I watched a cooking video a few years ago about cooking a whole chicken. In the video it was said “we’re not going to wash the chicken”. I thought just the idea of washing a chicken was strange, so I checked the comments. It was a trainwreck of people being freaked out and disgusted by how she didn’t wash the chicken.
I had to search through several forums and articles afterwards to confirm that I wasn’t insane, and that I hadn’t lived my whole life with disgusting food habits. But the topic of washing a chicken before you cook it is a strangely divided subject.
I’m confused what they think they’re washing off. If you don’t believe the cooking kills the germs then you’re not cooking it right (or are confused). If you think it’s something that won’t come off with cooking like dirt or dust, then, ew, why are you getting chicken from somewhere that gets it covered in dirt or dust?
People who consume a lot of floor chickens
Sometimes it’s the bacteria that kills you sometimes it’s the poop of the bacteria that kills you. The latter won’t matter if you cook it well or not. But yeah generally it’s useless to wash chicken.
Butcher pubes
I don’t know what this text is going on about. People don’t wash the ‘white shit’ off chicken. Some people think that washing chicken (or poultry in general) reduces the chance of cross contamination due to salmonella. In reality it makes it more likely for cross contamination because it splatters all around your sink and surrounding areas.
It also doesn’t make it taste bland. It’s just useless.
My guess is that Anon made an assumption about what they were attempting to do while washing it off and that night didn’t put a lot of effort into the cooking and also expected it to taste bad.
I’m confused what they think they’re washing off.
A LOT of kitchen practices in families are passed-down traditions, with a lot of people not really knowing why they do the things they do.
My Filipino family-in-law washes their cuts of meat, which yeah is entirely unnecessary and I always wondered why they do it, then I traveled to the Philippines and saw the town where they lived, and most of the local butchers hang fresh cuts of meat up on hooks, uncovered, right next to busy roads and sidewalks.
I genuinely don’t know how everyone there hasn’t died of acute food poisoning from the unrefrigerated meats in high heat and humidity, but they at least like to wash off the road grime and dust.
It can also help tenderize the meat (via vinegar or lemon/lime); I tend to find that, when “nondeveloped” countries talk about washing their meat, it means in a vinegar/citrus solution while “developed” countries quite literally mean just plain water.
Apparently washing your chicken was an old practice to “rinse the germs off”. In reality it just sprays germs everywhere. I can’t believe anyone thought it was a good idea.
I think it’s common where meat is sold in open-air markets. I read an article about the practice last year.
In the days before plastic packaging?
Those things still exist. Heck they might come back in the US once food prices rise and the FDA is disbanded.
It’s a leftover practice from days when standards were lower. Just like cooking pork to 165, it’s not necessary anymore, but habits die hard
My mom has always made me “wash chicken,” which would just be running it under water. Just chicken, nothing else.
I used to do it out of habit, but laziness seems to have worked in my favor this time.
Chinese youtube chef recommends washing chicken to reduce the albumin levels and help tenderize, never tested it personally and I definitely don’t wash meat
ITT: people who undercook their chicken think that washing is what’s saving them when in reality, washing your chicken only enables a host of cross-contamination issues. Congratulations for turning your sink into a biohazard facility.
Wait, you don’t eat chicken medium rare?
If you hold your chicken for ten minutes at temperature, you can cook it medium rare and pink. https://blog.thermoworks.com/chicken-internal-temps-everything-you-need-to-know/
Eww. Also tough so also eww.
Rinsing and scrubbing will spread micro droplets a lot further than your sink.
i thought it said “than you sink” and that you were making a German coastguard joke
Shoutout Cornelis Drebbel
vat?
Are you sinking about?
This is why I don’t clean the dishes in my sink… Not trying to spread any micro droplets.
Red meat can be eaten rare, because even if the inside is raw, it’s not usually contaminated by anything dangerous, while chicken meat has to be throughly cooked because it’s the opposite… So washing the outside is useless.
Only if it’s a slab of meat, like a steak. Ground meat mixes up all those contaminants, so unless you grind it yourself from a slab with the outsides cut off (still iffy), cook your ground meat thoroughly (medium well is probably enough). You can get away with a sear on pretty fresh steak though.
And then there are the Germans, eating raw ground pork on a bun.
It seems, you can get away with raw meat, if you buy it freshly ground from the butcher.Edit: wrong kind of meat
I’m Italian and I caught toxoplasmosis eating raw sausage ground meat as a kid, sooo…
But I did that for a long time before anything happened.
Yeah, as long as the equipment is sterile, and the edges with the bacteria are removed. That’s not happening at your local grocery store.
I buy my filet américain at my local grocery store. It is made of a beef/pork mix (the fancier the more beef) and usually has an expiry date of T+2 days thanks to the added preservatives.
Industrially processing raw meat is perfectly doable, much to the Americans’ utter disbelief. Belgium has entire specialized industrial supply chains for the massive local demand of raw ground meat bread spread.
Certainly, it’s just a lot more work than the less sanitary “chuck the extra meat into the grinder” method we use here.
I’d love to try that raw beef spread BTW. I’ve had beef sashimi before, and it was great.
On a bun? That’s Mett and it’s pork. Yes, ground raw pork. It’s quite tasty. Sprinkle of onion usually.
He’s getting it mixed up with Wisconsin, which does raw ground beef on a bun.
Tratare sandwich? Sounds delicious!
I used to have a roommate that would wash her veggies and meat in the soapy dishwasher freaking disgusting
So that’s why cilantro tastes like that?
Does washing actually cause the fat to come off though?
I’ve had bloody chicken before which you do actually want to wash/clean off because cooked blood will completely destroy your dish.
Otherwise you can cut off some cartilage and hard fat that won’t render when cooked. No need to wash it.
sdklf;gjkl;dsgjkl;dsgjkl;dsgsjkl;g
Nope. The slimy stuff that comes off when you wash chicken is not fat and the pink liquid is myoglobin, not blood. The reason not to wash chicken is that it potentially sprays salmonella all around your sink. Basically, there is no good reason to wash chicken, but it shouldn’t affect the actual meat.
Not myoglobin, actual blood. Very rare, but sometimes the butcher didn’t drain properly.
You can tell because by that time, the blood has coagulated into a mush.
Myoglobin is clearish red and pink like you said. That’s stuff is fine.
Not myoglobin
Oh yeah for sure. I usually just cut that out if it’s a vein in the chicken or just scrape it off if its on the meat or skin.
I do not think I have ever washed any chicken I have prepared, EVER
me neither (ive never prepared any chicken)
me neither (ive never washed any thing)
Me neither (ive never eaten any thing)
Me neither (I’ve never)
Me
The only time I wash chicken is after cooking it, and when I drop it on the floor and thing “eh, I can still eat this”
Anon has never had salmonellosis, and it shows painfully.
There’s not much (but there are things) that quite compare to vomiting so hard and for so long that you’re seriously worried you might suffocate. Or that you’re equally worried your next retch will make you sprain your back.
The gamma ray laser stream of piss leaving my asshole was a cosmic event that went completely undetected by humanity, something that should have set off air raid sirens across the globe.
I’ll damn fucking make sure I wash the raw chicken I cook, and make sure the thickest part of the cut reaches 165° F, because someone didn’t cook the chicken I ate well enough to destroy the salmonella, and it nearly fucking killed me.
What soap do you use to wash your chicken?
Washing the chicken doesn’t fix the problem you’re concerned with though. If it did you could wash the chicken and then just eat it raw.
The bacteria is inside the chicken, potentially, where you can’t possibly remove it by washing. That’s why you have to cook it.
Cooking kills the bacteria, and if you have to cook it then the only thing washing will do is spread any surface bacteria around to other surfaces and gives you wet chicken.
Please avoid eating raw chicken, alright?
Also avoid using your sink after washing the chicken before you sanitized it with boiling water.
Here’s the wild thing. Back in my lab days we used to do a practical with first years that shows how easily bacteria can become aerosolised when washing things.
It isn’t just your sink that needs nuking.
Also don’t wash your chicken and just cook it properly.
Washing chicken really doesn’t help. It actually increases your chances of poisoning.
You won’t prevent salmonella infections by washing chicken, you’ll even increase the risks via cross contamination.
Get a thermometer and cook your chicken properly.
Fucking hell.
Fucking hell.
Gordon Ramsey, is that you?
I really don’t like Gordon, but I’m full on with him in this case. It deserves his “Fucking hell!”
And here I am, just properly cooking my chicken like some kind of savage…
Salmonella can be spread by eating undercooked or raw chicken. Anon hasn’t had it because he cooks it properly.
Washing chicken seems to be a very American thing to do? Here in the Netherlands I’ve never seen or heard someone do it. We just cook our chicken properly.
I’m American and have never washed chicken nor heard of anyone doing that. What a crazy thing to do.
Yeah, never washed any meat, just season and properly cook. I always wash veggies and fruits, never meat because it’s pointless.
I know not a single American that does this.
I’ve only heard of it from elsewhere.
… And what is washing you chicken going to do to prevent it? Just cook it through and you won’t ever get salmonella.
I never wash my meats, that would cast the external microbes around the kitchen. Instead, I blanch them in boiling water for a few minutes. It’s kinda like sous vide, but faster. It’s also fine if you forget it in the water for a bit, the meat will only get cleaner! Toss some broccoli into the water for full meal prep with minimal cleanup
Out of all the disturbing comments in this thread, this one gets to me the most, especially saying it’s like a sous vide.
I love cooking my chicken in a sous vide, but you do it low and slow, 145 degrees for about 2 and a half hours.
Excellent article on it here: https://www.seriouseats.com/the-food-lab-complete-guide-to-sous-vide-chicken-breast
If you have one of these machines, I highly recommend trying it this way. Give it a quick sear in some cast iron after.
I tried sous vide baths but the ziplocks kept expanding and leaking, so I improvised. My son, trying to be helpful, kept spilling the warm hanger steak water on our dog, who didn’t mind at all but did manage to build a habit of tripping him on his way to the sink like a chihuahua-shaped guided trip cord. Even after she broke 3 of her legs in a botched attempt, looking like a potato on weighted stilts, the habit persisted. Then we moved on to blanching and my wife had to grind the handles off of our cast iron pot to prevent the kid from trying to move it. It was headache after compromise after headache, but my wife and I tolerated it for the perfect steaks. Just try to tell me they don’t look appetizing
What do you think happens to the microbes when you put the chicken in the pan or in the oven?
Do you also blanche your steaks?
You’re saying doing that makes the meat cleaner but you’re also sending broccoli in that dirty water?
All you’re doing is taking the flavor out of your chicken and making a broth out of good meat, that’s ridiculous!
The microbes are dead because I blanched them for 5 minutes, like the internet said to do
(cough cough) Note their name - “gullible”
They got me too until I read their next comment. Haha
My eggs have chickenshit on them and thats’ why they don’t need refrigeration like you do in the US.
Also, I can eat them raw if I like. Finnish health authorities sign off on that.
That isn’t entirely correct, the layer of mucous around the egg is called the bloom - it isn’t shit that protects the egg. The bloom actually protects the egg from bacteria that live in the chicken shit, and washing them removes that layer of mucous . Even still, the likelihood of getting salmonella from a supermarket egg is like 1 in 20k or something like that.
Source: I have chickens.
spujb is not an idiot, I made a mistake
it isn’t shit that protects the egg
Lol I never claimed it is.
But if there’s shit on the egg, it strongly implies they haven’t been washed and thus have an intact bloom.
getting salmonella from a supermarket egg is like 1 in 20k or something like that.
Not in Finland. That high percentages, that is.
My eggs have chickenshit on them and thats’ why they don’t need refrigeration like you do in the US.
Oh, my mistake then.
Did you think In was suggesting the shit itself is somehow protective? I didn’t assume that people would assume that, my mistake.
I thought the implication was obvious.
implication
noun
the conclusion that can be drawn from something although it is not explicitly stated.
Like if I said “I’ve had a very sensual weekend. Your mom says to say hi.” You could probably understand the implication and wouldn’t just think your mom has accidentally rang me up as a wrong number only to say hello to you, would you?
my eggs have chickenshit on and that’s why
and that’s why
that’s why
Idk man, look at the words you write after you write them - don’t expect me to read between the lines of your incorrectly expressed thought.
Yeah. The presence of shit shows they’re not washed.
Unwashed eggs don’t need refrigeration.
No-one else thought I was claiming shit has protective properties, so perhaps you should consider that you might be mistaken in who has expressed what incorrectly.
It isn’t my fault that your literary skills aren’t as good as your chicken farming skills.
Okay imagine you and a good friend often get to go cruising in your mom’s car when she’s not using it. One day you tell them, “Mom’s gonna be home all weekend, that’s why we can go to the party we didn’t have a ride to”.
But huh. Wait a minute? How does your mom staying at home mean you suddenly get to go somewhere? Huh? Your friend would definitely be mighty confused and ask you to try expressing your thoughts more clearly, wouldn’t they? Right? Becsuse how on Earth would your mom sitting on a sofa mean your travel problem is gone? She’s sitting. Still. At home. How is it relevant?
Edit autocorrect mistakes
Stop.
Use English correctly or don’t, I don’t care.
Lots of people in the US have backyard chickens and their eggs have shit on them. A lot of us still refrigerate them though (I do). Once you’re raised with it, it’s a hard mindset to break.
Oh I refrigerate my eggs as well. I don’t have my own though.
The shit itself isn’t protective, but having it there is a sign the eggs aren’t washed like they do in the US egg industry, which removes some sort of protection from the exterior of the shell, which is why US eggs often need refrigeration.
Yeah I know about the coating and the US washing method, but that’s probably still good info for someone out there.
I just spray paint mine. Last for months.
My eggs do last for months without going bad and they’re not refrigerated.
How long do your eggs last?
Also if you don’t know whether eggs are bad or not, see if they float. If they float, there’s sulphur gas in them and they’re no good anymore.
If they sink though, even if they sort of bob upwards from the bottom but still are at the bottom, they’re good.
Aussie supermarkets sometimes refrigerate eggs and sometimes not. No idea what’s going on with them.
Lots of people really do.
Losing taste is one thing, but it can actually be dangerous by spreading salmonella&friends.
Didn’t watch the video, but I have a degree in this field. We were taught to always wash chicken, in a separate room. I was given an earful one time when I was working at the kindergarten kitchen when I forgot to wash chicken thoroughly.
Edit: I should notice, all my comments apply to a factory setting and business grade kitchens. Multiple people corrected me that cooking at home is different and you should not wash your chicken at home kitchen.
I dunno who taught you that, or what dipshit was running a school that allowed it, but the bare fact that it is not only unnecessary, but potentially dangerous, has been known for decades.
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always wash chicken, in a separate room
Oh dang, I’ll have to move to a bigger house. My current home is lacking a chicken washing room.
personally I just use the bull de-horning room for this purpose
Dang, and here I am with a converted mirrorball and beehive emporium like a fool.
You’ll have to be more specific about what “this field” is. Restaurant sanitation? Food safety? Chicken washing? Microbiology?
Whatever your degree, it’s not the recommended practice.
https://ask.usda.gov/s/article/Should-I-wash-chicken-or-other-poultry-before-cooking.You render meat safe to eat by killing the bacteria with fire, commonly called “cooking it”.
Degree is in Food production technology. Sanitation, safety of preparation and storage. Before cooking, meat can go all over working place, and it can contaminate it if not washed.
Sounds like you maybe learned about food preparation in a factory setting, which is different than in a kitchen setting.
Per USDA and CDC guidelines, you shouldn’t wash poultry before cooking because you’re more likely to spread any contamination, you’re unlikely to remove contamination that’s present since it’s not like it just lives on top of the tissue, and it’s already been washed during processing.
Obviously if you’re the party doing the actual processing for distribution then things are different since you need to remove potential traces of feces, dirt or other surface contamination.
Yes, I think there was a miscommunication. You’re correct about the factory setting.
Maybe your should edit your previous messages to mention that it doesn’t apply to a kitchen environment so you don’t spread disinformation.
Thank you, I edited my top comment.
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Having worked in restaurants for years and been to multiple health and safety classes in multiple states, I call bullshit.
Washing chicken spreads bacteria all over everything wherever it’s done: the walls, floor, ceiling. Do you sanitize the ceiling after you do this?
Listen mate, you can call bullshit all you want, I’m citing official documentation of my country that worked for years, specifically this one “СП 2.3.6.1079-01”, under part VIII, 8.9.
You were taught wrong. You don’t wash chicken. It only spreads germs.
I’m inclined to trust my professors that had years of experience, rather than someone off the internet.
That is the correct position to hold.
They’re only correct because they’re referring to a very specific situation that, for all intents and purposes, is completely wrong for any situation the average person will encounter.
So no, they’re wrong from a consumer perspective but right in factory conditions. So no matter what their professors say, don’t listen to this person because you’re not cooking in factory conditions.
I meant, out of context, that listening to your professors rather than internet randoms is the correct position to hold.
Yeah, I don’t disagree with that so long as the particular context is included when being passed off as normal in specific conditions. It was not mentioned that the professor stated this was for mass production and the comment was provided in a context that invalidated what they said. In context, without the edit, the professor’s advice is immaterial to the discussion and only serves to spread misinformation on proper hygienic practices.
But to the overall point, this is why you don’t listen to random people on the Internet! Sometimes you get told facts that are only true for very specific edge cases that are bandied about as general advice with the weight of ‘i have a degree’ as confidence even though the advice is objectively wrong in the provided context.
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You’re absolutely correct.
The FDA doesn’t recommend it, and I am more inclined to trust them instead of a single professor. If you really do it in a different room there should be not be any contamination, but in my opinion it is bad practice anyway. It’s much safer just to cook the chicken to the right temperature. But maybe you can point us in the right direction if this should be handled differently in bigger kitchens, like you said.
I mean, the more you handle it, the higher the chance of contamination, so if you just chuck it in the pan…
Hang on. You’re telling me, all kindergartens in your area have a separate room, just for washing chicken? Like"Here’s where the kids keep their bags, here’s the toilets, this is the chicken washing room, and over there we keep the crafts."
There a multiple compartments to every kitchen, at least should be to adhere to sanitary documentation. A separate room for washing dishes, a separate room for cleaning vegetables, a separate room for cleaning meat and a separate room for cooking. The cooking room has separated workplaces for different kinds of food to reduce contamination.
everybody else is talking about home cooking, and that it’s not recommended to wash chicken from a supermarket at home. probably in whatever context you have these multiple compartments recommendations are different
I’ll call bullshit on that unless you’re using the wrong words to describe these rooms. I know the field from a cook perspective and no kindergarten has multiple rooms for cooking and meal prep. You’re thinking about the setup in a factory that does food transformation. Transformation and preparation are two completely different things.
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If it smells bad it’s in the bin that you should be sending it, not in your sink for a wash.
Or ideally, return it to the store if it’s within the expected expiration time, they’ll want to track it to people don’t get sick. Wrap it up well though so you don’t contaminate anything on the way.
So where I live, frozen chicken is cut on a wooden chopping board overlaid with pieces of the carton it came it. Without washing you’ll end up with random bits of cardboard, wood, fish fins and possibly sand.
makes chicken fish fins and sand in it
Are you the little mermaid?
Unda da sea!
If your meat is visibly dirty then sure, go ahead and rinse it, don’t be an idiot and eat wood. This conversation is people buying it from the grocery though.
This is reasonable time to wash your chicken and also likely where this habit comes from. Before the age of factory farming and the advent of reliable home refrigeration a lot of meat was improperly stored before and after selling.
Washing your produce was likely a good defense mechanism to wash away actual dirt, grime and bugs that may have adhered to it. Nowadays it’s largely unnecessary unless you’re still living in a place where butchering and processing techniques may not be of the greatest quality.
