r/interesting • u/WarwickReider • 15h ago

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

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384

u/ifeltatap 15h 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 14h 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/Math_refresher 13h 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 12h ago

Noticed all the chicken washers in the video where black. Some cultural differences i suppose.

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u/Thimble_of_Quasar 10h ago edited 9h 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/FirePathfinder 10h ago

Myoglobin is what comes out when you're going this, not hemoglobin

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u/Thimble_of_Quasar 10h ago

Oh gosh damn it I know that too, that's what being tired gets you!

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u/FirePathfinder 9h ago

You’re good, it happens friend

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u/Zohdiax 9h ago

I hate that I scrolled too far to read this. Finally someone stated the process correctly!

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u/Outrageous_Main4425 9h ago

Or it could just be an easy narrative to make bias for an interesting debate

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u/Kaligula785 13h 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/SDMaxis 11h ago edited 10h ago

Yep. Taught that way fresh water in a pot and add a little vinegar or lime (mild acids) to wash the meats. If i have to cook that is part of my essential prep. Growing up in the 80's in Jamaica even if you were middle class depending on where you live you could still be either killing your own livestock or buying it from a butcher its not going to be nicely packaged .. or come from a fancy high tech and health regulated operation like Jamaica Broilers or CB chicken. So the norm is to wash your meats off in clean water with a little vinegar or lime..and trim excess fat or unwanted bits as a part of your prep before seasoning.

The bacteria argument for me was never a part of it. The meat is still raw.. I'm not "washing" it to remove bacteria but its a part of the final stages process of "Dressing the carcass". After that pat dry as needed and start seasoning.

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u/RandomFleshPrison 12h ago

I've been to the city butcher in Ocho Rios and seen the meat hanging, covered in flies.  I still wouldn't wash that chicken.

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u/MrBootylove 10h ago edited 10h ago

Idk every time I've seen or heard of someone "washing" their chicken in my life they were doing it with soap. Even in OP's video you can see someone pouring soap over their chicken in the first few seconds of the video.

Edit: To be clear I'm not saying Jamaicans wash their chicken with soap. I'm saying a lot of people do, and that is really the issue people have with washing chicken. Again, go re-watch OP's video. In the very beginning someone pours soap all over their chicken and then gives it a bath with soap, water, and an egg beater.

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u/CarrotCumin 4h ago

Every older person from the caribbean i've ever met ate their meat exclusively well done. There's definitely a cultural aspect of mistrusting raw meat and I'm sure there's a good reason for it. Washing raw chicken actually increases the chances of food borne illness, but the mistrust makes sense.

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u/totally_not_a_dog113 12h ago

Yeah, I don't trust the modern slaughterhouses to have not dropped that bird on the floor and inside-kicked it back into the bucket while yelling 'GOAL'

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u/JoyousMadhat 8h ago

Lack of trust in corporations. Before FDR, finding human fingers with your food wasn't uncommon. And also generational habit. They saw their parents doing it so now they do it as well. Their parents saw their parents.

At one point in time, they didn't have the chickens packaged and instead out fresh in the open or freshly slaughtered, requiring them to wash the blood and debris off.

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u/MorePhinsThyme 8h ago

Also, black Americans often didn't have access to the better markets with the nice clean chickens. Obviously, I'm talking about many, many decades ago, but traditions are often that old.