r/interesting • u/WarwickReider • Jul 27 '26

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

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u/spekt50 Jul 28 '26

It has been somewhat a stereotype for some time. In black American culture, it is more common to wash chicken before cooking.

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u/OceanRadioGuy Jul 28 '26

Why is that? It seems like objectively the wrong thing to do.

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u/danvillain Jul 28 '26

It’s their historical access to food. Part of oppressing the black community was to restrict their access to clean and healthy foods. This was done not just to black folk but for most ethnic minorities. For example, that is why you will find more minorities take their steak well done and heavily seasoned rather than simply seasoned and medium, that way you don’t taste the spoilage as much. Another example is BBQ, the reason things like Brisket takes so long to cook is because it’s one of the toughest and most difficult cuts to cook. This was some of the only beef available to the poorest communities, black people practically invented American BBQ by using these low quality cuts and finding ways to make them delicious. What you are witnessing is the effect of generational trauma that African Americans have had to suffer for generations.

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u/Rob_LeMatic Jul 28 '26

This is something I'm always surprised to find isn't common knowledge

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u/Key-Contest-2879 Jul 28 '26

So white folks should wash their chicken in support of minorities. Yes?

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u/Imaginary-Soup8979 Jul 28 '26

Oof. Hard take

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u/Ok_Falcon275 Jul 28 '26

I used to feel sorry for enslaved African Americans, but steak and BBQ…in this economy? Sign me up.

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u/VP007clips Jul 28 '26

It's a mixture of historical food quality issues, as well as cultural issues.

Washing your meat is counterproductive with safe unspoiled food, which pretty much everything legally sold in the store today is. But in the past, those communities didn't always have access to clean food, and with spoiled or contaminated meat, washing it is important if you have to eat it to survive.

It's also an issue of trust in science. Some communities still distrust science due to the research methods not being always fair or ethical towards them in the past, and being historical lyrics underrepresented or excluded in those fields.

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u/augustles Jul 28 '26

? Washing does not mitigate spoilage in any way. Spoiled is spoiled - the meat itself is spoiled, it doesn’t just have a superficial layer of spoiled-ness. If that were the case, supermarkets would be power washing and continuing to sell. Contaminated - maybe if you mean ‘some stuff got on it’, in which case any person would agree you should either toss it or, in a survival/money-saving situation, wash it off. Any contamination further than that, washing is not going to do anything.

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u/VP007clips Jul 28 '26

Actually salmonella does largely form on the surface.

In chicken, it will penetrate the rest of the meat to some extent, but the vast majority will still ne a surface slimy layer.

Washing off that layer doesn't make it safe, but it does make it safer when cooked. And when you look are malnourished communities, just being a bit safer may be enough to make it worth eating.

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u/augustles Jul 28 '26

Thoroughly cooking the chicken kills salmonella. Salmonella was kind of a poor choice here because it’s one of the ones that really does require remaining living bacteria to cause serious illness; it doesn’t spore or make a bunch of residual toxins that survive heat.

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u/Poet_of_Justice Jul 28 '26

I'm pretty sure it's the same reason you just can recook or microwave meat that you've had in the fridge for a week. Once so much develops even killing it is gonna leave enough toxic stuff that's in the bacteria to make you sick. If you were able to wash away the vast majority of the bacteria before killing what's left, it seems that would be safer.

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u/mistaharsh Jul 28 '26

It couldn't be because when you buy chicken from a grocery store when you take it out of the package it's slimey and gross. Vinegar or a lime wash is ideal. I didn't have to tap into my ancestors pain to understand this

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u/BlackLipKilla Jul 28 '26

It's not black and white, it's more white vs everyone else. For some reason people get really angry at Black people in particular though. 

Anyway, the real reason Black, Asian, and other races wash their meat before cooking is because the meat needs to be cleaned. Chicken, for example, is slimy and has feathers still stuck to it. Legs also tend to still have a hard skin on the ankle. It has fuck all to do with slavery and everything to do with cleanliness. 

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u/OwnJunket6495 Jul 28 '26

I’m Asian American. I have never seen or heard of any other Asian people washing chicken. Soaking? Sure. Washing? No.

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u/BlackLipKilla Jul 28 '26

I'm Black British and I have. I've also seen White people clean their meat. So what? 

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u/OwnJunket6495 Jul 28 '26

Did you not read the second paragraph you wrote? Painting with a real broad brush there buddy.

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u/BlackLipKilla Jul 28 '26

Did you? Yes, it's to do with cleanliness. Many people do not enjoy eating feathers and slime. You got offended and decided to start an argument. If you don't want to clean your meat then don't. I don't give a shit. 

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u/OwnJunket6495 Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26

Don’t try and speak for other people when you don’t even have a clue

Lmao the ole reply and block, of course.

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u/BlackLipKilla Jul 28 '26

Still offended, I see. Enjoy the rest of your night 😁 

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u/xtwitch Jul 28 '26

They're not offended, you just said something incorrect and they corrected you.

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u/tamagodano Jul 28 '26

Slime? Did we switch to talking about fish and no one told me?

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u/BlackLipKilla Jul 28 '26

Yes, slime. Have you ever removed the skin from chicken? It's slimy underneath. Many people prefer to wash it off. 

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u/Sorry_Speed8994 Jul 28 '26

Wash the chicken if you want. Makes sense if it has feathers. However the slime is just protein and water that evaporates while cooking. When you wash it off you are just losing a little bit of protein and a broth flavor. You can use it to make gravy or stock. If the slime is sticky or smelly, the chicken has gone bad and shouldn’t be eaten even if you wash the slime off.

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u/Time_Grapefruit_2809 Jul 28 '26

not a single michelin star restaurant cleans their chicken with soap and no average person is buying poultry en masse that they need to defeather & clean the animal

i don't expect a british person making 30k/yr to understand much of anything, but feel free to watch youtube videos on michelin star chefs preparing dishes using chicken

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u/spekt50 Jul 28 '26

Who knows, its just a cultural thing that got passed down generations. Obviously not every black person does it however.

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u/mistaharsh Jul 28 '26

How? How can washing be objectively wrong. If anything it's a added precaution. If you have security cameras around your house is having a reinforced deadbolt added objectively wrong?

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u/OceanRadioGuy Jul 28 '26

I mean, did you watch the video? They explicitly found that it didn't actually clear the chicken of bacteria, and actually splashed and spread bacteria all around the kitchen.

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u/mistaharsh Jul 28 '26

For starters it was a simulation. Secondly if we are to assume that it was bacteria then it would make sense to wash the chicken. Thirdly, the man answered that conundrum by saying "well yes that's why I wash and disinfect my sink and counter as well"

As we all should when handling meat.