Kitchen

[Daysdee]

On 3/23/2014 Barbarainnc said:

I use to rinse off my chicken, but never did beef or pork. But now I just cook it. Cooking to the proper temp. will kill the germs. When you rinse poultry off, poultry "germs" go who knows where.

Thinking back when you watch cooking shows, they just open the package and cook it, no rinsing.

I've noticed that on cooking shows like Rachael Ray. She (and others) take meat and/or vegetables out of the store package and proceed to cook them. No peeling of carrots, etc. either.

[Lacey1]

I've heard that they have a 'spit' bucket out of sight. Take a 'taste', spit it out, and rinse with mouthwash when the camera is focused elsewhere. Makes sense to me.

[chickenbutt]

You can do it however you want to do it, IMO. I rinse poultry. It IS possible to do it without contaminating the entire environment.

I wouldn't take too much advise from a show host or guest vendor. After all, they promote cooking poultry from frozen. Now THAT I would not do.

[gazelle77]

I have heard about not washing chicken. The reason for it is that the bacteria from the raw chicken and juice may spatter in your sink area, get on your hands and sponge etc... leading to sickness... as many people may not be careful and use hygienic methods. So, they recommend NOT cleaning the chicken prior to cooking. The heat from cooking will kill the bacteria. I personally STILL wash my chicken and I just use a bleach solution to clean the sink area etc. I can not stand the slimy juice that is on the raw chicken.

[Deadeye Daisy]

Do you REALLY think your favorite restaurant washes your prime rib or chicken before cooking? Doesn't matter if it's Mortons of Chicago or Fat Bobs BBQ joint down the street. Protein products (meat, fish, poultry) at your favorite restaurant are NEVER washed before cooking. That's why the health inspectors have a field day when they find meat, fish and poultry in the cooler on upper shelves with vegetables and the like down below where juices can drip.

Fish is supposed to be stored in an ice box on a bed of ice covered with plastic,stored in the lowest part of the cooler. Live seafood is never supposed to be kept in fresh water; it tends to kill off the live stuff. Live is also kept in cooler over ice.

If you want to buy a 'clean' chicken, purchase from a kosher butcher. Poultry that has been properly kashered has been washed, soaked in room temperature water for ½ hour (but no more than 24 hours), rinsed, salted for 1 hour (but no more than 12 hours), and rinsed three times, each time in clean water.

[mikki_g]

I've never rinsed meat or chicken in my life.

[SusyQ22a]

Never have washed chicken or poultry before cooking and my family and I live to tell about it. I also thought cooking got rid of the germs on meats and poultry. As for seasoning steaks, I use a little salt and pepper to season. I like the taste of the meat, not the seasonings.

[GCR18]

I've always washed chicken before cooking and cleaned all surfaces. Last week I noticed a worker in the deli loading chickens into the oven and thought about this topic. It makes sense not to wash, but I'll probably still do it.

[aubnwa01]

When I was a kid, my mom always soaked fresh chicken in salted water. This was before boneless & skinless chicken was widely available. She'd buy a whole chicken & cut it up herself into fryer parts (she was born & raised on a farm) & soak it some more in either a pot or the kitchen sink in well salted water& then pat it dry to prepare. She said it was to draw any residual blood out of the bones. I grew up in SoCal in the 50's & 60's & my mom bought her chicken at the grocery store & I'm still alive & we never had any food borne illnesses. My mom had cooked in restaurants & had to have certifications that she knew the food handling safety procedures.

Now days, I think there are a lot more cooties in the food of today, so I rinse chicken before I cook it. There's a slippery feel to it that I want to rinse off. (My cousin calls it "Chicken Sap"!)

[Lila4Now]

I use to wash chicken, until I saw a video the FDA put out. They cover the bird with a glow in the dark chemical. The first scene you see a woman rinsing chicken parts. She's being careful, hardly any splash you can see. The woman then cleans the sink and the faucet. Afterwards they hit the sink, counters, faucet, and floor. What seemed like microscopic splatters were all over! They said though small, any of those spots were large enough to make a person sick. There were spots inside the coffeemaker, a good four or five feet away! The video made me a believer! I figure facts are facts, and I'm not above learning new ways that are better!