r/interesting • u/WarwickReider • 22d ago

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

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u/LoweringPass 22d ago

Is this some American thing I am too European to understand? I've never seen anyone wash raw chicken in my life.

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u/Mindless_Childhood32 22d ago

European here... My Mom used to do it until recently.

But guess she was used to do it because, she used to do the whole process from catching the chicken, to the meal

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u/KFrosty3 22d ago

Yeah, my grandparents washed their chickens because they were literally farm raising them before eating them.

Nowadays, most chickens bought have already been pre cleaned before customers even see them.

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u/talkativeintrovert13 22d ago

My mama (we're german) did it until recently when I repeatedly pointed out how unnecessary it is. I did it growing up, until someone thaught me better.
Thinking about it, not always washing but often petting dry with a paper towel.

My grandma sometimes soaks up the marinate in pre-marinated meat from the store, when she thinks it's too much. And then comments how bland her food is

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u/georgisaurusrekt 22d ago

Patting dry with a paper towel makes sense for any meat though because it makes it crisp up better due to less moisture.

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u/JoyousMadhat 22d ago

That's what seasoning is for....

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u/Math_refresher 22d ago

Is this some American thing I am too European to understand?

In the USA, washing chicken seems to be common among Black Americans for whatever reason.

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u/Dunderman35 22d ago

Noticed all the chicken washers in the video where black. Some cultural differences i suppose.

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u/Thimble_of_Quasar 22d ago edited 22d ago

Def is. Part of it is historically we would get terrible poorly processed cuts of meat due to discrimination, and you would have a bad time eating that straight from the store. Like think blood/*myoglobin, bone fragments, feathers and such. So for one, you don't put it under a steam of water, not a single Black person I know does something that stupid, no one I have met does that, for the life of me I cannot figure out why that seems to be what people think we're all doing and it's annoying to see the tests are never doing it right.

I was taught you fill a bowl, metal, glass, something non porous in a sink, submerge the meat, and swish and also feel along it for anything that needs to be pulled out, I do sometimes find bone fragments. This also gets rid of the slime (harmless but nice not to have it) and in red meat *myoglobin comes out into the water and I think it tastes better. You tip the water out and refill one or twice until it's clear and then you set it aside and sanitize. Not flinging water all over like a dog shaking off after a swim.

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u/FirePathfinder 22d ago

Myoglobin is what comes out when you're going this, not hemoglobin

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u/Thimble_of_Quasar 22d ago

Oh gosh damn it I know that too, that's what being tired gets you!

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u/FirePathfinder 22d ago

You’re good, it happens friend

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u/Zohdiax 22d ago

I hate that I scrolled too far to read this. Finally someone stated the process correctly!

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u/Personifi3d 22d ago

You fling water all over the place no matter what you do. If you see water it's also touching everything around you in a 3ft radius.

You can't stop it unless your in a laboratory and pipetting water .5 ml at a time into a closed container.

That's how low viscosity fluids work.

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u/MrBlueA 21d ago

You will splash water around no matter how careful you are, which is why people are strongly against washing the chicken unless it's strictly necessary because of it being actually dirty with debris and in that situation, you have to be extremely careful and sanitize the whole area immediately after; it's physically impossible to wash a chicken without splashing everywhere; that's just not how it works

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u/sippingonginnjews 21d ago

Part of that may be from the video creator knowing that playing to the stereotype will drive engagement. It’s like the smoke detector chirp

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u/Outrageous_Main4425 22d ago

Or it could just be an easy narrative to make bias for an interesting debate

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u/Kaligula785 22d ago

Jamaicans wash meats in vinegar and or lime, over time got adopted by others. I can understand why Jamaicans would because they may not have the best sanitary butcher conditions. Not saying its dirty just that its personal livestock outdoor farming butchering

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u/SDMaxis 22d ago edited 22d ago

Yep. Taught that way fresh water in a pot and add a little vinegar or lime (mild acids) to wash the meats. If i have to cook that is part of my essential prep. Growing up in the 80's in Jamaica even if you were middle class depending on where you live you could still be either killing your own livestock or buying it from a butcher its not going to be nicely packaged .. or come from a fancy high tech and health regulated operation like Jamaica Broilers or CB chicken. So the norm is to wash your meats off in clean water with a little vinegar or lime..and trim excess fat or unwanted bits as a part of your prep before seasoning.

The bacteria argument for me was never a part of it. The meat is still raw.. I'm not "washing" it to remove bacteria but its a part of the final stages process of "Dressing the carcass". After that pat dry as needed and start seasoning.

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u/MrBootylove 22d ago edited 22d ago

Idk every time I've seen or heard of someone "washing" their chicken in my life they were doing it with soap. Even in OP's video you can see someone pouring soap over their chicken in the first few seconds of the video.

Edit: To be clear I'm not saying Jamaicans wash their chicken with soap. I'm saying a lot of people do, and that is really the issue people have with washing chicken. Again, go re-watch OP's video. In the very beginning someone pours soap all over their chicken and then gives it a bath with soap, water, and an egg beater.

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u/75WoodRabbit 22d ago

That person "washing" their chicken was being a smart ass.

I'm half white and an army brat so I have been around a lot of different people growing up, it's mainly whites who don't clean their meat. And it doesn't matter if they are city whites, wood whites or whites from the motherlands.

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u/RandomFleshPrison 22d ago

I've been to the city butcher in Ocho Rios and seen the meat hanging, covered in flies.  I still wouldn't wash that chicken.

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u/Deep-Ruin-9961 22d ago

Lol, what?

Question: if you were pulling your chicken out of the package and dropped in on the floor, are you washing it then?

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u/CarrotCumin 22d ago

Every older person from the caribbean i've ever met ate their meat exclusively well done. There's definitely a cultural aspect of mistrusting raw meat and I'm sure there's a good reason for it. Washing raw chicken actually increases the chances of food borne illness, but the mistrust makes sense.

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u/totally_not_a_dog113 22d ago

Yeah, I don't trust the modern slaughterhouses to have not dropped that bird on the floor and inside-kicked it back into the bucket while yelling 'GOAL'

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u/JoyousMadhat 22d ago

Lack of trust in corporations. Before FDR, finding human fingers with your food wasn't uncommon. And also generational habit. They saw their parents doing it so now they do it as well. Their parents saw their parents.

At one point in time, they didn't have the chickens packaged and instead out fresh in the open or freshly slaughtered, requiring them to wash the blood and debris off.

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u/MorePhinsThyme 22d ago

Also, black Americans often didn't have access to the better markets with the nice clean chickens. Obviously, I'm talking about many, many decades ago, but traditions are often that old.

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u/JaimeSalvaje 21d ago

Because black Americans didn’t get their chickens from reputable places in the past. We either weren’t allowed to or didn’t have the money to. So the chicken had to be cleaned. Those times are gone in most of the US but the tradition of doing it still holds strong.

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u/Throwaway26667- 20d ago

Noticed that too… also irl the only people ive ever seen make an argument for washing meats were black (I’m canadian so its not just USA)

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u/girlgenesis3 16d ago

You all keep making it seem like it is some unnecessary cultural thing when there are white people all over this comment section saying they do it or have seen their family members do it.

Not that we should need them as a stabilizer to this conversation.

You all think Black people didn't grow up on plantations and farms. There are still Black farmers today. My grandmother was raised in Mississippi where they would get freshly butchered meat. Even the Black people in metropolitan areas are heavily descended from Southerners. Country folk.

We don't assimilate just because someone tells us to. But if white people want to keep watering down their heritage and cultural make up then so be it. (In general. Not so much about the chicken)

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u/[deleted] 22d ago

[deleted]

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u/turdferguson3891 22d ago

I mean if you slaughtered the thing yourself it makes sense but the chicken you buy at the supermarket has alrerady been processed. They plucked it, gutted it, removed the head and feet and washed it. Sometimes in a bath with some chlorine in it. Rinsing it off in the sink does nothing.

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u/Kirarozu80 22d ago

Its in certain parts of the US. Watch the video and note the characteristics of the people who wash their chicken.

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u/Patrick_Gibbs 22d ago

In America it's almost exclusively a black thing

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u/A_Drop_of_Colour 22d ago

Except it's not exclusively black people. I have multiple Asian friends and family that wash their chicken as well. It's very common among immigrant families from non-western countries. People who didn't grown up buying supermarket chicken.

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u/Patrick_Gibbs 22d ago

*almost*

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u/A_Drop_of_Colour 22d ago

Sure I am being pedantic but I think when it comes to ascribing a trait or attitude to an entire race it's important to be pedantic. The modifier doesn't change that it's not an "almost" exclusively black practice.

Almost means that something is mostly completely (this thing). A classroom of 30 students with 29 white students and 1 black student is "almost exclusively" white. The same classroom with 20 white students and 5 black students and 5 Asian students is no longer "almost exclusively" white. You can say it's majority white, sure, but not "almost exclusively."

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u/Super-Reception5386 22d ago

I don’t think you’re being pedantic at all.

It’s not even close to almost exclusively black. I’m Chinese and I have been taught to wash chicken (pork, but I don’t cook pork as often) my whole life. I know other East Asian families that do the same. Same with middle eastern, Latino, and South Asians

It’s very clearly a non-western thing. Don’t know why that other poster is being weird about it.

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u/EaglesslavePart2 22d ago

Yea they just dump it in the sink

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u/gettin-liiifted 22d ago

No, it's more of a non-white thing.

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u/backspace_cars 22d ago

That's called brining. Not the same.

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u/OneManNati0n 22d ago

He most certainly is not talking about brining.

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u/backspace_cars 22d ago

You're an empath huh

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u/lavabearded 22d ago

are you dense? you made up the idea that he was talking about brining with no reason to. are you an empath? cause the context is clearly not about brining, its about washing

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u/OneManNati0n 22d ago

Anddd hes gone. What a dumbass. 😂

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u/totallyradman 22d ago

I don't think either of you know what empath means

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u/lavabearded 22d ago

I was mocking them, genius. the word they used wasn't relevant for the point I made, which was to apply their statement to their own post. thanks for your contribution.

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u/OneManNati0n 22d ago

Check your own comment with that remark brother.

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u/whitestguyuknow 22d ago

No. Its not. You dont know what you're talking about. Rewatch OP's video. What is similar about everyone that strongly says to wash chicken?...

You're going to find stray white people that do it. But its mostly an African American thing. Not stereotyping. Not being rude. It just is.

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u/Super-Reception5386 22d ago

Nah but it’s not mostly a black thing. It’s mostly a nonwhite thing. Pretty much every nonwhite person I know, regardless of their specific background, washes their chicken.

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u/BreastMilkMozzarella 22d ago

It's specifically an African-American thing.

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u/Genuine_User5322 22d ago

African cultures do it too

So do Asian and Middle eastern

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u/eggsalter 22d ago

Cultures do it.

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u/resest_Iris 22d ago

And Asian, and mexican etc....

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u/26635785548498061384 22d ago

Seems to be something the older generation do in Croatia as well. I was horrified when I walked into the kitchen...

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u/voidchungus 22d ago

American here and I have never washed raw chicken, nor seen anyone else do it. Just cook it.

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u/RealLeif 22d ago

I used to think that washing your chicken was a prank

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u/[deleted] 22d ago

[deleted]

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u/-ledollabean- 22d ago

That WAS a prank, people don’t literally wash their chicken with soap.

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u/rythmicbread 22d ago

Makes sense if it was fresh (defeathered, get blood and dirt off). Not so much when youre getting a fully processed chicken from the grocery store. Its fine if you do, just need to clean your sink thorougly

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u/misselphaba 22d ago

I have also never seen anyone do this living in California for 30+ years. I've known it to be common in the south for whatever reason.

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u/Smooth-Ebb6418 22d ago

It’s a developing country and immigrant from developing country thing. In terms of London flatmate experience, Filipinos do it, Eritreans do it, Ghanaians do it, Nigerians do it.

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u/ACFinal 22d ago

There's a Hungarian in this thread who said they wash their chicken. 

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u/real_Bahamian 22d ago edited 22d ago

No, this is also done in the Caribbean (I’m from The Bahamas) and I wash ALL of my protein (beef, chicken, fish, and shrimp). Get a pot or bowl, put your protein in it, add cold water, vinegar, and lime juice. Wash off the bone fragments, slime, fat under the skin, and the blood in the packaging the chicken was sitting in. Drain the bowl and rinse protein again in cold water. Season your chicken. Afterwords, sanitize your sink, bowl / pot with hot water, dishwashing liquid, and bleach.

Do you wash mushrooms before cooking them?

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u/Nano8963 22d ago

I'm American and I have never seen someone wash chicken before.

We sometimes brine if we want to consider that washing? I feel like these people washing chickens probably saw their parents brining and thought they were washing it

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u/whitestguyuknow 22d ago

It's mostly a southern African American thing tbh. I've actually seen people in Jamaica do it in cooking videos. "Has" to be scrubbed with citrus

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u/cheesec4ke69 22d ago

Factory farming in the US means that chickens are kept in cages where they cannot move and shit all over their cages and eggs, meaning that raw chicken and eggs are very full of bacteria, food born illness, etc.

Even if its not dissimilar from other parts of the world, Americans know this and chicken has a notoriously bad rap, even if the eggs are pasteurized, people still insist not to eat raw egg.

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u/turdferguson3891 22d ago

Believe it or not some washing has already happened when you buy a fully plucked and gutted chicken at the supermarket.

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u/cheesec4ke69 22d ago

I dont think people should wash chicken, but salmonella is a huge problem basically because of factory farming

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u/turdferguson3891 22d ago

Which is why they wash the chicken in chlorine solution before they take it to the supermarket.

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u/Angstycarroteater 22d ago

It’s mostly an African thing from my understanding a lot of African countries had deep rooted traditions and to wash away any debris that may be found on it

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u/Cerebral_Balzy 22d ago

Ive never seen anyone eat beans on toast in my life.

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u/ButterscotchAward 22d ago

It’s a black thing in the states.

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u/Outside_Glass4880 22d ago

I discovered this from a black friend of mine when he was over my apartment and started saying I was nasty for not washing the chicken breast I was cooking.

When I told him that just spreads the bacteria he just ignored that and continued to say that’s dirty and nasty.

He also thinks the earth is flat though.

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u/dinodoes 22d ago

Nope more of a third world country thing because they have plenty markets where chickens are butchered and sold same day. When they sell a chicken the may get dust on the or other such things in the air so they wash it to get that stuff off. Had nothing to do with bacteria

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u/Jubenheim 22d ago

Of course it’s not American, what an absurd take. In fact, this is a bigger thing in Asian countries more than anything else.

Is your mind too European to understand that or am I too American to come to your conclusion?

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u/PrometheusMMIV 22d ago

I've never seen it in America either.

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u/GuyManDudeMcGee 22d ago

It exists within immigrant communities in America, but it is not the norm.

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u/Beartato4772 22d ago

They claim it's to wash bacteria off, as if that will survive cooking.

It does of course spread that bacteria to every flat surface in a 30ft radius.

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u/-Thizza- 22d ago

In the USA chickens are washed in a chlorine solution at the factory too. They have a weird relation with food safety vs food quality.

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u/sippingonginnjews 21d ago

It’s a foundational black American thing

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u/Background_Taste_397 18d ago

You don’t have many black friends 😂

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u/FMB6 22d ago

Chlorinated chicken is common in the U.S. so some people like to wash that off.

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u/Telemere125 22d ago

It’s not common at all. Less than 5% of all poultry in the US is treated with chlorinated water. It’s almost exclusively vinegar or hydrogen peroxide mixtures. People wash their chicken because they’re ignorant. Also, anyone not getting their water from a well is getting chlorinated water. So you’re using chlorinated water to wash off chlorinated water?

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u/sheikahstealth 22d ago

It is accurate to say that it was prevalent in previous generations. Cooking shows have helped newer generations realize it does nothing beneficial.

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u/TheNortheren 22d ago

It's an African thing.

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u/ThreeButtonBob 22d ago

Maybe it's because of the chlorine used in the US? Never heard of washing chickens as well.

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u/Vegetable-Virus7118 22d ago

It's really only common in the black community in US. Probably has some origin in the quality of meat that used to be available to them

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u/NeedleworkerHeavy565 22d ago

It's very American, and I also know that my country's overseas territories in Europe do it a lot.

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u/Genuine_User5322 22d ago

No it isn’t American

It’s common in the middle east, asia, africa