There's an ongoing debate about whether or not it's safe or even desirable to rinse meat before you cook it. Many fall into the anti-rinsing camp, saying that it's not effective at dislodging bacteria, especially on poultry, as we've discussed before. Meanwhile, some argue that rinsing certain meats, like bacon, could be beneficial since it possibly prevents it from shrinking.
Washing Meat with a Gentle Acid: A Time-Honored Technique
However, in the West Indies/Caribbean, there's a common practice of rinsing off chicken and fish with a mild acid like lemon or lime juice or vinegar prior to cooking.
Before everyone owned a refrigerator, cooks would apply an acidic solution because they believed it killed any bacteria on the bird and to impart a little extra flavor. Currently, many folks use this same technique to get rid of any odors, specifically the chilly, overly refrigerated or chlorinated aroma some chickens accrue after being shipped from the farm to the market in air-conditioned trucks.
Over at Chowhound, users point out that rinsing your bird in vinegar or lemon juice can be a test to see if the meat is still good. If the chicken smells "off" even after its vinegar or lemon juice bath, chances are it's not okay to cook.
Carlos Cuisine describes this technique as a common one in Haitian cooking with a few advantages: it tenderizes meat, cuts down on cooking time, and lets you store chicken for a little longer in the fridge if you end up not cooking it the day you prep it.
However, keep in mind that leaving an acid on the surface of the meat will actually lightly cook it and make it tough, so you want to rinse off your acid solution before storing your poultry for any length of time.
The FDA & Food Safety Experts Beg to Differ
And while the FDA currently does recommend against rinsing chicken, a user at Reddit points out that they used to recommend the exact opposite. In fact, most of my cookbooks (especially the ones that were published pre-1980), almost always recommend rinsing and drying meat before cooking it. CNN has a fun history of chicken-washing in famous cookbooks if you want to learn even more.
NPR interviewed food safety researcher Jennifer Quinlan of Drexel University, who says that the practice of rinsing chickens in vinegar or lemon juice doesn't kill pathogens on the bird. She also points out that if your chicken has a chlorinated smell, it's time to get your chickens from somewhere else (that chlorine indicates the birds were dunked in a solution to make them last longer).
Most cooking and food safety experts currently agree that cooking your meat to certain internal temperatures is the best way to ensure all harmful bacteria and pathogens are killed. And while to vinegar rinse or not vinegar rinse your meat remains up for debate, it most definitely has a positive effect on washing your produce properly.
What's your opinion? To rinse or not to rinse?
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19 Comments
As a West Indian, I must wash my chicken with lemon (or vinegar or flour as a last resort) it makes a huge difference in how the chicken taste.
Flour? You give it a light coating to neutralize any odors?
I'm Trinidadian and my father always taught me to clean up my chicken because it's important. I usually take off any film, skin (depending on the recipe), any vertebrae guts, etc. Then I cut a lime in half a squeeze it over the chicken then scrub it with the fleshy part of the lime, THEN I soak it in vinegar and water. Mostly because the vinegar helps disintegrate fat off of the meat! There's nothing worse than fatty chicken thighs.
Well first of all, fresh clean chicken should have relatively no "smell or odor" so I always start by giving it a good run by the old nose first after a visual inspection. If there was any "gas" or bubbling to the package...nix it..not fit for consumption.
To count on citrus fruit or vinegar rinses to kill OBVIOUS pathogens just isn't smart because the pathogen has more than likely penetrated deeper into the flesh of your meat, fish or chicken. But that said, I do make a great citrus marinade that contains raw apple cider vinegar, garlic, onions, shallots, lemon juice, orange juice, pineapple juice, lime juice, several types and forms of chili and other spices, herbs and peppers...I let it soak a few hours while IN THE REFRIGERATOR... then grill it up...ummm..delicious! Never had the chicken "cook" due to the acid content of the citrus or any other ingredient I used.
I would never count on bathing or marinades to destroy an obviously contaminated chicken, fish or meat...just asking for a lot of trouble.
Hello. Mary,
I was born in the USA raised in Panama and washing chicken with vinegar and lime is a must. Fresh chicken has what we call a "raw" smell of course but often times when chicken is purchased from Popeyes, KFC, or cooked at someone else home, the chicken is fully cooked but it still has a raw faint smell and chicken the following day starts to have an unusual taste. However, when cleaned with vinegar and lime , there is no chicken smell and the chicken does not acquire any of the weird taste two or three days after it sits in the fridge.
Also, I have never heard of so many salmonella outbreaks until I moved to America , but back home that's just not a thing . At least not to the extent we see here in America. We have been cleaning chicken like this for decades don't think we will be changing those habits anytime soon ??
I always soak my chicken breast, legs, thighs whatever in a vinegar and lemon juice bath with water, it's 1/3 vinegar, 1/3 lemon juice, 1/3 water for at least 15 but's 30 minutes is recommended for maximum flavor and cleaner chicken. Yes it does make a difference, the chicken feels cleaner once they are rinsed off and the knife cuts through the flesh like butter because the vinegar, lemon juice, water bath has tenderized the chicken as well as cleaning it, it's just good to put your chicken in a bath like this for 30 minutes.
Thanks for sharing. I usely just rinse my chicken in the sink. And then clean sink with Dawn soap and Bleach.
Same here! I do the exact same thing.
I have a friend that takes at least 10 minutes to clean one piece of chicken. She pulls off every piece of fat and even separates the the skin from the flesh to get anything under the skin. I maintain that this is overkill. The chicken doesn't fry well and lacks taste. is this my imagination?
I witness this act for the 1st time 2 months ago and I felt the same way as you did. Unless your trying to reduce the fat runoff in a recipe, this step is overkill.
My family is from Trinidad and we were always taught to remove as much fat as possible because it is almost always connected to that gross sliminess. While I agree that fat does make for a better fry, lean is better for you in general. That being said, I take about 45 minutes to dissect, clean (slime, fat, vertebrae guts), and wash (lime and water x 2) chicken, so your friend may be going a bit overboard if it takes 10 minutes to clean 1 dissected piece.
I know I'm not the only one! I'm from the deep south "soul food" I was taught and yes this and others opinions are subjective to this topic we use quarter cup salt and two FL ounce of Apple cider vinegar two quarts filled with ice water ,we soak our chickens pull all the fat makes it cleaner 30 mins then rinse with cold water Pat dry and add herb and spice mix marinade dry rub chill in fridge 12 to 24 hrs really moist and tender
I'm in the category that using vinegar to "clean" chicken is not necessary. In my opinion, using vinegar, lemon Juice, or water to soak chicken is the equivalent to using a brine or marinade for flavor. However, study's show that vinegar will kill salmonella, this is probably where the practice of soaking chicken in an acidic bath originated. Other study's say cooking chicken to the correct internal temperature achieves the same effect.
Q: Do you think chicken prepared outside of your kitchen has been "Cleaned or Soaked"?
Tony Lee, I stopped eating any type of meat when I go out because I'm sure that people do not clean and wash their meat. I've seen people take out a whole "fryer" chicken and just deep fry it without cleaning out the innards or washing it. That's disgusting. I know that the meat is probably safe to eat but I'm just usually too grossed out by the prospect.
No, and this is why I generally hate eating out -- you never know what steps are skipped in preparing your food.
Of course rinsing with vinegar is healthier then not rinsing at all. My momma said you know why Americans die so early and have all these diseases? It's because they don't wash their meat. Think about it? Vinegar can kill bateria on walls, floors, sinks and kill everything mixed with water that needs deep cleaning. -You don't think it wouldn't work with chicken. Ever wonder why carribean people live so long and never get sick..... this is why. Anyone who says it bad for you I bet is not good at science or common sense. And, Thank you momma for teaching me.
Does brining kill food borne pathogens?
Brining, or pickling, is a form of food preservation in which pathogens are killed by soaking the food in a vinegar-and-salt solution. Spices are also added to a brine to provide distinctive flavor.
Referrence healthyeating.sfgate.com/brining-kill-foodborne-pathogens-2305.html
I was born in a place near the sea in the Dominican Republic and over there we always use lime juice when cleaning the fish's and shrimp or any raw meats so I believe it's healthy but when I started working in a Newyork restaurant I notice the people don't care about that.. and now they say in FDA and google that it's a useless process because the food is cleaned during the cooking process I still clean my own food no matter what.
Am I the only one who rinses with salt then? I find it kills the inevitable smell of blood from the packaging and if the smell doesn't go neutral after a salt bath, I know the chicken is bad. I've cooked it this way my whole adult life, not dead yet.
That said, I did come here looking for an easier way to clean it since my way involve two or three containers and paper towel, then sanitizing the sink afterward, sigh...
If any washers have thoughts, I'd love to hear.
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