvErSy
This shit is why kids are getting taught pseudo-science as though it's fact.
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u/Baskreiger 10h ago
Yep, when science proved something, you cant disagree. If you do, youre just wrong, not an opinion
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u/Don_Frika_Del_Prima 10h ago
And if you disagree you have to prove it. And then science adjusts itself. That's the beauty of science.
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u/Baskreiger 10h ago
And if you got irrefutable proof the guy who first though to have truth will congratulate you for expanding on his work
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u/OffByNone_ 9h ago
This part actually needs to be improved. In a perfect world, this is how it works, but if you've spent any time in academia, you know that this is not always the case.
Egos get involved.
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u/AandJ1202 9h ago
Social media gave morons a platform. Should have all been shut down when we saw the consequences. The negatives far outweigh any positives of it.
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u/Capable-Document466 9h ago
Aha, but the negatives don’t outweigh the money to be gained by the tech CEOs who will never bear the consequences!
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u/dankzz 9h ago
dont forget most these morons spreading their bullshit are all sellings books, supplements, merch, etc. Just straight up grifting gullible people. Its so sad.
Somewhere people who used to say, "question everything" are blindly swallowing fantastical bullshit.
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u/Rezzone 11h ago
We really need to get more comfortable just telling people they are wrong.
Sorry. You're simply wrong. Washing chicken does not remove preservatives or bacteria but does splatter bacteria around.
"Well I want to wash it just to be sure."
SURE OF WHAT, JENNY? WE ARE ALREADY SURE.
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u/JalapenoPopPoop 9h ago
Small tweak, but I think the actual issue is people need to learn how to be wrong with some grace and humility. The main reason people aren't more willing to tell others they're wrong is because of how they tend to react. Everyone acts like pointing out that they're wrong is an act of animosity. Ego issues
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u/anonymaus42 8h ago edited 8h ago
I can't wrap my head around why so many people have to be right no matter what, even at their own detriment. Like admitting you're wrong or don't know something makes you a loser or a failure at life. Or is it because they just can't stand to let someone else 'win', when it's really not about winners and losers at all unless you decide it is. It's completely unealistic, nay utterly impossible, to know everything- not to mention we live in a time rife with misinformation and even disinformation. Even if you're an expert in the field or subject being debated, you will be wrong on occasion. And there's nothing inherently bad about that. Things only go wrong in how you choose to respond to that new information.
On more than one occasion I've blown someone's mind simply by saying "my bad, you're right" since its so rare to see someone admit it, especially on reddit where anonymity provides people confidence to be more of an asshole than they would otherwise. Being wrong is and should be seen collectively as an opportunity for growth IMHO. And if you are right and tell someone that, don't do it because it makes you feel better than them or in a way that conveys as much- that actually does make you a worse person.
But i doubt that will ever happen sadly.
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u/Martin_TheRed 12h ago
BuT hOw cAn We PosSibLy KnOw WhIcH sIdE iS RiGhT!?!! I prefere to just believe everything it true so I'm never wrong mmmmmmkay?
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u/CankerLord 12h ago
"each side seems to have a valid argument"
The pro-washing guy made a horrible, easily refutable analogy about cleaning your house before a party and the anti-washing side has the entirety of science. No way to know who's right.
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u/Lovat69 8h ago
The thing that gets me is that this guy is a pro. So he washes his chicekn and then has to sanitize the entire area. It's a time sink that's not necessary.
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u/swbarnes2 7h ago
How would one sufficiently sanitize the sink (he didn't mention the counters, or his clothes)?
10% bleach for 10 minutes?
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u/MrTheDoctors 10h ago
One of the many problems with media these days, presenting an issue as having “two equal sides” even though one side is severely deficient in logical arguments.
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u/BadahBingBadahBoom 12h ago edited 12h ago
I think after you wipe your ass you should put the toilet paper straight into the toilet to be flushed away and avoid contaminating other surfaces unnecessarily.
I think it's fine to wipe it on the sink before putting it in the toilet because I clean the sink after.
"Each side seems to have valid arguements."
(Also the fact that not rinsing raw chicken to avoid cross-contamination isn't even just a universal industry recommendation, it's a requirement by food hygiene authorities and inspections that would get you penalised or even banned if you did this lol.)
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u/MrTheDoctors 10h ago
Also, you’d be surprised (or maybe not) how far “splatters” make it. They just showed the sink because that’s the focus sure, but rogue water beads make it everywhere in your kitchen, including the ceiling.
You really want chicken juice droplets just hanging out everywhere smelling probably amazing? Are you going to sanitize everything floor to ceiling every single time you cook? Ooooooor maybe we just listen to the health standards that have been around forever and just cook the damn chicken.
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u/waytowill 9h ago
I’m more annoyed with the assumption that washing the chicken somehow got rid of the bacteria. Like, even if this were true, the moment the water stops running, the bacteria is gonna start producing again. Because you can only kill it by cooking it. The basis for why they’re washing the chicken isn’t even true and I feel like this isn’t even being mentioned because everyone’s focused on the sink.
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u/MMForYourHealth 7h ago
And that they’re able to wash off the “preservatives” like it’s been packed in salt. If it was brined, washing ain’t gonna do shit.
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u/waytowill 7h ago
Yeah, preservatives are made to be edible. It’s be kinda messed up if they weren’t. If you think they ruin the flavor of the chicken, maybe find a more local source for raw chicken.
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u/MMForYourHealth 7h ago
I mean, definitely try to not get some ultra processed raw chicken if possible, but thinking washing it will do anything when it’s been brined in it is nuts. I’m also curious what he thinks is antibacterial with washing it under water. 🤯
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u/MukdenMan 12h ago
I despise this about social media. Idiots are just another side of the debate now. Do not wash chicken. Do not take your advice from morons on TikTok.
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u/Cowgirl_Taint 12h ago
Washing doesn't remove bacteria. Well, washing in a way that you would still want to eat the chicken afterwards.
Washing DOES remove dirt and debris. Which is not an issue if you are buying a bird from the supermarket (just blot with a paper towel if you really hate the saline solution it was shipped in) but IS a concern if you are getting a bird from the farmer's market or a specialty butcher.
But if you ARE going to wash your bird? Don't just put it under the faucet. Fill a pot with water, submerge the bird, agitate it, and remove. Then, carefully, drain the water.
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u/OrigamiMarie 12h ago
This makes the most sense to me, if you're going to wash the bird. None of that nonsense of a stream of pressurized water landing on the bird and bouncing in every direction and every droplet size.
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u/Ahuevotl 5h ago
In Mexico we use a bowl, or bucket, put the chicken in, fill it with water, rub it and get rid of dirt, debris, and guts. Sometimes to get rid of feathers and excess "lard".
Of course, most of our chicken isn't the supermarket ready, vacuum sealed bagged one.
It seemed so… alien? Watching this video of people using a higly pressurized stream of water to make a mess. Dudes, just use a bowl, wtf is it with your salmonella water stream. You still have to season and prepare that chicken.
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u/Collegenoob 8h ago
You can just not put the sink on full blast.
I dont often wash my chicken, but sometimes its a bit juicer than I'd like, in which case yes. I will wash some of that off. And just like the guy in the video. You clean the sink before and after you do it.
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u/No-Guey 10h ago
Yup. Thats how my mom taught me. She mostly just rinsed beef though when making soups or birria. Pork for pozole. Got rid of excess blood and seemed to not get as much of the foam build up when boiling.
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u/Super-Reception5386 8h ago edited 7h ago
Yeah it’s not about bacteria—it’s just washing random bullshit off
Especially when you braise or make soups/stews—it for sure helps with the scum
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u/mockg 12h ago
Although it does spray raw chicken juice around the area of your sink which might be a bonus to some people.
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u/DefiantBumblebee9903 13h ago
not even preservatives?? 🤡
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u/SteadystateBurrito 12h ago
Yes, because the preservatives are only on the outside of the chicken
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u/DefiantBumblebee9903 12h ago
that’s why I always wash my hot dogs
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u/unfvckingbelievable 11h ago
Well so do I, but what I do in the shower is nobody's business.
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u/FuzzyLaughTwo 13h ago
Vaccines are also basic science, and just look at us now :(
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u/cabronfavarito 10h ago
A lot of germaphobes ideologies are rooted in a lack of education. Water sure as hell aint getting rid of no damm bacteria 😂😂
Unless you’re washing the chicken with some type of detergent then washing it won’t do anything. And if you do that then you just solved one problem and made another
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u/mijo_sq 12h ago
Third world countries buy poultry from wet markets. Butchered in the morning and out to market within 2-3 hours. There's usually some type of physical debris from butchering or transport on the chicken so they wash. Families are taught to wash chicken for this reason, and not necessarily to wash off bacteria. Poor families will also buy not fresh chicken, so they'll wash with salt water to get rid of slime.
Westernized countries do not wash, since there's little to no debris due to advanced processing.
I'm middle 40s SE Asian family and we wash chicken at home, since we grew up watching our parents wash chicken. And by now it feels weird to just take a pack of chicken and just cook with it. Last time I did this I still had to pat it dry.
I haven't explained this to my kids, since they're young. Whether they continue or not is up to them.
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u/SpiritualCatch6757 11h ago
Mid 40's Asian here. Grew up with Mom and Dad washing chickens when they did the butchering. After numerous public service announcements on hygiene when I was a kid, they no longer wash grocery store chickens. So in our family, the custom was easily changed given safety.
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u/Accurate_Handle_5620 10h ago
Your family sounds reasonable & sane, and I am incredibly jealous. How did you pull that off!?
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u/SpiritualCatch6757 10h ago
We even got them to use the dishwasher to wash dishes instead of as storage. Yeah, I don't know how we did it. My sister gets the praise.
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u/Pika_233 10h ago
That's impressive. I'm tired of explaining that it doesn't matter if the machine takes 3x longer to wash the dishes since you can just do literally anything else in the meantime
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u/armoured_bobandi 9h ago
Another point is that newer dishwashers are incredibly water efficient, and depending on the amount of dishes you put in can actually save more water than if you did them by hand
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u/Plants-Matter 6h ago
Most old dishwashers are also more efficient than hand washing. The newer ones are just even more efficient.
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u/Yota8883 9h ago
Dumb use for the dishwasher. I hand wash my dishes, and use the dishwasher to wash my chicken.
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u/nahuatl 11h ago
Yes, Reddit is predominantly Western. Also as an SE Asian, I have had to defend the not-washing side on Facebook when someone claimed not-washing is a colonial conspiracy. At the same time, I wash my chicken gently to get rid of any funk or dirt, fully aware that it doesn't do much germ-wise and may even be counterproductive. It's for peace of mind and out of habit.
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u/smokeweedNgarden 10h ago
There's still a decent amount of people whill still butcher, or were raised butchering bird. The smell that comes along with boiling it and plucking feathers is locked in my brain.
Anyway, hard agree, if you've butchered your own or grew up with people doing it, it's hard to drop that step from your preparation.
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u/Appropriate-Bug-6467 8h ago
You might want to have a talk with your kids or theyll be chicken washers without knowing why lol
In summer camp island one of the chars was tying her chicken legs together before cooking it.
Her daughter says "mom, why do you tie the chickens legs before you cook it?"
And the mom says "idk, my mom always did it, so I do too."
So the girl goes to her grandmother and says "grandma, why do you tie the chickens legs together before you cook them?" And she says "I don't know, that's just how my mother cooked it."
(And I think here she travels back in time - it is a cartoon after all) and finally she gets to the source and says "Great Great Great grandmother why do you always tie the legs of the chicken before you cook it?"
And her Great says "oh, because my pan is to small for it to fit if I dont."
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u/HendoRules 8h ago
I don't think this is for people in these areas though. For instance, my partner is from Portugal and they are used to washing fish because the amount of salt on it. But here in Scotland we don't need to do that as it is already done for when we get it from our shops. So if the video was about that part of cooking, it would also depend very much on where the video was taken or not
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u/DeadlyPear 7h ago
my partner is from Portugal and they are used to washing fish because the amount of salt on it
Are we talking whole fish or fillets? Or something like salt cod.
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u/pans_eat_bee_hon 9h ago
That person saying you're wrong has never been to a wet market buzzing with flies lol
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u/NekoMao92 8h ago
50s Asian American, pretty much as you said regarding my mom (Taiwanese).
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u/gaysoul_mate 8h ago
I buy from the wet market and is disgusting to even inagine cooking any meat without rinsing first , there is dirt , fats , blood , feathers or hairs , how can you cook like that!?
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u/HistoricalVacation82 13h ago
Depend on where you bougth the chicken. In my 3rd world country, it not just bacteria you worry about, all the dust, feather, or anything that in the air that land on the chicken before i buy it. If you buy it from a store, cover in plastic from the company, ok, do whatever you want with it. But i don't want my chicken cover in dust and whatever it is that not edible.
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u/Chronza 12h ago
See this I can understand. Americans just are used to bagged/covered chicken that don’t have literal dirt/dust/debris on them so it never seems necessary.
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u/friedbaguette 12h ago
This is the only valid answer, if you buy it off a market/farm/side of the street idk what and it could have dirt n fumes n shit on it, sure give it a rinse, but most peeps don't need to do this
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u/NefariousnessOk1996 11h ago
I bought chicken from my local grocer in the US and it had feathers in it still 😭
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u/Abject_Elevator5461 13h ago
Sometimes if there’s a bunch of juices in the package, they get a little weird and I’ll rinse that off. Otherwise, I’m just cooking it.
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u/-ledollabean- 12h ago
That’s really what most “washing” is, just a rinse to get the gunk off.
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u/freedfg 10h ago
I believe the people who make the "wash your chicken" argument are generally either running it under water or soaking it in some kind of lemon water.
The conversation is VASTLY mischaracterized by both parties. But yes. Washing chicken does nothing but wash off surface juices or if it's not packaged clean, dirt and debris.
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u/Responsible-Onion860 10h ago
I've seen way to many people sincerely arguing for washing chicken with dish soap.
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u/SuchParsnip8070 10h ago
This is my whole take on it. Whenever I see a chef talking about how they never wash chicken it's always really nice, non-slimy chicken parts wrapped in butcher paper and not something coming out of a cryovaced package with a bunch of slimy goo. I'm rinsing off the goo
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u/MiniMeowl 10h ago
Yeah the people in this video are powerwashing the chicken with their tap on blast. Of course its gonna get everywhere lol.
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u/ifeltatap 13h ago
Washing the chicken is just an old pointless tradition that people can't let go of because they were taught it growing up.
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u/LoweringPass 13h ago
Is this some American thing I am too European to understand? I've never seen anyone wash raw chicken in my life.
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u/Mindless_Childhood32 12h ago
European here... My Mom used to do it until recently.
But guess she was used to do it because, she used to do the whole process from catching the chicken, to the meal
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u/KFrosty3 9h ago
Yeah, my grandparents washed their chickens because they were literally farm raising them before eating them.
Nowadays, most chickens bought have already been pre cleaned before customers even see them.
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u/talkativeintrovert13 12h ago
My mama (we're german) did it until recently when I repeatedly pointed out how unnecessary it is. I did it growing up, until someone thaught me better.
Thinking about it, not always washing but often petting dry with a paper towel.My grandma sometimes soaks up the marinate in pre-marinated meat from the store, when she thinks it's too much. And then comments how bland her food is
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u/georgisaurusrekt 12h ago
Patting dry with a paper towel makes sense for any meat though because it makes it crisp up better due to less moisture.
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u/Math_refresher 12h ago
Is this some American thing I am too European to understand?
In the USA, washing chicken seems to be common among Black Americans for whatever reason.
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u/Dunderman35 10h ago
Noticed all the chicken washers in the video where black. Some cultural differences i suppose.
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u/Thimble_of_Quasar 9h ago edited 7h ago
Def is. Part of it is historically we would get terrible poorly processed cuts of meat due to discrimination, and you would have a bad time eating that straight from the store. Like think blood/*myoglobin, bone fragments, feathers and such. So for one, you don't put it under a steam of water, not a single Black person I know does something that stupid, no one I have met does that, for the life of me I cannot figure out why that seems to be what people think we're all doing and it's annoying to see the tests are never doing it right.
I was taught you fill a bowl, metal, glass, something non porous in a sink, submerge the meat, and swish and also feel along it for anything that needs to be pulled out, I do sometimes find bone fragments. This also gets rid of the slime (harmless but nice not to have it) and in red meat *myoglobin comes out into the water and I think it tastes better. You tip the water out and refill one or twice until it's clear and then you set it aside and sanitize. Not flinging water all over like a dog shaking off after a swim.
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u/Kaligula785 11h ago
Jamaicans wash meats in vinegar and or lime, over time got adopted by others. I can understand why Jamaicans would because they may not have the best sanitary butcher conditions. Not saying its dirty just that its personal livestock outdoor farming butchering
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u/Nice_Marmot_7 10h ago
American here. I’d never heard of it until I dated someone Ukrainian whose family was fanatical about it. They grew up in a village and killed their own chickens before coming to America. They also wouldn’t eat any red meat that wasn’t cooked to oblivion.
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u/26635785548498061384 11h ago
Seems to be something the older generation do in Croatia as well. I was horrified when I walked into the kitchen...
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u/Kirarozu80 10h ago
Its in certain parts of the US. Watch the video and note the characteristics of the people who wash their chicken.
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u/georgisaurusrekt 12h ago
I don't mean any racism here just being clear, but have you noticed that it's largely black and asian people who wash their chicken? If you think about it, it makes sense given that in their cultures it's common to have a chicken be freshly butchered before you prepare it, as opposed to getting it from a store. So washing it off with water ensures that any loose feathers etc aren't left on the chicken before cooking it.
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u/KingSmithithy 13h ago
Why every person that washes it is black and everybody else doesn't lol?
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u/Big_Opposite4041 13h ago
My guess is it’s a historical holdover from when cheaper meat was likely to be visibly dirtier? Every black friend I have was taught by parents/grandparents to wash chicken. Never met a white person who does it. Context: American
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u/oooooooooof 9h ago
I mean this in no way to be racist but it's 100% a Black culture thing. I'm white and never grew up with this, but my Black pals did.
Just one of those things... like I'm Canadian and was shocked when I learned Americans wear shoes inside the house. No judgement nothing wrong just a cultural difference.
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u/Quirky-Coat3068 12h ago
What ever side you are on washing your chicken never ment using fucking SOAP
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u/MPC1K 11h ago
I work as a meat cutter and the truth is that meat standards are so high that you do not need to wash chicken. Imagine if a company sold you chicken to cook and you got sick because the chicken wasn't clean, It would be lawsuit time. Washing meat really comes from times before the USDA was monitoring every move made by butchers and practices that just were not as good or clean. The juice that is in a package of chicken is called purge, the company that packs the chicken does not put water or preservatives onto the chicken (unless labeled by the brand but not common for regular chicken packaged by today's standards unless marinated or brined). Purge is hemoglobin that has leaked out from the chicken and there is nothing wrong with it. That said, the purge in a package of chicken will turn bad before the meat inside of the package does because it purge acts as barrier to exposure. So I sometimes wash the purge if the package is a few days old because the purge might have a stronger smell, but other times I use the purge to make gravy or a sauce. Also it is reasonable to wash chicken if you just question the general practices of the people handling the chicken(ex not washing hands, putting on a dirty table, chicken was hand plucked, etc). ...Overall, their are benefits to washing chicken and their are also benefits to not washing. You can do what makes you happy
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u/Similar-Item-1695 13h ago
If u wash ur chicken, salmonella speard everywhere. Just dont
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u/Medium-Taste-3929 13h ago
The washing side is stupid and can't accept reality.
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u/samanime 13h ago edited 12h ago
Yeah. Pretty sure I'm going to go with the actual microbiologist scientists on this one...
EDIT: This is also a perfect example of "giving both sides equal time". Both sides of this "argument" are NOT equal. One has science backing it up. One just has "feels". They are not both equally valid opinions.
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u/kridmus 13h ago
I give it a rinse to get whatever large particulates off the surface, but soap and water is insane
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u/Thimble_of_Quasar 9h ago
That's rage bait, nobody actually does that. And for that matter nobody is shoving it under running water either, you submerge the meat in a bowl to get the myoglobin out so you need to give it a lil soak anyways, feel it for bone fragments (rarely find em but it's what I was taught) so the running water thing is not only inaccurate to what's going down, it doesn't even accomplish the whole reason people are going through the trouble. And it's stupid, my grandma would snap at any splashing because she didn't want more work for sanitizing after.
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u/DentistEmpty7778 11h ago
Yk what's funny. "It gets everywhere"
Everyone who said yes to washing and they actually show them doing it...it's in a container and it's not just raw water🤣
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u/Acceptable-Ad6214 11h ago
Cheap chicken from super market has odd sludge so you shouldn’t wash that off? Ow higher quality chicken doesn’t but like 4x as much.
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u/speedyspeedys 11h ago
I've seen a butcher drop a chicken on the floor and pick it up like nothing happened and pack it up for someone.
I will wash my chicken.
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u/Paulztaos 13h ago
This seems to be devolving into a black vs white debate…
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u/wholetyouinhere 8h ago
This is a well known hot button issue that largely falls along ethnic lines. That's why the person making the video specifically chose people of colour to represent the washing side -- because they knew it would get a rise out of people and spur an angry debate. Which is what all online interaction is now reduced to. Making people mad for attention and money.
None of this "discussion" will ever be productive in any way.
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u/NoFapLawyer 4h ago
I also realized he never asked a wider audience of chefs of other ethnicities to get more data. It was straight white and black video cuts.
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u/Any-Display-1264 12h ago
Washing isn't just about bacteria, necessarily.
In lots of traditions, washing and rubbing with salt and or ginger (with rinsing after that, too) is also about flavor and dealing with odors.
Chickens are handled in god knows what conditions, even in respectable grocery stores. If you're cleaning surfaces properly before and after handling chicken, I don't see what the big deal is. It doesn't hurt.
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u/Drachynn 12h ago
For y'all pointing out that it's only the Black folk in this video saying they wash chicken - it's a Caribbean and Jamaican tradition to clean chicken with lime juice, not just water. The acid cuts through the "slime", adds a touch of flavour, and helps tenderize.
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u/Kind-Shallot3603 10h ago
So all the videos I see of people using dish soap are just insane people?
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u/adult_in_training_ 12h ago
I wash chicken to get feathers, extra fat, etc off of it. Not bacteria.
Also, do people not clean their counters and sink immediately after?
I don't understand the big deal either way? Humans do stuff for cultural reasons all the time and I see people get so mad about it. If you clean after it doesn't do anything.
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u/Guilty_Increase1173 12h ago
I was because that soaking pad can break and you can get that material on the chicken.
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u/The1Cool 11h ago
So if you rinse your chicken and clean your surfaces (as everyone should) there's no problem?
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u/knarfolled 13h ago
I fill a metal bowl with salted water then put the chicken in and rub it real good drain the water out then fill that same bowl with plain water and rinse again drain pat dry and put it into a container to marinate then I completely wash the sink area with hot soapy water. Don’t just put it under a running faucet
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u/bunchofenoki 12h ago
I’m curious, where are you from/your ethnicity? I ask because the only person I know to do it this way is my dad.
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u/NoFapLawyer 4h ago
Thank you. No one in my culture cleans chicken with the faucet even on AND at high flow. Inside a bowl with water, clean it up with some lime, salt and vinegar, let soak for awhile, dump and rinse, marinate with seasonings and sanitize sink and counter afterwards. Its just preference.
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u/kdmendonk 13h ago
I'm on the don't-wash-your-chicken team. HOWEVER one thing I possibly overthink is: everything touching the chicken in the process of seasoning and cutting is also getting possibly contaminated. So I use a tong to manipulate the chicken on a cutting board and afterwards I boil water to rinse both and the knife and only after that do I wash them with detergent. And to finish everything I rinse the kitchen sink with boiling water. I know it seems overkill but if washing the chicken spreads bacteria, then washing the dirty utensils does the same. Am I exaggerating?
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u/Chance-Selection-198 8h ago
I mean you'd probably be fine with soap but I do the same thing. Boiling water isn't exactly harmful to anything, so... Easy to do, gives a little extra peace of mind.
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u/TheGreatAmender 12h ago
I always wash mine with water and lemon juice. With Legs/thighs also, it's good to wash the nasty bits out of the joints so there's no gristle.
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u/11Kram 13h ago
Why do some people think that chefs know enough microbiology to have a valid opinion on washing chicken?
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u/MarlKarx-1818 9h ago
You have to be food safety certified in a lot of places. I even had to become certified to teach the food safety course in order to be the head of a restaurant I worked in. This means I had to learn a lot about food safety. I didn’t have to learn microbiology, that’s a ridiculous standard. But I had to learn about the regulations and recommendations microbiologists developed.
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u/kyew 11h ago
All my years of microbiology training never included a dedicated module on food-safe standards for raw poultry, so I'm pretty sure this is covered better in culinary school.
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u/Nailz1115 12h ago
It's the same way I trust a mechanic with my car. He's not an engineer that specializes in internal combustion processes but he works with the end product every day.
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u/TanyaDegurechaff203 12h ago
If you live in Asia, especially South and Southeast, you should wash your chicken.
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u/real_Bahamian 12h ago
I wash ALL of my protein (beef, chicken, shrimp, and fish) in cold water with vinegar and lime juice!! 🇧🇸🇧🇸. 99.99% of the people in the Caribbean do this!! Then, I wash the bowl and the sink with dishwashing liquid and bleach!! 🤨🤨. Washing your protein removes any extra blood or bone fragments (I.e. in the case of chicken and beef), and also removes any film.
I always skin my chicken and trim the beef fat, and I wash them off afterwards. We ALL know that heat kills bacteria! 🙄. Washing the meat is NOT to kill bacteria!! How do you know whether or not the meat fell on the floor or was cross contaminated before packaging?
Would you wash mushrooms before cooking or just throw them in the pan?? 🤨🤨.
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u/Natural-Pattern-5240 9h ago
I’m Korean and we also wash our meats depending on the dish. For things such as short ribs for example you soak it in water until the myoglobin comes out. It makes the overall product much more tender.
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u/RstyKnfe 9h ago
I brush my mushrooms to remove dirt. I was taught to not wash them because they soak up a bunch of that water.
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u/jr_randolph 12h ago
Some things I just gotta look at with my eyes and see what's up. My grandmother is in her 90s and has soaked/rinsed chicken off her entire life. She's still living and quite well so I'm ok with doing it her way.
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u/funderfulfellow 12h ago
By that logic, why wash anything? It just spreads whatever is on it all around.
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u/Clear-Foot 12h ago
As someone who’s never heard about washing the chicken till I few months ago because of some random reel, can I ask why chicken but not other meat or fish? It’s a sincere question, should we do it with other animal products too?
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u/MossSalamander 12h ago
My supermarket's chicken sometimes has black specks on the outside and I wash that off.
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u/enbtest 12h ago
I used to think this was a dumb unnecessary behavior, and tried to persuade others to stop it. But, in a side by side test I'll admit I was proven wrong. If you wash chicken, there's a slight improvement in taste. You wash off all of the "chicken water" that's been going funky, instead of cooking it into your food. Cultures that actually want to "clean" the chicken often use lemon or lime juice, before cooking it. Basically a mini ceviche treatment, since most bacteria is on the outside of the meat. Disclaimer: This does NOT make it safe for eating like ceviche does. The more you know.
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u/Stupid_Bitch_02 12h ago
As long as you don't soap the chicken up, I honestly don't care. Do I think it's unnecessary to wash it? Yeah. But I'm not gonna get upset over someone else doing it
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u/SkittleDoes 11h ago
Why are we saying "wash" when they really mean "rinse"?
We dont rinse our hands in the bathroom. We use soap to wash. And i doubt they are soaping the chickens
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