Do you rinse your

[n2mark]

meats, fish and chicken before cooking?

Interesting, I rinse my fish and chicken not my meats. I have a friend who does all three because she believes someone might have cut themselves when cutting the items.

I rinse chicken and fish because my mother did, she never rinsed her meats. Just do what I was taught. Should I be cleaning the meats too?

[Maddy McCall]

1. Yes. All of them.

I don't know why I do. I just do.

[bigwillq]

2. I clean them all.

I would clean the meats too, just to be safe.

[supernova]

3. All of them, yes -- and fish too!

I'll add fish and shell fish too. Gunk and scales can stay in the sink.

[cprise]

23. Silly bird

Fish have spent all their life getting washed. :silly:

You are such a kidder...

[ewagner]

4. Yes,

especially the poultry.....

ground beef is a little tough to do though :evilgrin:

[Crazy Guggenheim]

8. Anything that's ground has to be cooked thoroughly.

[ewagner]

11. Agree 100%

Ever go throu the drive-thru at McD's, open the burger about 10 miles down the road and find it raw inside?


I don't know how many times I've gone hungry instead of eating it....

[unblock]

5. mrs. unblock insists on rinsing everything in sight

i had to beg her not to "rinse out" the habaneros after she sliced them open.

i think she'd stand with the door open, sink sprayer in hand, and rinse the entire fridge if we had a drain in the floor underneath.

[Crazy Guggenheim]

6. They say it's a good idea. But I heard the main reason is .....

it's best to wash off foreign matter and who knows what the instrument used was previously used to cut.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

7. I soak them in salt water before cooking..it's a Jewish thing

and purifies them

[Book Lover]

9. For how long?

And is the water cold, room-temp, or hot?

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

22. see post 12 :)

[Fenris]

10. You use Kosher salt, of course?

;)

[The empressof all]

12. It also makes them taste better

I soak meat in Salted Water (cold-and in the fridge) I soak for at least an hour. I also sometimes add sugar to the water (brown or white) to chicken, turkey and pork.

[redqueen]

20. I do that too... I call it 'brining'.

:9

[Starlight]

13. I read somewhere (USDA?) that you shouldn't rinse chicken before cooking.

If it's contaminated with salmonella, the bacteria will spread to the sink and contaminate dishes & other foods.

[Book Lover]

14. That's why

you use non-porus prep surfaces and sterilize them afterwards with boiling water (in my kitchen we also use alcohol).

[supernova]

15. Yep, I use a weakened Clorox solution

to clean everything after handling chicken.

Edit: I like those disposable Saran cutting "boards" for this reason.

[Starlight]

16. Actually I'm a vegetarian.

But that just gave me one more reason to avoid the *dirty* meat. :puke:

[supernova]

17. Veggies can have E coli

Sorry to dissapoint, but veggies are prone to diseases too. Mostly from infected individuals who pick/handle them and don't no they are sick.

[Crazy Guggenheim]

19. Make sure you wash the vegies thoroughly too!

[LiberallyInclined]

26. out in the fields, the pickers don't always wash their hands-

after taking a shit.

[n2mark]

21. The other day

I read none of these should be cleaned, cooking will kill the bacteria.

The reason why I clean my fish is --- my brother-in-law at one time told me he followed a fish cart from the boats, the fish were being dragged on the ground to the building.

I'm wondering if cleaning these items only contaminates them more. If these items were cleaned with water, wouldn't the change in temp cause more bacteria for fish, meats, and poultry than change the temp to hot for cooking? You are going from cold (refrigeration), to room temp, than to hot.

[MissMarple]

18. No. Not even the Thanksgiving turkey.

It doesn't really clean them. And then you have to disinfect the sink. Gack...more cleaning.

[LiberallyInclined]

24. i rinse EVERYTHING! and i ALWAYS wash new clothes first too-

you don't know where those things have been.

[TrogL]

25. Be sure to use plenty of lye soap

or the stuff garage mechanics use at the end of the day

[bridgit]

27. oh hell yes...

[hickman1937]

28. I'm Irish. Just throw it in the pan and cook on high heat.

Then bow your head and give thanks that your not starving, and there's whisky in the cupboard.

[warrens]

29. Actually, from a food safety view, it shouldn't be necessary

The outer surface is going to get heated up way to much for pathogens to survive. But with chicken and fish, it's a taste thing. If not absolutely fresh, the outer flesh starts to break down and gets that skanky taste. Meat is usually sliced just before you buy it, within an hour or two, but that is not true with chicken and fish, as a rule.

The thing you got to worry about is ground meat because what was on the outside is now on the inside, where you can't rinse it. I used to LOVE rare burgers, but I wouldn't even think of it now.

On the whole, though, protein of all sorts is far safer than it was just a few years ago. The Pilgrim's Pride case really got the industry's attention.

The most dangerous thing out there is fresh produce. Nearly all the E. coli and salmonella cases recently have been traced back to either produce or food ingredients that were handled badly, then mixed with other foods. I think I just talked myself into a salad spinner.

[mcscajun]

30. Exactly right! It's the vegetables that need to be scrubbed or peeled.

I'd rinse out the INSIDE only of poultry if I were going to put stuffing into it, but that's more for aesthetics than safety.

Nothing you do in rinsing with ordinary tap water is going to improve the safety of raw proteins; and if you're rinsing it with anything else, I ain't eatin' it. :)

Rinsing meat is practically anathema; same goes for fish: all you're doing is rinsing away flavor.

Proper handling and cooking at home is all the safety you need, aside from, yes, the risks from improperly handled Ground Meats. All the more reason to never buy those mass-produced frozen burger patties and meatballs; they seem to be the primary culprits in recall after recall.