Do you swap spoons when cooking chicken?

[bamboostalks]

I was recently cooking stir fry and my friend was there and was totally shocked that I used the same spoon throughout instead of swapping when the chicken cooked. She said this could be a food poisoning risk. Any opinions? Have I failed miserably as a mother (again)?

Eh?

Spoon heats up as you cook.

This obsessino with food poisonig is completely out of hand.

I never do. And we're all still alive. Never occurred to me.

And at what point would you swap, anyway?

um, i'm not sure....so did the spoon come in contact with the raw chicken? and then did you use it to taste the stir fry or what?
i think it depends on what you are using the spoon for but if it's, say, a wooden spoon you are using to stir the food with as you cook it, then no i don't htink you need to swap it once teh food is cooked. apart from the fact it's a COMPLETE faff i've never heard of anyone doing that.
However, if you, say, used a spoon to put the raw chicken into the frying pan, and then left it on the side, and then used it to serve the cooked chicken out - then i'd say that's a no.
I can't tell you why both examples are different, but i suppose it's because the wooden spoon would cook too with the chicken, whilst the raw chicken would remain on the other spoon?
Am I making ANY sense?!! Sorry bamboo - hope i haven't bamboozled you (ha ha semi joke, get me!!)

I touched raw chicken with the wooden spoon and then it cooked as I kept stirring it. My friend is a food technologist and said this was very high risk and that restaurant kitchens could fail an environmental health check if they did this in front of an inspector. I felt dubious as to the truth of this but cannot find much on internet to clear it up. Hence the wisdom of mumsnet.

Do you mean serving oout of the wok, say? Or if you transfer into a serving bowl?

rubbish, having been in lots of resturant kitchens I have never seen a spoon to use at the start of cooking chicken and another to use at the end of cooking chicken.

What does she think about the the cooked chicken on the outside of the meat touching the uncooked meat on the inside halfway through cooking?

Good point. I will try to bring it up again when I next see her without looking like I have been thinking about it so much! Thanks all.

lol namechanger, you could go mad if you started thinking along those lines!!

The way I see it you need to show some common sense along with taking your precautions!

We used to run a restaurant and now write a blog with cooking tools and tips and I must add this one. We held cooking courses at the hotel and we had to do as Chef did... keep about 5 spoons in the pocket of our aprons and as we taste tested, just put the used spoon away for washing later. Then take a new spoon out of your pocket next time you want to taste again. An easy and good habit to get into ! If only i would get in the habit of wearing an apron too

This thread is 12 years old.

Hush, Gaspode the man is teaching us.

[Grin]

My habits in the kitchen should probably equate to me being dead already.