I’ve seen a few cooking videos where Americans have washed chicken meat, for example, before cooking it.
Why do some Americans do this? We don’t need to refrigerate eggs in my country so is it a similar reason as to why they need to be refrigerated in the States? Cooking meat at the correct temperature will kill all harmful bacteria prior to eating surely ( unless the meat is off )
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Oh gawd no. Washing raw chicken just spreads whatever was on it around. I’ve seen people do this on cooking videos and it killllllls me.
I don’t, nor have I seen anyone do it.
Every major health authority warns not to wash chicken as splashing it around just increases the risk of cross contamination rather than doing any good.
I can only assume it’s some misguided holdover.
Edit: unless you’re talking about a whole, freshly killed and plucked animal. I was picturing someone washing a chicken breast or something from your question.
No, you’re watching content creators with very bad food safety habits.
i don’t wash chicken, because you’re not supposed to.
i do rinse pork before i put a rub on it, but that’s about it.
we have to refrigerate our eggs because they are washed before they get to the store. if you buy farm fresh, unrinsed, eggs you don’t need to refrigerate them.
usually people who wash raw chicken do it bc that’s how someone in their family did it & they don’t know that you’re [not supposed to](https://www.usda.gov/media/press-releases/2019/08/20/washing-raw-poultry-our-science-your-choice#:~:text=The%20best%20practice%20is%20not,not%20effectively%20cleaned%20and%20sanitized.).
the egg thing is different. we wash off the protective bloom (so does Canada) & many countries don’t. it doesn’t seem like either way produces bad results, just different regulations for different countries.
I watch a lot of cooking videos on Youtube. I have never once seen this behavior you are describing. While I have no doubt you’ve seen this, I very much doubt it is a widespread thing.
I don’t wash my meat.
Absolutely not. Research has shown that it only serves to spread bacteria around your kitchen. In any case, I usually do a bit of a marinade and I don’t want to be washing off the flavor.
However, I have heard it is a common thing with some cultural groups here. Not sure how it got started, but it’s passed around as just a standard part of the process when people learn how to cook.
This is not an American thing at all, you’re just watching terrible cooking videos.
You should absolutely NOT do that. It spreads the germs all over. These people are dumb.
I rinse fish after I clean them.
I’m betting most of the creators you’ve seen do this were not white. In a lot of cases non-white Americans will wash meat, and only eat well-done meat, as a cultural holdover from when slavery, poverty, and racism meant they didn’t always get the best or freshest quality.
This has influenced a lot of online creators who face harsh criticism and backlash from a vocal minority… of minorities. The creators now make a point to say or show that they are washing meat to appease their audience.
No, that’s a *terrible* idea.
Never
Washing meat is an awful idea and basically every food safety org recommends explicitly against it.
I take my meat out of the packaging and may pat it dry with a paper towel – mostly to make it better for seasonings to apply to it – and then cook directly from there.
Rising off chicken was the norm when I was a kid, back in the 60s, and some older people may still do it because they missed the memo, but most of us know better now.
I don’t wash chicken before cooking it and I’ve not observed people doing this as far as I can remember.
No, this is not normal. Those people are the weird ones here.
Nope. Heating it to safe eating temps should sterilize whatever people think they’re washing off.
But as someone else pointed out, the egg thing is a different issue. There’s 2 strategies to deal with eggs. Your culture uses one and we simply use another. Ours are washed before being distributed which makes them not shelf stable anymore. That’s why eggs in the US must be refrigerated.
No.
The 50s robbed a whole next generation of cooking skills. My mother in law was gifted a microwave cooking book in the 80s when she got married and that’s basically all she knows. We were making meatballs at a family vacation and I was gently shaping them. She however rolled it like a child with play dough into a ball then poured a can of cream of mushroom over them and cooked it in the microwave for 30 minutes. I’m fairly certain it violates the geneva convention.
You pat meat dry with a paper towel so it sears better. We just have a bunch of people nervous about food or didn’t learn how to cook.
The only time ots really appropriate to bath your meat is if you are preparing sushi/sashimi. And thats only because you do sort of a “spot cure” using salt and/or sugar to soften and slightly dehydrate it. You wash it off and pat it down and once drynits ready to consume raw.
Tge onlybother time I can think of is using warm water to defrost meat but you shouldnt do that.
Ill never eat meat thats been rinsed off before cooking. Either theres something wrong with it or they are stupid
The only videos I’ve seen where people do that are jokes about them being bad cooks. People don’t do that IRL, at least not people who can cook.
No. What I’ll usually do is open the pack straight in the bowl or pot I’m cooking in, and then pat it dry. Washing my hands in-between.
Fuck no what the hell
I follow a handful of cooking accounts on IG and this seems to be with very specific ethnic groups. It usually ends up being a big debate in the comments.
FYI: The CDC recommends not washing your meat in the sink.
Refrigerating eggs is a necessity after we wash off some kind of natural barrier they have.
My mama and a lot of black people do but I keep tryna tell them you don’t need to 🤦🏽♂️
I’m a little surprised to see people saying it’s not a thing. I grew up seeing people wash meat.
In the South a lot of people wash meat. They believe they are cleaning it. They really think not washing meat is disgusting. They will say, “Well my mama did it and my grandma did it, so I’m gonna do it”
You can’t tell them anything, either. They refuse to believe it’s not good to wash meat.
I used to wash meat. When I realized I didn’t need to do it, I was so glad. It made a mess that had to be wiped down and sanitized. It’s just a bunch of extra work that accomplishes nothing.
The only thing I can think of that comes close to this is running warm water over frozen meat to quick-thaw it when you forget to take it out of the freezer.
Are we going to talk about washing rice next
No. That is a habit common in countries from warm climates without refrigeration or with limited refrigeration. The purpose is to remove the slimy film that forms on meat in such climates in addition to removing harmful bacteria. If the creators you are watching are doing this they are either immigrants, close descendants of immigrants, or have a religious custom involving the washing of meat. It is not an American habit.
Washing meat is not at all normal in the US. It’s actually bad food safety. Washing chicken has always been more of a British thing and not nearly as common in the US. It used to be customary amongst African Americans but is falling out of fashion because it is bad food safety and generally not necessary. The CDC warns against it and it violates safe kitchen practices for commercial kitchens.
As far as eggs go we refrigerate them because our eggs get washed in production which prevents salmonella but washes off the natural coating which means they don’t last as long at room temperature. Unwashed eggs can last longer at room temperature but have a slightly higher chance of being contaminated with salmonella.
Eggs generally have a protective coating over the shell which protects them and helps keep them fresh.
However, due to health and safety regulations they must clean the eggs before selling them in stores because there could be harmfull bacteria on the shell.
During the washing process the egg loses the protective coating and needs to be refrigerated.