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?

Is there really such a difference in taste between cooked meat that has been washed and cooked meat that hasn't? I must have a very jaded palate because I'm sure I wouldn't be able to tell

Goodness me but the meat scrubbers are quite a rude bunch.

When defrosting chicken i rinse the slime off, i also rinse beef when putting it into a stew as i get this weird frothy stuff if not. Not joints though, just bang em in

Exactly what PseudoBadger said.

OP, I'm beginning to worry that you're just not cooking your meat properly if you're worried about bacteria.

Not bland at all, it tastes of meat. I don't use salt unless I'm making bread and pepper is used when I feel its an ingredient that's needed.

I'll add garlic and rosemary to a lamb leg, or make mustard Yorkshire puddings for a joint of beef. I don't think that food needs to be seasoned all the time.

I don't care whether people wash their meat or not.

But I think us dirty mingers are being remarkably tolerant.

Maybe that's a cultural thing too...

I also think that episode makes a good point, if you are buying meat and poultry and fish from an outdoor market in a hot country, or indeed one where the meat is handled in less than extremely hygienic conditions, washing the meat makes more sense.

It makes no sense. Cooking at the correct temp and for the correct time is the ultimate critical control point. Everything else is just pointless.

If it's destined to be eaten raw for example steak tartare, you would need to take other steps to ensure the meat is safe. None of which would include washing it.

OP no I don't wash fish unless it was a whole fish given to me by an angler and I'd gutted and boned it.

When you google washing meat the very first page that comes up is 'Dangerous Food Safety Mistakes' from the US Department of Health. Number two is the NHS page on food hygiene linked above. Both are very clear that it's recommended you don't wash meat as doing so actually increases the risk of food poisoning.

If the meat has been butchered in a protective environment with everyone in white coats and gloves and hairnets following hygiene standards significantly higher than most peoples' kitchens then you wrestling around with a chicken or a turkey in the sink or moving it around from packaging to bowl to rinsing it to the roasting tin is far more likely to end up with the meat and half your kitchen contaminated that just going from packaging to tin.

You don't get food poisoning from not washing raw meat before you cook it. You get food poisoning from playing around with raw meat and spreading germs everywhere, or from not cooking the meat properly.

Fish is different, but mainly for palatable reasons. Some of them do have slime (natural and indicates freshness) and scales which would be quite unpleasant to eat.

I don't. But I knew a farmers wife who always did. So maybe there is a point to it. But what about cold meat for sandwiches. Surely you can't wash that. But I suppose that's cooked meat.

The only thing that gets rid of the potential type of bacteria on meat is cooking. The type of bacteria involved just love water and this helps to multiple, they are killed at 70 degrees.
Over 60 hours of public health, meat hygiene lectures and then working for the meat hygiene service taught me this.

Washing meat aerosolises these bacteria leading to a potential spread of up to 10 feet from the sink coating everything in fine bacterial mist, so realistically you need to bleach the whole kitchen if you wish to wash meat.
Historically meat was washed prior to refrigeration to remove a fine film from the surface of the meat that refrigeration prevents from forming.

Just because I don't wash meat, doesn't mean I don't use seasoning!
Where did that correlation come from?!

no way to washing fish - bonkers. And washing fish in lime juice will flipping cook it - bizarre.

Working with people from different cultural backgrounds I have observed that it does tend to be something done by other cultures....also doing extensive food hygiene training I've been told that as long as the meat is cooked to the right temperature and cooked thoroughly there is no need to clean before cooking.

I think when the meat washers say a raw taste they mean the taste of meat..... that hasn't been destroyed by an acid bath.

ApocoplypseThen. Yes, I mean that "smell" of meat. Now I know that people generally want to know if they are eating chicken, pork or beef. It's just the "freshness" (an oxymoron in this case, I know) is off putting. I find if I don't "prep", I could cook a piece of meat and I would still "taste the butchers", so to speak.

hickory the food hygiene inspector where I work would be very unhappy with you!

OP where are you buying your meat ? decent meat shouldn't need a shedload of seasoning to make it palatable, the taste of the meat should come through (though I do admit some does add to it)

What's the point in washing fish?

They've lived in water all their lives

Stooshe
I have never experienced that. I like the smell of meat.

I find if I don't "prep", I could cook a piece of meat and I would still "taste the butchers", so to speak.

stooshe

If you're tasting the butchers, you're talking about a different kind of meat to us....

A relative told me how they worked at a restaurant and if the meat was iffy it would be washed in vinegar to cover the taste. Is this maybe why in hotter countries where the meat is left out it is more common to be washed ?

Worra also, have you tried black pudding with marmalade? its supposed to be heaven, I've never been brave enough but DH recommends it (but he likes marmite so he has no taste buds)

WorraLiberty. Lol! (but I wash fish).