To ask if you clean your meat?

[Cleopatois]

I use lemon and water or white vinegar and water to clean all my meat.

A colleague said she didn't just through it from pack to pan :O

Her reasoning was 'its free range so that means it clean'.

Another colleague said it is a culture thing. What do you do?

I don't understand why the concept of washing meat is odd. We wash everything else that comes in raw form so without some of the newer scientific knowledge, historically it seems (dare i say it) like the clean thing to do!

Obviously in some circumstances this is not relevant but how could you not if you bought it from a market for example?

Moving forward, you will find a lot of blood juice in the bottom of a packet of chicken thighs for example. Most people I know, know how to run a kitchen so have no issues with basic cleanliness and meat juices flying everywhere. How could you not at least rinse that away.

And even just a rinse makes the meat smell cleaner and fresher.

This thread is an moment for me actually!!!!

I haven't read all the posts but no, I don't wash meat.

Are you by any chance Jamaican? Only my friend is exactly the same as you, she thinks I am mad and I think she is mad - lol

I rinse it to get the blood off or it makes me gag then season it and leave it in fridge covered before cooking

I don't know why washing meat has to be unhygienic though, if you use a similar method to marinading which people don't find to be unhygienic and has excellent health benefits especially if you grill the meat afterwards (i.e. the marinaded meat has much fewer carcinogens produced I think).

My MIL puts her meat chopped up in a bowl of water/wine/lemon or whatever, then pours it away some time later down the plughole, so more marinading than washing. Washing is bad if you use a tap and splash the meat around spreading the germs.

As for the food hygiene expert who reckons everything is killed off even in hot countries where there are markets for meat, have you ever been to one? Of course the bacteria on the meat is killed by cooking, but only a strange person wouldn't want to wash off the sawdust/grit/grime/flies/hair having landing on the meat. It's not all white hats and hair tied back and bleached counters out there! That's not relevant here and so washing is probably more of a risk and that's why I don't do it here (but don't begrudge my MIL doing it her way).

Nope

I put that juice in the pan! That's what makes the gravy after all....

Only skimmed thread but I have heard a food hygiene expert say the British habit of washing meat is responsible for a lot of cases of food poisoning. Not because there's a problem when you eat the meat, but because the washing sprays germs around the sink / food preparation area. If you wash meat, you have to disinfect the sink and the whole area afterwards.

So I don't wash meat. I do wash fish sometimes, but only to get loose scales off as I hate fish skin.

Cleo you know that the heat of the over will kill any bacteria if you are cooking your meat right?

A quick wash in a basin with some lemon and vinegar wouldn't make much difference in terms of removing/killing bacteria. It just doesn't make any sense, it's meat!

I've never had gritty meat in my life.

Throw wine away? WTF! You don't throw it away, you cook the meat in it. Just when you thought you've heard it all!

EBearhug some places are quite dusty/sandy, this is not an issue in the UK. And- your meat may have been dropped on the floor, wiped and picked up again. That can happen anywhere though, I've seen it done in pretty much every restaurant and cafe I've worked in. I don't think I'd better start on food prep in restaurants though as that's so bad (on occasion) that I don't know how I eat out.

caitlin I'm weird like that. I don't like fruit with savoury food

Agreed @Thetall

I don't know why everyone is making yuck noises about the op washing her meat

Some cultures do, some cultures don't

For what it's worth, lots of Islands in the Caribbean "wash / cook" their seafood in lime juice, as the lime actually cooks the fish without the need for heat (don't ask me the science behind it)

My grandmother used to wash her meat (chicken mainly) by rinsing under a running tap, but she was brought up in a 3rd world country and such practices were necessary. She has gradually slipped out of this habit since moving to the uk and being introduced to supermarkets as she feels she no longer needs to

Just because someone cooks something differently to you, doesn't make it wrong

Unless they're eating bacon sandwiches with brown sauce, when everyone knows it's meant to be with ketchup

Wash meat? Fucking bananas idea.

No, never, it's never occurred to me. I might rinse some fruit and veg to get rid of any mud (baking potatoes/salad) but that's about all for fruit and veg. I've only had food poisoning once and I suspect that was from reheating poultry, not failing to wash my food.

And yes! Have any of you actually been to a market in the UK not just abroad?

I dont understand how you think meat would have been sold 30/40/50 years ago

caitlin I'm weird like that. I don't like fruit with savoury food

Me neither! Sweet and savoury together is just so wrong. Fruits are for puddings not for casseroles. And don't even start me on ham and pineapple on a pizza or raisins in curry. Or even worse, coconut which is the food of the devil.

Carry on....

I also quickly rinse especially chicken under tap for a few seconds, but that is to get rid of blood clots and bits of bone.

It is crazy to think that washing gets rid of bacteria or "rawness".

Pobble I've picked pineapple off my pizza in the past and ate it for afters

Pineapple on pizza is just wrong. I don't see DH the same since I realised that's his favourite pizza.

I could make up my own completely unscientific and unhygienic "must wash meat" rule or I could follow all the medical advice which says not to wash meat because it increases the risk of contamination.

Hmmm - which should I do?

Pineapple on pizza is good. So is banana :)

I like pineapple on pizza but it's something I only indulge in behind closed doors. I know it's wrong, but it tastes so good.

My mother used to put slices of banana on her homemade curry. That was many shades of madness. She said it was cooling

Banana?

If it's ham and pineapple then what does banana go with?

Using acid such as lemon or lime juice or vinegar on raw meat or fish doesn't cook it as such, it cures it which is not the same thing but does change the texture, etc. Lots of cooks on TV say it 'cooks' the food because they know folk are put off by the thought of eating meat and fish which isn't actually cooked.

Store meat and fish correctly and cook it properly and it is fine.