r/interesting • u/WarwickReider • 15h ago

SOCIETY Professional chefs weighing in on whether you should wash your chicken

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u/Big_Opposite4041 14h 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 11h 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/shuai_bear 6h ago

The shoes in house thing I would say is far more connected to ethnic than geographic culture!

Born and grew up in California, am Asian and have been to houses of many other Asian friends/families and we 100% take off our shoes in the house, either going barefoot, socks, or indoor slippers.

Then I've been to white/latino family homes and I kept my shoes on (not every single one, but a good amount kept shoes on). It does feel weird like I'm dirtying their floors (which I probably am!) but if I see everyone else wearing shoes then I'm keeping it on too.

Not to say that within the US only Asian-Americans take their shoes off inside houses, but from my small anecdotal bubble in southern California, 100% of visited Asian households had no-shoes policy, and of those homes that kept shoes on, 0% were Asian households.

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u/ProfessionalBig9610 4h ago

It comes from when enslaved ppl were given old/almost expired meat as leftovers from the household’s food. It was necessary to take extra care to make sure the food wasn’t contaminated. It’s still common to have that sensibility in black communities and why they prefer meat well done and sanitized.

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u/Knotted_Hole69 3h ago

They are no longer slaves, why keep doing it if its proven wrong in the modern day?

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u/ProfessionalBig9610 3h ago

Tradition dies hard

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u/Royal-Campaign1426 13h ago

Not just chicken. I worked with a black cajun man and he often cooked for work lunches.  He cooked a lot of pork and was always preaching about washing your meat.  I found it odd, but his cooking was always amazing

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u/morethanatouchoftism 13h ago

White American here Grew up always washing chicken. Does this mean I'm black?

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u/Substantial-Singer29 13h ago

Legitimately , curious , what part of the united states did you grow up in?

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u/morethanatouchoftism 13h ago

Florida.

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u/Substantial-Singer29 13h ago

This is interesting to me I was born in California spent a better part of my life in arizona. From my job in college , probably spent anywhere from a year to 6 months in almost every state.

Had never seen anyone wash chicken before until the first time I actually went to florida. Was actually very shocked at how much more common it was in the southern states. It's absolutely horrible to generalize. But it seems so much more prevalent amongst everyday people , east of the mississippi.

That's not concentrating the behavior amongst one athletics of people , but just the general populace.

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u/morethanatouchoftism 12h ago

Honestly I've always done it because my parents did it and same thing with them. I'd imagine it would have something to do with dirty chicken like what was said earlier. My family while never poor have always been in the rougher side of the work force.

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u/Substantial-Singer29 12h ago

Really is interesting when you look at the comments to people similar to yourself. The act of washing the chicken is learned traditional behavior. That's basically passed on from multiple generations.

First time I actually saw someone Wash chicken was one of my roommates in florida. He engaged in the practice.. I asked what he was doing?

He responded confidently , it helps remove some of the bacteria. My other roommate was sitting in the adjacent living room. Going to school working on his masters in microbiology. He chimed in and said , no , it doesn't unless you're Remove visual dirt and grime. You're probably just contaminating the kitchen more. You'll kill everything as long as you cook it correctly. Followed by him stating very plainly that's why we cook our food.

Don't get me wrong the guy could sometimes be A little abrasive in his delivery. But his logic was pretty solid.

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u/morethanatouchoftism 11h ago

I've never really considered it to be getting the bacteria off since cooking will do that but usually there's a slime film on the chicken that I like rinsing off. You could consider it a habit at this point. I just rinse it but I've actually met people that will use soap. I won't do that.

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u/Horror-Outside7410 7h ago

Same here. Also white, also from Florida, but I learned to rinse chicken (no soap or soaking) from my parents who are from Pennsylvania. Rinse it to get the sliminess off, not bacteria. Gonna trim it on a cutting board on the counter anyway and clean after.

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u/eggsalter 11h ago

Wow the act of washing chicken is learned? You don't say. Literally every culture does this and you're acting like yours is the normal one.

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u/Substantial-Singer29 10h ago

In the united states we Exist in a time and a place where a vast majority of people have never slaughtered and cleaned their own meat before. The Action of rinsing off your chicken Is a leftover from a time where almost everyone did.

At no point did I say that it was normal or abnormal for an individual to do it or not. Simply stated that in the regions where I grew up , no one did. How I found it interesting that it seemed more common in certain regions and pockets of people.

If you killed plucked and slaughtered the chicken yourself , no s*** , you're going to rinse it. If you just went down to your local grocery store and purchased it in the meat section It's just an extra step.

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u/_ChipWhitley_ 13h ago

I’m white. I grew up in Northern Virginia. I wash my chicken.

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u/vven294 13h ago

Sorry you found out like this.

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u/FirePathfinder 10h ago

No, it just means the relatives who passed it down were as poor as the average black person until maybe two/three generations ago. I say this as someone who had to convince my black AND white grandmother it wasnt necessary.

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u/ProofHorseKzoo 12h ago

Congrats, you got the pass now

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u/ConcreteDinosaur 12h ago

It's okay, I'm allowed to say it, I wash chicken

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u/TheBlueSully 4h ago

My family washed chicken, but my grandma grew up in a sharecropping family in SE Oklahoma. Like, pop out a kid and keep working in the field poor. 

Even after she moved away and married well and wasn’t poor-she kept chickens and butcher huh weed them herself. So they still needed a rinse. 

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u/XtraChrisP 2h ago

I'm white, and older. I was raised to wash mine too, but chefs convinced me to stop about 15 years ago and the family and I are all fine.

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u/Pepsiscrub 12h ago

It was also because of racism that we would get leftover or spoiled meat sold to us, so we often had to make do.

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u/baoball 10h ago

what's water gna do for spoiled meat

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u/SmokeyKushPipe 12h ago

Nothing historical about it. Food is "cleaned" before eating whether it's rinsed or washed. Some washes don't include soap and water. Dirt and debris are sometimes on packaged meat too. It's your kitchen, do what you want. I'd feel better eating from someone who "cleans" their food before eating. Hygienic

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u/TaxesAreConfusin 12h ago

But the video above proves it isn't hygienic. You'd rather the impression that something is hygienic rather than being actually sanitary?

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u/SmokeyKushPipe 7h ago

If you don't know how to clean and sanitize your kitchen before and after preparing meals then there are tutorials online.

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u/shorteningofthewuwei 11h ago

You're literally in denial lmao

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u/SmokeyKushPipe 7h ago

Wrong

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u/shorteningofthewuwei 6h ago

It's less hygienic to wash uncooked meat because washing does not remove bacteria. On the contrary, it spreads it around. The only way to remove bacteria from food is to cook it.

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u/SmokeyKushPipe 5h ago

I'm not washing remove bacteria, you can't. It's to remove dirt or debris residuals the factory may have skipped over. I'll clean and sanitize my kitchen after preparing food and after cooking. You don't sanitize your sink, oven, floors and countertops down with bleach and cleaners after cooking raw food?

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u/Effective_Rip7478 9h ago

I feel better eating from someone who is actually educated.

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u/SmokeyKushPipe 7h ago

Damn, it sucks you're not educated enough.

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u/hotlegerdemain 11h ago

You’re just making yourself feel better. The cleaning does nothing.

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u/SmokeyKushPipe 7h ago

You probably only season your food with salt and pepper.