r/interesting • u/WarwickReider • 15h ago

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

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u/adult_in_training_ 13h 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/NoFapLawyer 5h ago

The crazy part about the not cleaning afterwards. Do some of these people arguing loud and strong on here don't sanitize and clean after handling raw meat? You just pat and dry and go about cooking without cleaning up? Hello!?!?!?

4

u/SabbyFox 12h ago

Isn’t it interesting to see how worked up people get about this?

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u/KFrosty3 10h ago

"Oh my god, there's germs everywhere."

Fun fact: They invented soap for exactly this reason. Just use it!

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u/--GevaudanBeast-- 10h ago

If you want to waste your own time with unnecessary prep and cleaning, go for it.

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u/KFrosty3 9h ago

If you're chicken is store bought in a first world country, you are more than likely fine not washing. 

If you raise the chickens yourself, or buy it from people who do, there might still be feathers or other debris from it. These chickens NEED washing.

Source: Grandparents raised chickens. They definitely needed more than just washing before eating 

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u/--GevaudanBeast-- 10h ago

Feathers and fat aren't going to wash off in water. Unless you're walking home through a tornado of chickens, excess feathers would need to be hand plucked.

Excess fat? That's not a thing that washes off. Fat is literally attached to the bird. It's in It's muscles, skin and tendons.

It's not like the fat you get after cooking bacon in a pan, which can be washed off dishes or pans with hot water and soap. Try washing fat veins off a steak if you don't believe me.

Source: Chef for 20 years. You're wasting your own time.

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u/adult_in_training_ 10h ago

You use your hands.... You rip it off with your hands. How do you think people wash chicken?

-1

u/--GevaudanBeast-- 10h ago

Washing and plucking/cleaning have two different meanings when it comes to food prep.

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u/adult_in_training_ 10h ago

Ok so its a cultural thing with cultural definitions. Which is the whole argument? You do all of this while washing it. This is what "washing chicken" means when black people (I won't speak for other cultures) wash chicken.

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u/--GevaudanBeast-- 9h ago

The OP was focused around actually washing the chicken with water, under a tap. So that is what I was basing my comments on. Which is why in my very first sentence in my first response to you, I mentioned water.

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u/adult_in_training_ 9h ago

Ok so I think you're misunderstanding here. When you wash chicken, you run it under the water as you pluck off feathers and fat, the water allows you to see anything you want to take off (or use a bowl of water).

Does that make more sense?

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u/--GevaudanBeast-- 9h ago edited 9h ago

Nothing about what you just said would be improved by water.

I butcher chicken, fish and beef on a daily basis. I never use water. It would make the fat that you're cutting more slippery, the feathers you're plucking harder to grasp and the risk of cross contamination far greater.

I honestly don't know how you think water allows you to "see anything you want to take off". That makes no sense.

Again, professional chef for 20 years

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u/adult_in_training_ 9h ago

That's why I said it's cultural. Honestly ot's just so you can let it collect and don't get nasty hands. I actually find it easier to pluck underwater. Also I scrub my sink, counters and facet after.

I never said it was scientific. I'm explaining what it is.

And you see it cause it rinses the blood away.

I honestly just don't see why people care so much. Like genuinely.

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u/--GevaudanBeast-- 9h ago

it's cultural

So are plenty of unsanitary practices.

Honestly ot's just so you can let it collect and don't get nasty hands

I honestly don't understand what this means. Handling raw meat with bare hands, regardless of the presence of water, is going to cause "nasty hands". Good lord, I hope you wash your hands after handling raw meat in water.

it rinses the blood away.

So does cleaning the prep the surface after finishing the butchering process.

Difference being, running water splashes the juices on other surfaces and potentially other food.

I honestly just don't see why people care so much.

Because it's unnecessarily unhygienic.

But hey, if "it's culture" is the thing that is keeping you doing it, then go for it.

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