Quit Washing Your Chicken: It Just Sprays Germs Everywhere

Consumerist ^ | August 26, 2013

[SMGFan]

Generations of American cooks are wrong. They learned their wrongity wrongity wrong habits from their parents, or from public television’s Julia Child. Their terrible, filthy habit is rinsing poultry before cooking. Public health experts estimate that as many as 90% of Americans do it, and they want us to cut it out.

Poultry-washing makes intuitive sense: you don’t know where that bird has been or what kind of bacteria are crawling on the outside. Julia Child herself admitted that washing a chicken before roasting it felt cleaner, even if the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the government agency in charge of making sure that our meat doesn’t kill us, said that there are no bacteria on the outside of a chicken that roasting won’t kill.

[Texas Songwriter]

I will tell you a story. This thread is about bacteria...so, my story will eventually dovetail. I did surgery for 35 years. General and trauma surgery. I got a call from a GP friend who asked me to see this fellow in the ER. He and his wife had watched a porno flick and then tried what they saw in the film....that being placing a 'new potato' (small red potato) on the end of a garden hose. The wife then inserted the potato and distal garden hose in the husbands rectum, then truned the water on full blast. Well, he blew out his colon. He was so filled with shame he did not seek medical help for 3 full days. The GP then told me he was not going to tell me that story, but that is what happened. Obviously he had an acute surgical abdomen. When I entered his abdomen fluid, feces, turnomas, ....all began to spill out. It was like a septic tank. I gagged, wretches, and dry-heaved,...but I began to clean it out of the abdomen. It took about three hours...first, simply picking turds out, then suctioning out floating remnants, then suctioning out the brown stool-stained fluid, We washed, and washed, sucked and sucked. We took laparotomy packs (over 100) and wiped out as much crap as we could. Slowly the fluid began to clear up, at first tea colored, then light brown,...on to clear. We had crap all over the OR. I put in 6 drains and closed the belly wall, but not the subcutaneous fat and skin. I packed the wound with Iodofor gauze.

Now I tell you all of this to say....I left in billions and billions of all kinds of bacteria, yeast, and fungi. Of course he was on triple antibiotic therapy. But.....there was no way to remove all of the microbes. I removed 98% of all bacteria....the immune system did the rest.

THis guy never even had a fever.

Now, the reason I told you this story. In surgery, we have an old saw...."The solution to pollution, is dilution".

Wash those damn chickens.

[Texas Songwriter]

I will tell you a story. This thread is about bacteria...so, my story will eventually dovetail. I did surgery for 35 years. General and trauma surgery. I got a call from a GP friend who asked me to see this fellow in the ER. He and his wife had watched a porno flick and then tried what they saw in the film....that being placing a 'new potato' (small red potato) on the end of a garden hose. The wife then inserted the potato and distal garden hose in the husbands rectum, then truned the water on full blast. Well, he blew out his colon. He was so filled with shame he did not seek medical help for 3 full days. The GP then told me he was not going to tell me that story, but that is what happened. Obviously he had an acute surgical abdomen. When I entered his abdomen fluid, feces, turnomas, ....all began to spill out. It was like a septic tank. I gagged, wretches, and dry-heaved,...but I began to clean it out of the abdomen. It took about three hours...first, simply picking turds out, then suctioning out floating remnants, then suctioning out the brown stool-stained fluid, We washed, and washed, sucked and sucked. We took laparotomy packs (over 100) and wiped out as much crap as we could. Slowly the fluid began to clear up, at first tea colored, then light brown,...on to clear. We had crap all over the OR. I put in 6 drains and closed the belly wall, but not the subcutaneous fat and skin. I packed the wound with Iodofor gauze.

Now I tell you all of this to say....I left in billions and billions of all kinds of bacteria, yeast, and fungi. Of course he was on triple antibiotic therapy. But.....there was no way to remove all of the microbes. I removed 98% of all bacteria....the immune system did the rest.

THis guy never even had a fever.

Now, the reason I told you this story. In surgery, we have an old saw...."The solution to pollution, is dilution".

Wash those damn chickens.

[Exit148]

When I read these “Studies now show” I just want to scream. I don’t flow with the wind. I’ll keep doing what I’ve always done, by using my head. It has worked so far, and I’m probably the oldest one here.

[Utah Binger]

Important new info:

Schick razors just came out with a special razor for chicken fuzz. They now have a man’s Schick, a woman’s Schick and a chicken Schick.

\

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

ERs do get some of the most interesting, er, stuff.

For the last few years I’ve been trying to follow some of the intestinal flora surveys, and it’s downright crowded in there. It’s a wonder that it ever works at all.

And then you get those boy wonders who were showering, when they slipped and fell and landed on a lemon. It happens often enough to make you wonder whether lemons should have warning labels.

[RandallFlagg]

Are you named after that guy in the Steven King’s movie about the antichrist?

If you're referring to the TV miniseries, "The Stand," then, yes.
Years ago, when it was on TV and I was serving in the military, my Sister said that I looked like Flagg back then.
Of course, my hair was quite a bit longer than Jamey Sheridan's was.

I just kind of adopted it.

[Texas Songwriter]

Did you look like Flagg before or after he shape-shifted?

[uncitizen]

Uuuggghhhh! That was grossly graphic!

[RandallFlagg]

Did you look like Flagg before or after he shape-shifted?

Click on my profile name. You tell me.
I've been told that I look like so many people, I've lost count.

[Texas Songwriter]

I sort of see a resemblance.

[sockmonkey]

Instructions for ‘silking’? Please.

I thought, "oh, I'll just find that silking info on the internet...mistake, there are a million opinions, and recipes..

So basically, on a whole chicken, you'd rub about 3/4 tsp of baking soda on it, and let it set for 30 minutes to an hour, rinse off and pat dry.

Dome say, "no, you put water in a deep pot, and add a tsp of baking soda, and marindade it overnight"

What I've done is just taking thinly sliced across the grain chicken breast, and then sprinkled about 1/4 tsp per chicken breast on it, tossed it, let it sit fifteen minutes, then washed it off..

Apparently, some cooks also rub about a 1/4 tsp on less tender cuts of meat/round steak type meat..anyway, rub/massage it on both sides with about a 1/4 tsp of baking soda, let it sit..the thicker the meat, the longer they let it sit..so from 30 minutes to an couple of hours, then rinse off the soda, and pat dry.. Cook as usual.

My Korean cooking stuff is on my other computer which is not here right now.

[S.O.S121.500]

See? What didn’t kill us made us stronger!

---

And improved the race/line.....

[S.O.S121.500]

Instructions for ‘silking’? Please

---

Think brining, with a different sodium compound....

[RandallFlagg]

I have been told that I looked like Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson, Triple H, and Adam Ant.

Oh, the life I have had...

[Texas Songwriter]

Do you live at a state institution? I mean...Ford, Gibson, Superman (photograph on your site), Adam Ant........not to mention Randall Flagg. I find it very difficult to acclaim another man's good looks. That is not to say some, not unlike yourself, might be considered attractive to women,....but please don't ask me to affirm their opinions. Why, I, myself, have been considered a cocksman by the ladies in my younger years. Now, I've got another freeper telling me I have mercury poisoning because my minerals in my old age have begun to float. I do not know what to do with that information, except disregard it. If I condescend to answer your question, what will become of my self-confidence, not to mention my self-respect. Therefore I will allow you to live in your delusions and I will remain in my own delusion.

Good luck, God Bless. Stay safe!

[RandallFlagg]

Do you live at a state institution?

Not yet, as far as I know.

I mean...Ford, Gibson, Superman (photograph on your site), Adam Ant........not to mention Randall Flagg. I find it very difficult to acclaim another man's good looks.

I was just telling what I have been told in the past.

That is not to say some, not unlike yourself, might be considered attractive to women,....but please don't ask me to affirm their opinions.

I never did.

Why, I, myself, have been considered a cocksman by the ladies in my younger years.

Ah, youth. So fleeting. So very brief.

Now, I've got another freeper telling me I have mercury poisoning because my minerals in my old age have begun to float. I do not know what to do with that information, except disregard it.

Not a bad idea.
"I refuse to let others take control of my emotions. If I do, I have lost." --Great words from a great man.

If I condescend to answer your question, what will become of my self-confidence, not to mention my self-respect.

What question? You already answered the previous one.

Therefore I will allow you to live in your delusions and I will remain in my own delusion.

I live in reality and truth. Sorry to say, it is a lonely place.

Good luck, God Bless. Stay safe!

Same to you.

[Don W]

My dad used to work in a large meat packing plant. I wash ALL meats and veg before I cook or eat it. Unless I picked it from my garden.

[GirlShortstop]

<snip>who were showering, when they slipped and fell and landed on a lemon.<snip>

Oh.... that explains the soap pump dilemma encountered in the ER by my RN niece! Now it makes much more sense. LOL. FReegards.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

A funny anecdote about that. In the late 1970s or ‘80’s, a minor medical journal annually did a roundup of ER statistics, submitted by ER physicians from around the US. Typical dry medical statistics.

However, over the course of a year, reports came in about showering with a lemon accidents. A dozen reports, I believe. A minor notation in the “rectal foreign bodies” section, worth a small, derisive snort.

Little was thought of it until the next years’ summary came out. Once again, there were 12 cases of lemon accidents. Still worth a passing ha-ha from the writing staff.

But then, for the third year running, again 12 cases. No more or less. Showering when they slipped and fell and landed on a lemon. Suddenly the humorous alarm bells went off.

For the forth year, it became a critical reporting item for ERs around the US. As the numbers crept up, so did the number of wagers. Soon after the over-and-unders and point spread (lemon spread?) The tension built until the very last day before the final issue was put to bed.

11. Oh, well.