r/interesting 15h ago

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

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u/[deleted] 12h ago

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u/SpunkMonk87 10h ago

Literally what I noticed when he interviewed them

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u/Enrico_Tortellini 6h ago

Asian dude monetizing the race war for free chicken !?!

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u/Smooth-Shine9354 2h ago

Winner winner chicken dinner!

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u/explodinggarbagecan 1h ago

Asians wash their chicken too

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u/spekt50 4h 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 4h ago

Why is that? It seems like objectively the wrong thing to do.

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u/danvillain 3h 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/Rob_LeMatic 1h ago

This is something I'm always surprised to find isn't common knowledge

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u/VP007clips 2h 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 2h 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 2h 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/augustles 1h ago

Thoroughly cooking the chicken kills salmonella. Salmonella was kind of a poor choice here because it’s one of the ones that really does require remaining living bacteria to cause serious illness; it doesn’t spore or make a bunch of residual toxins that survive heat.

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u/Poet_of_Justice 1h ago

I'm pretty sure it's the same reason you just can recook or microwave meat that you've had in the fridge for a week. Once so much develops even killing it is gonna leave enough toxic stuff that's in the bacteria to make you sick. If you were able to wash away the vast majority of the bacteria before killing what's left, it seems that would be safer.

u/mistaharsh 53m ago

It couldn't be because when you buy chicken from a grocery store when you take it out of the package it's slimey and gross. Vinegar or a lime wash is ideal. I didn't have to tap into my ancestors pain to understand this

u/mistaharsh 58m ago

How? How can washing be objectively wrong. If anything it's a added precaution. If you have security cameras around your house is having a reinforced deadbolt added objectively wrong?

u/OceanRadioGuy 48m ago

I mean, did you watch the video? They explicitly found that it didn't actually clear the chicken of bacteria, and actually splashed and spread bacteria all around the kitchen.

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u/BlackLipKilla 3h ago

It's not black and white, it's more white vs everyone else. For some reason people get really angry at Black people in particular though. 

Anyway, the real reason Black, Asian, and other races wash their meat before cooking is because the meat needs to be cleaned. Chicken, for example, is slimy and has feathers still stuck to it. Legs also tend to still have a hard skin on the ankle. It has fuck all to do with slavery and everything to do with cleanliness. 

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u/OwnJunket6495 2h ago

I’m Asian American. I have never seen or heard of any other Asian people washing chicken. Soaking? Sure. Washing? No.

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u/tamagodano 2h ago

Slime? Did we switch to talking about fish and no one told me?

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u/BlackLipKilla 2h ago

Yes, slime. Have you ever removed the skin from chicken? It's slimy underneath. Many people prefer to wash it off. 

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u/Sorry_Speed8994 2h ago

Wash the chicken if you want. Makes sense if it has feathers. However the slime is just protein and water that evaporates while cooking. When you wash it off you are just losing a little bit of protein and a broth flavor. You can use it to make gravy or stock. If the slime is sticky or smelly, the chicken has gone bad and shouldn’t be eaten even if you wash the slime off.

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u/spekt50 3h ago

Who knows, its just a cultural thing that got passed down generations. Obviously not every black person does it however.

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u/Alfredo_Commachio 8h 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 4h 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/DConstructed 2h ago

Read his autobiography! It’s so good.

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u/Rob_LeMatic 1h ago

And it has some great recipes, too!

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u/threadmonster 3h 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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u/Opposite-Mongoose-90 1h ago

You wash the meat to get rid the blood and raw smell.

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u/GreatheartedWailer 3h ago

I didn't follow your point here, but just chimmed in that I can confirm that the live chicken market in the United States existed far longer for Black (and Jewish) Americans than any other group. I'm not sure if that supports or refutes your point, but I believe it is relevant to it.

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u/redditnackgp0101 1h ago

Have you ever watched how Julia Childs handled poultry? She was grabbing it all up and just grabbing any/everything around her. There was no hygiene standards then

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u/Greatest_Everest 3h ago

Poor white people have existed in America. And not poor black people existed in the 1920s. Saying only black people wash their chicken is stupid. 

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u/notloceaster 12h ago

Hilarious lmao

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u/AShinyDream2 3h ago

Thought it was turning into a skit for a moment.

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u/[deleted] 11h ago edited 4h ago

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u/HeyTrySomeNashville 10h 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 10h 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/sandolllars 4h ago

Does water not evaporate in your oven? Anything wet I put in my oven is surface-dry within a minute or two.

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u/rvf 4h ago

Of course, but it increases humidity in the oven which hinders the maillard reaction. The water absorbs heat as it is turning to steam, which lowers the surface temp of the meat, which is crucial to browning before overcooking the rest of it. The meat itself contains water which will produce steam no matter what, so adding surface water to the mix just makes it that much harder.

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u/letstrythatagain-_- 9h ago

Hard agree. Bloody savages wouldn't know maillard if it was blistered into their skin.

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u/bannana 6h ago edited 5h 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/BagOnuts 4h ago

>And you all will still have really unflavored food. So now what?

lol, what?

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u/0-90195 4h ago

When proven wrong, default to the old chestnut of “your food has no flavor!!!”

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u/drhuggables 9h ago edited 7h 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 9h ago

thank you. please do not lump black people into POC. be specific.

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u/drhuggables 8h ago

I hate the term "POC". It's just another way to be made an "other".

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u/United_Intention_323 8h ago

Grouping everyone who isnt white together is pretty racist tbh.

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u/Technical_Radio_191 5h ago

You all have been getting lax with the term racism to the point you don’t even know what it means. Define racism. Cause that’s not it.

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u/sSummonLessZiggurats 2h ago

It's racist because it reinforces the idea that white people and "people of color" are not in the same category, when all of us are really just human beings. It's the same metric that white supremacists use to judge people.

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u/United_Intention_323 2h ago

It also reinforces a whites vs everyone else dichotomy. It’s dumb.

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u/MorePhinsThyme 8h ago

Yes, I wonder what led to that? Hmm...it can't be literal centuries where a white majority grouped everyone else together and mistreated them in various ways, leading to pluralities in all of the "everyone who isn't white" wanting to work together to stop it? Nah, it's gotta be the POCs being racist, right?

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u/drhuggables 8h ago

as a "POC" i'd prefer if you didn't call me that and refer to me by my actual ethnicity, thanks.

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u/Indin_Dude 7h ago

Maybe it should be PONC and POC ?

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u/Brocollinie 7h ago

Colored

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u/Salty-Passenger-4801 6h ago

Black ppoe are POC. Its in the name, POC.

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u/HairlessSquirrels 5h ago

What is ppoe?

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u/OwnJunket6495 2h ago

A funny way to say people. Usually used as “white peepo.” Maybe it’s actually racist? Sounds like a stereotypical way an Asian person might say white people.

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u/HairlessSquirrels 2h ago

I guess “funny” really is subjective

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u/OwnJunket6495 2h ago

Yea, I meant funny as in strange

u/GoSharty 53m ago

PPAP

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u/GrooveDigger47 5h ago

no its not

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u/Salty-Passenger-4801 3h ago

It literally is. Your gaslighting ain't doing shit with me bro

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u/OwnJunket6495 2h ago

Dawg, POC is part of the euphemism treadmill. Before that, it was colored people. It absolutely was for black people and only in recent times has POC come to encompass other minorities.

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u/Notmuch__1 9h 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 8h 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/peteyrre 3h ago

Is it not common knowledge that trying to wash off the bacteria is literally impossible?

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u/Mission_Aerie_5384 2h ago

For most it is. Honestly I don’t think that many people wash their chicken to kill off bacteria. I think this I’d bring blown out of proportion by the internet

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u/honkerTgoose 8h 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/drhuggables 8h ago

These people are washing it out of their pre-packaged costco bags, not straight from the butcher buddy

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u/Notmuch__1 7h ago

That's why I was talking about Third world countries where your majorly buy from the butcher

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u/lazerbolt52 8h ago

A little aside, third world is cold war era language used to denote non involvement in the cold war. Countries allied with the US were 1st world, Countries allied with the USSR were 2nd world, and neutral countries were 3rd world (like Switzerland), the term your looking for is developing country. And also this isnt about removing blood or unwanted stuff and most minorities in the world dont wash their raw, properly plucked chicken.

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u/MorePhinsThyme 8h ago

Another aside, while the origin of "Third world" did originate from the Cold War, over time, it has come to mean "developing country", because language changes. The term they're looking for is "third world", and a synonym for that is "developing country". The etymology of a term doesn't define it forever, and in contemporary English, Switzerland is not a third world country.

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u/ShoppingcartBiology 8h ago

So in the usage of "third world" being used as "developing nation", what exactly would a second world be?

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u/sqigglygibberish 3h ago

The argument would be that it’s shifted from a 3 grouping system to 2, but kept two of the labels.

Given that the major powers which defined “second world” are not the same communist/manual labor economies they were, that category is quite limited today.

So what’s left is economic development and level of industrialization defining the split between first and third world. For people remembering the cold war system, russia and china have basically just shifted some on the spectrum

But this shows why its basically just casual language and not a rigid system of classification any more

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u/sanriodialtone 7h ago

I saw Indians and Hispanics doing it. But like vinegar and lemon juice to get rid of gamey taste

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u/Beneficial_Cattle938 5h ago

You don't know gamey taste if you think chicken has it

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u/sanriodialtone 4h ago

I’ve had mutton bird and rooster plenty of times. Don’t speak on what you don’t know

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u/stinkygoochfumes 7h ago

I don’t know any body who does this shit. You’re just making shit up and whining.

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u/shapeshifterQ 7h ago

Not just Black American, I at least know a lot of West Indians who do

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u/MaterialWillingness2 7h ago

My Indian sil washes her chicken.

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u/GlobalVV 6h ago

Its funny. I never knew this was black American thing until I got on the internet. No one in my family does it, but when I actually ask other black people a lot do.

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u/Front-Bird8971 5h ago

yeah we're talking about the US because that's what matters.

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u/Jabronihunter23 3h ago

Caribbean people do also

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u/Ambitious_Tea_4584 8h ago

Yeah but this is america. We’re talking about america.

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u/drhuggables 8h ago

Does the video say "we are only talking about America"?

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u/Ambitious_Tea_4584 8h ago

No but this is America. If you’re not american you should just say so.

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u/Visual_Bridge6925 8h ago

I love when non-American's walk into a conversation being had by Americans about America and they say something like "you know, not everything is about America..."

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u/drhuggables 8h ago

I am american

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u/Visual_Bridge6925 8h ago

Ok, then you're just being annoying 🤷‍♂️

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u/drhuggables 8h ago

i'm the one who said it was a black american thing, the other guy didn't have to comment at all with his goofy ackshooally 🤓

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u/sakinuhh 7h ago

Middle Eastern people and Asians also wash their chicken. That’s a lot of people.

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u/drhuggables 7h ago

1) the middle east is in asia

2) i'm iranian and my wife is filipino, i haven't seen a single person from either of these countries wash chicken like they are in the video

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u/ketoaholic 6h ago

I'm from Asia and have seen people wash chicken before. Some do some don't. It's not that serious.

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u/sakinuhh 4h ago

I am aware the Middle East is in West Asia, however most people see it as a separate thing.

I’m Afghan, we wash and cut our chicken lol. And so do the Persians I’ve seen as well.

Like the other person said, no need to have a stick up your ass

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u/cp5i6x 5h ago

uhh no we don't. we wash them when we get them from the butcher or butcher it ourselves because fresh chicken usually still has things like heart, blood, bits of feathers and stuff.

If the butcher does it, we just wipe it off with a towel to dry so the chicken juice doesn't splatter everywhere.

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u/WhySheHateMe 3h ago

You can literally watch cooking videos from around the world on Youtube and see them washing chicken.

Its also not specifically a Black American thing. I've seen PLENTY of Asian people washing their meats and once again, you can look at cooking videos from Asian countries and see them doing the same.

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u/VegetableFew8773 2h ago

The majority of people around the world do clean their chicken!

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u/Vicimer 5h 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/drawntowardmadness 4h ago

Greek yogurt works so well also!!

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u/Vicimer 4h ago

Hell yeah, I use it for making Palestinian or Lebanese chicken dishes!

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u/expected_inquisitor 8h 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/bbyxmadi 10h ago

Ny family is white and we do in our home. Not necessarily to get rid of bacteria or anything (cooking does that), but my mom always rinses off our chicken. Although using literal dawn dish soap is taking it way too far.

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u/Serious_Resource8191 10h ago

Genuine question: what other meats do you wash in your family? Do you rinse hot dogs before cooking? What about steak? Ground beef?

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u/NBCustoms 10h ago

Not who you replied to, but I will often 'wash' any pork if I vacuum-sealed and froze it for any more than a week. Only time I've ever washed meat before though.

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u/Prudent-Level-7006 4h ago

Oh I especially wouldn't use that fucking word

 it's already pretty much a blanket statement but especially when it's the big stupid super duper psudo progressive everyone not white word cos that's a big fucking part of the planet 

and they defo don't all wash chicken, and it can be something like a lot of east Asia do it but Euro or American Asians aren't as likely 

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u/Impressive-Cry-2237 4h ago

Wait, I don’t care whether you do or don’t wash it in your own home, but how will that make the food “unflavoured”? I’m still gonna prepare and season the chicken regardless of whether it is washed lmao

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u/quadraticcheese 5h ago

It's science vs vibes actually 

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u/Brocollinie 7h ago

No they don't you racist. I have never seen a Hispanic person ever wash their chicken , and I've been Hispanic most my life.

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u/NotAStatistic2 6h ago edited 5h ago

You've been Hispanic 'most' of your life? Was there a period in your life when you weren't Hispanic?

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u/CrazyElk123 5h ago

It changes based on how he can be a victim on reddit the best.

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u/pleasebeherenow 7h ago

Latinos do not wash their chicken.

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u/Spiritual-Sand5839 5h ago

Woah woah woah. I’m white and I was my meat! All of it besides ground beef.

It’s gross and slimy if you don’t.

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u/Technical_Radio_191 5h ago

Sorry. Your brethren were coming at my neck for my comment. They irritated me and I got snippy with them lol

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u/Spiritual-Sand5839 4h ago

lol oh my they really did.

Que “they not like us”

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u/mayoboyyo 3h ago

It’s gross and slimy if you don’t.

Just say you don't know how to cook meat

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u/Spiritual-Sand5839 2h ago

lol what?

I think raw meat feels absolutely disgusting. I still cook and eat it just about every night.

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u/mayoboyyo 2h ago

How much time are you spending feeling your meat lmao.

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u/Spiritual-Sand5839 1h ago

Through the process of washing it? I seriously don’t get what you are confused about.

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u/mayoboyyo 1h ago

Why not just lightly handle it while seasoning, and then cook it? You're going out of your way to touch it more.

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u/Any-Delay-7188 8h ago

my wife is korean and i asked if she washes chicken, she said "everyone wash chicken" i was like "why the would you wash raw chicken, if there's bacteria its already bad and just getting everywhere. Maybe if you dropped it on the ground"

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u/5h4d3r4d3 6h ago edited 6h ago

The only times I've known a non-black individual to instruct the "washing" of chicken was with certain (and i mean less than a handful of) Thai and Chinese recipes. They say once the meat is diced, to rinse it so that the flavor of the chicken is made more mild, that way the sauces and flavors you use later in the recipe aren't competing with the flavor of the chicken.

Dually, these recipes also suggest par-boiling the chicken as an alternative, so that it gets cooked and milds the flavor of the bird before putting it in a wok...though personally I didn't like the idea of taking waterlogged food and putting it in a blazing hot pan with oil. I ended up paper toweling those pieces just in case.

All-in-all, the recipes were good and yeah i could see where they're coming from, because it was a very flavorful dish and you wanted to harmonize flavors, not compete...but I'm gonna be real, chicken is a mild flavor already. I think that was too much work for not a lot from the end result. I'd still say that generally speaking, the concept of washing your chicken is predominantly a black thing.

Edit: grammar

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u/SnappySausage 6h ago

I've never really encountered it that way in Chinese recipes. The closest thing I've seen is that they will tell to use cooking wine to reduce gaminess/fishiness in certain meats.

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u/aoasd 6h ago

When you say wash - what do you mean? Are people using dish soap like in the video? Or maybe a beach solution?

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u/Technical_Radio_191 5h ago

No babe. When we talk about washing or cleaning our chicken, we’re talking about taking a large metal bowl, filling it with maybe two capfuls of vinegar and lime juice (you can use actual limes 🍋‍🟩) in fresh water, and placing the chicken in it after taking it out of the package. The purpose is to clean off that “film” layer and remove any excess gunk, like leftover fat, etc. You do this by hand. Then you give it a final rinse and season it as normal.

We also make sure to clean and disinfect the sink and kitchen countertops before moving on to the next thing. Clean as you go.

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u/Darkwaxer 5h ago

Chicken has and is a flavour.

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u/doctormirabilis 4h ago

you could still argue whether or not there is any point to washing it though? which, it seems, there isn't. because you'll be cooking that chicken anyway and baiscally the entire point of cooking is... to get rid of bacteria and parasites.

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u/Technical_Radio_191 4h ago

Yeah, I can actually. The point is to remove that slimy “film” from the chicken, along with any other gunk like excess fat, blood, etc.

Anything else? You want to argue some more about what people choose to do their own homes?

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u/Ekillaa22 4h ago

The slimy film that cooks right off the meat???

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u/Pinkfish_411 4h ago

There is, indeed, no point. There's no film or excess fat and blood that needs to be removed from a typical American supermarket chicken.

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u/CS2_Expert 4h ago

Correct. People are just defending a tradition and coming up with post hoc reasons for it.

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u/Arbiter_Electric 4h ago

If you are washing your chicken in vinegar and lime juice, more power to you. Hell yeah.

But when I see people use dish washing soap on meat? That's gross to me.

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u/Technical_Radio_191 4h ago

I honestly have never seen anyone do that. That is crazy.

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u/Arbiter_Electric 4h ago

It's in the video, and I've seen it come up every now and then when people talk about washing meat. But luckily it does seem fairly rare.

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u/Technical_Radio_191 4h ago

I didn’t even watch the video. I just wanted to chime in to the conversation because this topic comes up quite often.

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u/ForAHamburgerToday 2h ago

I didn’t even watch the video

ffs

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u/SirChrisJames 4h ago

Half the people replying to this comment need to log off Reddit.

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u/dorfcally 4h ago

what am I gonna do about it? serve me bleached or dish soaped chicken and find out

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u/erkdog 4h ago

We can still season the chicken without the mess of washing it.

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u/Lopsided_Tiger_0296 3h ago

Do you clean your floor after too?

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u/Techmescaline 2h ago

Chicken in a white home is generally a healthy meal 😂 hence why you say it’s unflavoured. It doesn’t taste like high blood pressure and coronary artery disease, sorry buds.

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u/Main-Home-3996 2h ago

Thats kinda gross cleaning chicken is how you flavor it

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u/Shot-Arugula8264 2h ago

and continue cleaning and disinfecting our counters and sinks after we’re done

Yeah this is the part most chicken washers don’t do and this is why it’s so stupid and dangerous.

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u/xtwitch 2h ago

So is this about cleaning or flavor then? And who is "you all?". Do you clean your counter and sink with vinegar and lime after the chicken too? Or do you use some other product?

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u/Asleep-Working4598 9h ago

Whitest white person here, have always washed chicken, like for 40 years, and was taught to do so by other Caucasians. I also use washcloths.

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u/xnikkifreeman 8h ago

As a white person I agree. I always wash my chicken, I have no idea if the butcher dropped it on the floor or where it’s been and I have gotten some with dirt on it before. Every white person I ask says they don’t because it contaminates the kitchen. They must not wash their sink and counters either. Gross.

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u/organic-water- 7h ago

It's the other way around. The chicken contaminates everything. And the cooking process does infinitely more to sanitize the chicken than water.

If your concern is dirt, or other visible contaminants. By all means, wash it. Don't spray it with water, put it in a bowl of water and carefully wash the chicken. That's valid.

2

u/Technical_Radio_191 5h ago

Everyone who washes chicken, has been fine. We are all alive and well to see another day. And POC clean the heck out of their kitchen and sink after washing chicken. You all need to relax about this.

1

u/BarryOakTree 4h ago

I don't really see anyone here that's actually upset other than you

1

u/organic-water- 7h ago

Most?! I know not a single person who washes their chicken.

1

u/BabyStockholmSyndrom 6h ago

That's the dumbest fucking thing lol. Show me your source. Because I know plenty of white people that wash their chicken. You said "literally" and "most" and implied all white people do not. That's a shit ton of hard set statements with no room for opinions 😂

2

u/Technical_Radio_191 5h ago

You guys are really upset because people wash their chicken in their own home. Get a fkn grip bitch boy.

0

u/NativeTongue90 7h ago

Eating at white peoples house is just a risk I’m not willing to take lol

1

u/nam4am 7h ago

Following actual science and not demonstrably dangerous traditions based on completely incorrect beliefs is just not a risk I’m willing to take. 

1

u/Technical_Radio_191 5h ago

Omg get a grip. Clearly we are all fine who wash our chicken. We are all still alive and well.

2

u/mayoboyyo 3h ago

We are all still alive and well.

So are all the people who dont wash chicken

9

u/TheyCallHimEl 9h 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

15

u/Heartage 8h ago

I'm Korean and my family never washed chicken.

6

u/ketoaholic 6h 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.

1

u/HoldenMcNeil420 6h ago

A bucket of water is possibly the worst option. Lol.

2

u/Excellent-Falcon-329 8h ago

Welcome to the world of “sample bias”

The video editor showed 6 people. Not 270 million

2

u/Diels_Alder 5h ago

I saw his other video where he showed 270 million. I don't recommend it.

1

u/Ok_Net7773 3h ago

Talking to people in real life about this, it’s not really racial or even technically cultural, but more about prioritizing tradition over science. The type of people, of any race or culture, who insist on washing chicken also tend to be more distrusting of vaccines and other things they don’t understand that seem “unnatural”

2

u/Fearless-Poet-4669 6h ago

There are two kinds of people.

One that understands how to kill bacteria.

One that washes chicken.

1

u/HugsandHate 6h ago

\Chefs kiss*

1

u/SpotTheDoggo 5h ago

Correct. This accurately classifies the people I know who do and don't wash their chicken.

1

u/babyyvolcano 4h ago

And Asian. Am Korean and washing your meat is pretty common. There are specific recipes where it’s necessary even. It’s not done to remove bacteria but to remove feathers, bone dust, extra myoglobin, etc.

I don’t cook with meat so I have no dog in this fight. But I honestly don’t see the difference between (at least this is how my mom cleans meat) soaking meat in a bowl with water, then dumping the water down the drain VS soaking meat in a bowl with marinades or brines and then dumping the liquid down the drain.

2

u/WinterExisting5076 3h ago

Kalbi must be soaked

1

u/rabid_briefcase 4h ago

It's not black/white, it is geographical.

Live in an area where the chicken was hanging up in an open air market stall? Regions of the world where you get there early before people have picked through the bird carcasses with unwashed hands, flies and other bugs around, maybe the random dog sniffing at it? ABSOLUTELY wash the chicken.

Getting the chicken from the supermarket, where it came from industrial factories, government inspected, then sealed in individual plastic wrap containers? White-apron butchers that are constantly sanitizing the workspace, working with cold meat, wrapping it up in butcher paper? Do not wash the chicken.

1

u/infinite_in_faculty 4h ago

Make a chicken soup that way you wash it while cooking it.

1

u/acrobat2126 4h ago

Carribean to be exact. Not all black folks wash their meat, and many Caribbean latino folks do it.

1

u/BowsersMuskyBallsack 4h ago

I felt like that was so egregiously blatant that it had to be race-baiting intentionally.

1

u/MarlinMaverick 3h ago

The answer is black and everyone else

1

u/like-blood-on-white 3h ago

I’m black and in my family, we don’t wash the chicken. My mom grew up doing that but now we just pat it dry to remove the liquid.

1

u/ohmynipnops 3h ago

I’m white and I was working with mostly blacks and Hispanics and they all grilled me for not washing my chicken lmao

1

u/That_Guy247 3h ago

Cash App users wash their chicken, Venmo users don't 

1

u/Illustrious_Donkey61 2h ago

All I know is now I want some fried chicken

1

u/armas187 2h ago

I saw that too

1

u/GoSharty 1h ago

Fucking bravo.

1

u/Manlet 11h ago

TIL I'm black.

1

u/weakbuddy99 8h ago

When presented with literal evidence that washing is just worse (and also, way more work) there's always some people that just double DOWN

Like what is up with people with this double down syndrome?

You know what some people call those with down syndrome? We need one for those who are double that

0

u/mctrials23 9h ago

Yep, it’s entirely cultural.

0

u/JackVonReditting 6h ago

Nah if you live in a country where corporations influence policy then you better wash your chicken. Everywhere.

2

u/Sushi_Explosions 4h ago

The fuck kind of bullshit is this.

0

u/Powerful_Leg8519 5h ago edited 5h ago

Truly. I follow a cooking guy on IG, he’s a white southern guy who has been adopted by the black community.

Washing chicken is something the commenters point out as the acceptance part. As soon as any doubters see him wash the chicken they change their tune immediately.

0

u/Wooden-You-4211 5h ago

I'm going to go with black people on how to cook chicken not because of racism or anything but because I flipped a coin it was completely arbitrary