Possibly I shall stop eating entirely

[flemmings]

Possibly everyone knows not to wash chicken, but I wonder about turkey. If I'm stuffing a turkey and the cavity is full of watery blood, trust me, I want to rinse the sucker. Possibly this is why brining is a good idea- but then oh noes! the brine water must go down the drain where it will splash and contaminate the counter and the walls and the floor and the ceiling even!!! Dou shiyou, dou shiyou?

And liver- how can one chop liver for stirfry without rinsing it beforehand?

OTOH I'm glad the Graun readers support my lazy habit of leaving dishes draining on the counter. Not sure I buy the logic: a dedicated tea towel used only to dry dishes washed in very hot water isn't going to have germs from my cooking hands on it.

Have also just learned about rennet, a substance I was blissfully unacquainted with before. So much for the notion that cheese is vegetarian-friendly.

Comments

[mvrdrk.livejournal.com]

What it boils down to is they don't want you to wash chicken because 'most of you are too lazy to properly wash up afterwards'. I'll note that splashing doesn't occur if you aren't spraying water everywhere, so you could wash by dunking and get around their concerns. But then where would you pour that water?! I believe that washing your hands after handling raw poultry would have the same splashing concerns. And yes, dumping the brine has similar concerns, but it should be sufficiently salty that any bacteria in it will have imploded from the osmotic pressure.

I wash chicken and turkey if they appear to be poorly butchered, which is more often than not from mass poultry producers these days. Also, I think the huge amounts of bacteria are from factory farming processes in the first place.

[mvrdrk.livejournal.com]

There are many cheese made without animal based rennet. Just as there is seaweed based gelatin.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

I checked at the supermarket today. I'd say a minority of cheese up here has rennet in it, as listed on the label; but one that must must must is parmesan, or else it can't call itself parmesan. Shall ask the cook at our (nominally) vegetarian daycare about this.

[mvrdrk.livejournal.com]

Ohh, that was really interesting! I had no idea about parmesan!

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Nor I. A downer, because parmesan in the only one I stock regularly. If you eat meat you probably shouldn't balk at a few calves' stomach enzymes, but there's a reason I don't eat veal.

[i-am-zan.livejournal.com]

No, neither did I, so I looked it up (https://www.vegsoc.org/cheese) for myself.

Which is good to know. (In case I get truly strict vegetarians/vegans come a visiting)

[cesmith.livejournal.com]

I always rinse my chicken or turkey with water before cooking it. I have a deep sink but I don't find I spash THAT much. Maybe I'm not paranoid enough, but after I finish cleaning and prepping the meat I wipe the surfaces I have touched first with a paper towel(to clean up a majority of the fluids and any fat) and then a couple of times with a moist disinfecting wipe. While I am cleaning and cutting up the chicken I wipe my hands on paper towels before washing them with soap and water( I have a bathroom soap dispenser near my sink so I don't have to touch the dishsoap bottle.) I also have a raw meat dedicated cutting sheet that gets scrubbed and rinsed with extremely hot water.

Since we have three people in our family I have to dry dishes (well at least the first batch or so, we usually leave the last load to air dry). We use washrags in place of dishtowels. That way we use them only once and then they go into the laundry. I also use one for wiping my hands on so it too can go into the laundry. If hot wash water and 45 minutes in a dryer doesn't kill the bacteria, nothing will.

[i-am-zan.livejournal.com]

Hey there stranger ... *hugs*

Wow! I'm kind of glad that meat isn't on our menu in our house. I don't think I could cope.

Most of my washcloths are old tees that I've cut up and they get washed regularly and dried out in sunlight. And I'm quite happy to cycle them through from drying cloths, to wash cloths to rags after which I feel I've sufficiently got the most use out of it that I'm quite happy to put it into the recycling bins. ^_^

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

My cutting board is all-purpose, but I disinfect it with bleach after anything bloody, which is just the turkey when I'm stuffing it. Liver gets cut with scissors from a dish.

Vinegar suffices for vegetable cleanups.

And frankly, bacteria are part of the surroundings. I'd rather just get acclimatized to them.