FOOD SAFETY EXPLAINED
Neither my wife nor I have ever experienced food-borne illnesses. Maybe that is pure luck, or maybe it isn’t. We know people who have gotten sick from bad food and they may have made some preventable mistakes. For instance, my niece got sick after eating cookie dough. It had raw eggs in it and people aren’t supposed to eat raw eggs. It was a preventable mistake.
DON’T WASH RAW CHICKEN
First, let me say I’ve never been tempted to wash COOKED chicken, except that one time a friend tried a disgusting exotic coating recipe.
Second, the problem isn’t the chicken itself. It is not unsafe FOR THE CHICKEN to be rinsed, although it is unnecessary. Raw chicken meat is sometimes icky looking. It would be FINE to slowly dunk that thing in a water bath you have prepared in a bowl in the sink basin, allow it to drip dry for 10 seconds directly over that bowl then transfer to your baking pan sitting next to the sink. Notice how I said all that. The chicken doesn’t care at all and it doesn’t ruin the meat. Wash your hands after handing raw meats of any sort.
The problem: Splatters and splashes.
What you never want raw chicken juices to do is splash or splatter where they shouldn’t. If you are the type of person who exercises zero control on the force of the water used to RINSE things, don’t rinse raw chicken ever. It will come out of the oven with the same flavor as rinsed chicken would anyway.
Where is that spray/splatter going? EVERYWHERE. Some people use the fire hose method of rinsing things. I don’t understand the concept. I can’t imagine doing anything that way. Some, however, have no concept of “GENTLE.”
What happens if you spray raw chicken juices on the cake sitting on the counter? The cake, and counters, and flour canister, and dish towels, and floors, and walls, and ceiling, and yourself could have been infected with Salmonella or other bacterias and disgusting substances. The chicken will be fine, but everything else will become a federally designated toxic waste zone. The health department should send in agents with white coverall suits, booties, face masks, and special equipment to clean the mess.
Your dinner company won’t like that, but you can serve them perfectly cooked chicken. The cooked chicken may be the only safe thing in the kitchen as long as you don’t serve it on that platter which sat next to the sink when you hosed down that raw chicken.
MEAT THERMOMETERS
I don’t have a use for meat thermometers most of the time. If we are cooking a turkey or a whole chicken we will use one. Internal temperature of that bird should reach 160 degrees, and when it does it tastes GREAT.
The general rule (a good one) is to avoid ingesting raw meat. That’s why I refuse to pay for sushi. If it ain’t cooked, I don’t eat it. Don’t eat steak tartar, don’t munch on uncooked yak fat, and say no to anything under-cooked. There are food safety issues which can crop up when meats don’t get to see enough flame.
On the other side of this are those, who like my mother, found a way to cook the very flavor out of meats. Pork chops were almost black. If I could eat a pork chop at all it was because I sliced it very thinly and chewed a lot. I don’t think that is necessary. However, one doesn’t want to get trichinosis either. In her day that had a real concern.
No matter how much you like red meat which is still mooing, you should first chase it down and stab it with a meat thermometer to make sure it is fully dead. If you eat food which has been cooked “just to medium” you won’t need a meat spear. If you want, there are very expensive thermometers which can be programmed to call your phone at the moment your $40 cut of steak is enjoying exactly 160 internal degrees.
Be safe or enjoy the discomforts of poorly cooked foods. People who like to live on the edge will sometimes take a tumble.
MULTIPLE CUTTING BOARDS?
Professionals recommend having 2 cutting boards, one only for raw meats.
I view cooking as a math problem, in that there is an “ORDER OF OPERATIONS.” Others may not. If you do things the way OTHERS do, you will use 17 dishes and knives to make stew. But if you order your operations you can reduce the clean up and eliminate the unsafe practices. Every kitchen is supposed to have one cutting board just for raw meats. Me? I use one cutting board and just use an “order of operations.” Start with things like lettuce, which allow me to rinse off the cutting board between objects to be sliced. Move to potatoes when all the other fruits and vegetables are chopped. Rinse. Cut raw meats last, using the same board and knifes used for vegetables. While cooking I take a minute to wash boards and knives in hot soapy water and place in drainer to dry. I used ONE cutting board, ONE knife, a salad bowl, a couple pans, etc. In other words half the plates and utensils as others use. By the time the meal is cooked the cutting board and knives are clean, dry, and ready to be put away, and the salad has remained cool in the fridge.
If you can’t do things this way, just own and use 2 cutting boards.
Copyright 2025 Donald Whelpley
[PLEASE NOTE that Don is always open to discussing the thoughts and opinions he shares here and welcomes comments as shared in the comment section. He doesn’t use other social media platforms and won’t see whatever you’d like to share with him if you post it elsewhere.
ALSO, Don is always open to offer his thoughts on various topics. If you have a specific request, you can let him know in a comment; he reads – and replies to – them all. ~ Sherry]
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