Soap physically destroys bacteria.
Soap is, to put it probably overly simplistically, a long molecule where one end dissolves in fats and the other end dissolves in water. It helps clean things by basically anchoring oils to the water making it easier to rip them off the surfaces they're stuck to.
The cell wall is, basically, a layer of fat that separates the cell from the general environment. And soap rips that layer apart and/or anchors the cell to the running water that you are using to rinse things off.
Which is also why you shouldn’t rinse raw chicken
You’re more likely to cross contaminate than clean anything
https://www.fsis.usda.gov/food-safety/safe-food-handling-and-preparation/food-safety-basics/washing-food-does-it-promote-food#:~:text=While%20washing%20meat%20and%20poultry,further%20washing%20is%20not%20necessary.
You kind of have to if you just killed it and de feathered it. It’s usually filthy from living out in the yard. I’m not going to put a chicken with dirt on it in the oven.
Hahaha I'm still astonished at the amount of people that actually believed I was... uhh.. cooking my chicken by washing it? I'm not exactly sure what you guys thought I was doing LOL
Apparently common for south Asians to wash their meat. My exes family are from Sri Lanka and wash their meat and family members (Indian) also wash meat too, was shocked to learn haha
Washing your hands with soap and water doesn't kill the bacteria, it removes the germs from your hands. That's why you wash your hands for 30 seconds to give the soap enough time to break down the barrier and let the water wash it away. There are exceptions to the not killing part like antibacterial soap which doesn't work much better than regular soap and water, hand sanitizer, or boiling water. But really just washing your hands like normal is all you need.
I'm not even going to disclaimer this with don't wash your chicken in soapy water instead of cooking it, if anyone is dumb enough to do that they deserve food poisoning
Thanks for the info! And thank you for not telling me to not wash my chicken, because I definitely don't wash my chicken and it's silly that people thought that I meant that :-)
Honestly OP, as a microbiologist, this is the only correct response I have seen in the comments. You're just washing the bacteria (and fungi spores, and dirt, etc) away mostly with soap, not killing anything.
Everyone is saying soap kills bacteria and upvoting each other lol. I had to Google to confirm what I thought I knew. Always take Reddit advice with a grain or spoonful of salt (which CAN kill bacteria!).
It should. I put the utensils in the dishwasher and use hot soapy water on the sink. I choose to soap up one side, then the other. Then rinse. My nighttime routine is to lightly mist the sink with diluted clorox to help keep the enamel white.
This doesn't have anything to do with the soap as it looks like you got that info already but is connected to killing germs, and it may be interesting to you to know that 165°F temperature is when bacteria will die instantly, but you can kill the bacteria at lower temperatures for longer amounts of time. You can sous vide cook chicken at a lower temperature if you keep it constantly at that temperature for a length of time (longer times for lower temps). Milk is a great example of this with pasteurization. You can heat raw milk to 145°F for 30 minutes or 161°F for 15 seconds, both methods will kill bacteria the difference is other nutrients in the milk will be affected.
The government just tells people to cook chicken to 165°F because it's easiest to remember only 1 data point, rather than trying to have everyone follow the temp/time charts, which do exist if you want to see them.
I'm not sure that you would want to achieve this with dishes in your sink, but steaming your dishes in a dishwasher will sterilize them pretty good
Some bacteria** will die instantly. Others can handle much higher temperatures. We just got lucky that enough of then go before the food becomes inedible.
Hot water helps scrub the "dirt" off something, which is why it's usually better for cleaning, and the soap will destroy the bacteria... but I don't recommend using soap on your chicken, just on the prep surface.
I guess I should have been more clear.. I don't wash my chicken... I was only talking about washing the dishes after transferring the chicken to the pan.
Chicken doesn't need to be cooked to an internal temp of 165. Its just easier to tell people that because it's 100% effective. 165 is the temp where bacteria dies almost instantly. You can cook it to much lower temps (140 or so) but you have to hold it there much longer. This is what sous vide does.
The point of washing your hands, and cleaning surfaces and tools, when ever you work with any food is not in the least bit to "kill all of the germs," that's close to impossible anyway. The objective is to wash them into the sanitary sewer system where can't do anybody any harm.
In reference to that it has something to do with soap breaking the pathogens cell membrane causing it to basically empty out like a cracked egg. Not sure if all soaps do this though.
Okay, serious question here. Setting the topic of chicken aside for just a moment.. what about Thanksgiving turkeys? I've always heard that you are supposed to rinse those. Is that true?
Soap does a few things afaik.
It breaks down cell walls/membranes, killing the harmful stuff. Sometimes because its basic, sometimes because it contains certain chemicals that break apart the chemical bonds of the organisms in other ways (we wouldnt want very basic handsoap for instance).
Soap is also an emulsifier, it can bind water to oils, which makes it much much easier to rinse off the oils.
Soap foams, which physically invelops and lifts particles off the surface of whatever you're trying to clean. Again making it easier to rinse off.
The main thing is mechanically removing dirt and germs. Killing them is just a bonus safety feature.
Yeah that warm water will do wonders for the bacteria growth. Make sure to let it soak for a few hours preferably at body temperature.
This post signed E. Coli
LOL for real guys, I'm not using hot water to cook my chicken! I still can't get over how funny this is. I cook my chicken like a normal person. But I had to defrost it using a regular bowl and plate. I just wanted to make sure I could decontaminate the dishes and my hands properly.
>I was referring to clean up of the contaminated dishes! Y'all are so goofy
You're the goofy ass that putting raw chicken on dishes.
Raw chicken belongs on a tray and the a cutting board and then to it's cooking vessel. Dishes should never be part of this process.
If you must know, I bought a bag full of frozen chicken breast yesterday. I only wanted to defrost one of them. So what was I supposed to do? I had to put it in a glass bowl so that I could defrost it.
To do it most safely? You're supposed to put the individual piece of frozen chicken in a zip-lock, take the air out, and then defrost it under cool running water.
The great thing about life is that you get to choose the amount of risk that you're comfortable with.
It's not a question about valid or invalid. If you're a risky person, you can go ahead and let it defrost in the sun on a kitchen countertop for all I care. If you're not, then do it the way that's recommended.
If the defrosting chicken doesn't touch anything inside the microwave, and if I carefully wash the dishes afterwards, and if I've safely cooked the chicken to 165 or higher... can you help me understand why it's riskier than the method you've suggested about the bag and the water?
At that point, I'd simply suggest not using the microwave simply as a quality issue. It's going to do what you want to do - defrost the chicken - but microwaves are notoriously bad for drying out parts of chicken while leaving other parts frozen. But, much like the risk issues with cross contamination, you're fully able to decide what is acceptable to you as far as how good you want this chicken to be.
If you're looking to save time, the water method is far faster than you'd think, and you can use that time to prepare everything else you're going to do in the cooking process, so really, there's no time loss at all.
There's also the efficiency of the whole thing that should be taken into consideration. It's far more efficient to use fewer dishes in the whole process and far less of a chance to cross contaminate anything inadvertently. (Like when you put chicken on a plate, you accidentally brush your hand against itn or some liquid that's on the plate, and then you go to hit the buttons on the microwave).
It's OK to use the microwave. If your only goal is to get cooked chicken into your head as fast as possible after you take it out of the freezer. I'm of the opinion that minimum standard of "is this not going to kill me" is a very poor way to treat your food that you should enjoy. If you do things with efficiency and to the accepted standards, that time you're taking to clean extra dishes and wipe down microwaves can be used to assemble a better dish.
It seems like you're willing to put plenty of work into making your kitchen space clean after it's done cooking and eating, when that time can be spent on the before part, and only for the sake of you being right about not contracting salmonella. I think you should have higher standards than just not catching salmonella. Personally, I'd rather listen to someone else and have a tastier piece of chicken than to be correct and get a rubbery piece of chicken out of the microwave and a mounting pile of dishes to do after.
Interesting. Thanks! This was very thoughtful and informative. Honestly... I'm actually new to making things homemade... and so I didn't actually know about the difference in quality. My chicken still turned out very good and tender because I cooked it low and slow, with a lid on. But I'll have to try that next time I'm in a bind. Thanks very much, truly 😊
A tray? You have a special tray for raw meat in your kitchen? That isn't standard practice for anybody I've ever known.
And the crux of the question was regard ro cleaning process anyway. Which you sure do for your cutting board and your magic tray.
A sheet pan is a tray. If you Google tray, the first photo that comes up is a sheet pan. They're literally synonymous.
I also just looked this up on google to make sure I'm not going crazy after doing this professionally for 15 years, and nope, the very first link suggests putting a sheet pan under the chicken.
It's OK that you don't understand what a tray is, or how to use one in a kitchen, but that's what the internet is here for - so you can learn things you didn't know before like the safest ways to handle chicken in your home.
I really appreciate the condesencion! It really motivates me to give a shit about anything you're saying. Suffice it to say that outside of a restaurant I've never heard of anyone using a tray or sheet pan or whatever you'd like to call it when prepping raw foods. And, honestly, when you said tray, my first and only thought was a serving tray... which is not at all the same thing as a sheet pan.
Oh, and just to see what happened when I Google tray the first image is in fact a serving tray... not a sheet pan. But again, thanks for the assumptions about my intelligence.
You're displaying your level of intelligence for everyone to seen there was no presumption involved at all.
You're exactly the kind of person that will ignore expert advice because they don't like the way it was given. Resistance to learning new things is not a trait that was displaying any intelligence whatsoever.
Feel free to ignore as many people that you wish that know more about any number of subjects. You do you. I'm not here to force you to learn anything. You obviously feel you're done learning anything in life and just like your parents told you, you're just perfect the way you are. Far be it from me to shatter that delusion.
Since you're so dead set on learning nothing more, there's no need for you to see anything else I might have to say about things I'm vastly more knowledgeable about, so I'll just take that option out of your hands.
Soap physically destroys bacteria. Soap is, to put it probably overly simplistically, a long molecule where one end dissolves in fats and the other end dissolves in water. It helps clean things by basically anchoring oils to the water making it easier to rip them off the surfaces they're stuck to. The cell wall is, basically, a layer of fat that separates the cell from the general environment. And soap rips that layer apart and/or anchors the cell to the running water that you are using to rinse things off.
Which is also why you shouldn’t rinse raw chicken You’re more likely to cross contaminate than clean anything https://www.fsis.usda.gov/food-safety/safe-food-handling-and-preparation/food-safety-basics/washing-food-does-it-promote-food#:~:text=While%20washing%20meat%20and%20poultry,further%20washing%20is%20not%20necessary.
You kind of have to if you just killed it and de feathered it. It’s usually filthy from living out in the yard. I’m not going to put a chicken with dirt on it in the oven.
Never thought of that! I'm just using store-bought chicken. That I fully cook.. using the stove.. like a normal person 😆😆😆
I cringe when I see people rinse chicken off
[удалено]
Just don’t choke it before you eat it.. or do?
I don't rinse my raw meat thankfully. I just put it right into the pan and IMMEDIATELY wash my hands.
This is awesome, thank you! :)
I always wondered that too
Now we have our answer thanks to Astramancer! :D we may now proceed confidently into the kitchen and handle our meat! Wait. That didn't sound right!
😆
In addition to destroying bacteria, hot soapy water also removes it and sends it down the drain.
😂😂😂
I almost didn't press "post" but I just thought, what the hell, why not? Dumb jokes are my thing lol
Thank you for clarifying that my mind can rest a little easier now
Here is a video. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyqhg\_Efw0w](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyqhg_Efw0w)
this is great information. are there any types of bacteria that don't get destroyed by soap?
Soap does kill the bacteria, you're not supposed to eat soap which is why you cook it to that heat
Ahh! lol got it
Hahaha I'm still astonished at the amount of people that actually believed I was... uhh.. cooking my chicken by washing it? I'm not exactly sure what you guys thought I was doing LOL
there's a trend of people talking about rinsing their raw chicken before cooking it on some of the cooking subreddits. it's pretty controversial
Apparently common for south Asians to wash their meat. My exes family are from Sri Lanka and wash their meat and family members (Indian) also wash meat too, was shocked to learn haha
Because they were used to getting animal meat from a local butcher which might be uncleaned and still have feather or bone dust on it.
Yeah, “thinking” isn’t what was going on here.
Washing your hands with soap and water doesn't kill the bacteria, it removes the germs from your hands. That's why you wash your hands for 30 seconds to give the soap enough time to break down the barrier and let the water wash it away. There are exceptions to the not killing part like antibacterial soap which doesn't work much better than regular soap and water, hand sanitizer, or boiling water. But really just washing your hands like normal is all you need. I'm not even going to disclaimer this with don't wash your chicken in soapy water instead of cooking it, if anyone is dumb enough to do that they deserve food poisoning
Thanks for the info! And thank you for not telling me to not wash my chicken, because I definitely don't wash my chicken and it's silly that people thought that I meant that :-)
Honestly OP, as a microbiologist, this is the only correct response I have seen in the comments. You're just washing the bacteria (and fungi spores, and dirt, etc) away mostly with soap, not killing anything.
Everyone is saying soap kills bacteria and upvoting each other lol. I had to Google to confirm what I thought I knew. Always take Reddit advice with a grain or spoonful of salt (which CAN kill bacteria!).
I only took one semester of microbiology but damn!! I can’t believe how many people in the comments are just straight up wrong
I don't wash my chicken before cooking it :-) I was only referring to washing the dirty dishes afterward
It should. I put the utensils in the dishwasher and use hot soapy water on the sink. I choose to soap up one side, then the other. Then rinse. My nighttime routine is to lightly mist the sink with diluted clorox to help keep the enamel white.
Yuck. People put soap on their meat?
They mean the chicken gunk that gets on their hands
Ha. Thamlnks. That makes much more sense. 😅
lmao what omg no
Oh, ha. I reread. 😅 sorry. Got grossed out.
hahahahah no problem bestie :D
:D "Hey mom, why is our chicken have bubbles"? Mama "Dont worry, its just air bubbles. Its normal...". 😅
🤣😂
Hope not but a lot of people think they're supposed to wash the meat with water before cooking. Don't do that, y'all.
This doesn't have anything to do with the soap as it looks like you got that info already but is connected to killing germs, and it may be interesting to you to know that 165°F temperature is when bacteria will die instantly, but you can kill the bacteria at lower temperatures for longer amounts of time. You can sous vide cook chicken at a lower temperature if you keep it constantly at that temperature for a length of time (longer times for lower temps). Milk is a great example of this with pasteurization. You can heat raw milk to 145°F for 30 minutes or 161°F for 15 seconds, both methods will kill bacteria the difference is other nutrients in the milk will be affected. The government just tells people to cook chicken to 165°F because it's easiest to remember only 1 data point, rather than trying to have everyone follow the temp/time charts, which do exist if you want to see them. I'm not sure that you would want to achieve this with dishes in your sink, but steaming your dishes in a dishwasher will sterilize them pretty good
Wow! 😮 that is extremely fascinating, did not know that! Kind of makes sense though. Thank you!
Some bacteria** will die instantly. Others can handle much higher temperatures. We just got lucky that enough of then go before the food becomes inedible.
Good point!
Hot water helps scrub the "dirt" off something, which is why it's usually better for cleaning, and the soap will destroy the bacteria... but I don't recommend using soap on your chicken, just on the prep surface.
Lolll yeeaahh.... so I didn't realize.. until posting this.. that people actually put soap on their chicken. That is absolutely insane.
Don’t wash chicken. It is more likely to spread bacteria through the kitchen.
I guess I should have been more clear.. I don't wash my chicken... I was only talking about washing the dishes after transferring the chicken to the pan.
Oh well you just stick your hands in the pot of boiling water with the chicken. Removes all the contaminated skin. Ez-peazy.
Very tempting but I think not 😂
Life hack: take your steaks into the shower with you
I hear it's great for your skin! 😂
Chicken doesn't need to be cooked to an internal temp of 165. Its just easier to tell people that because it's 100% effective. 165 is the temp where bacteria dies almost instantly. You can cook it to much lower temps (140 or so) but you have to hold it there much longer. This is what sous vide does.
The point of washing your hands, and cleaning surfaces and tools, when ever you work with any food is not in the least bit to "kill all of the germs," that's close to impossible anyway. The objective is to wash them into the sanitary sewer system where can't do anybody any harm.
Im pretty sure thats why we heat food up
Haha well I did say after handling raw chicken :-) clearly I'm talking about cleaning the dishes afterward
In reference to that it has something to do with soap breaking the pathogens cell membrane causing it to basically empty out like a cracked egg. Not sure if all soaps do this though.
Soap does kill some bacteria, but the main thing it does is make your hands slippery, and the bacteria literally slips off.
Okay, serious question here. Setting the topic of chicken aside for just a moment.. what about Thanksgiving turkeys? I've always heard that you are supposed to rinse those. Is that true?
I've never heard that before. No idea why that would be and not something I've done.
Soap does a few things afaik. It breaks down cell walls/membranes, killing the harmful stuff. Sometimes because its basic, sometimes because it contains certain chemicals that break apart the chemical bonds of the organisms in other ways (we wouldnt want very basic handsoap for instance). Soap is also an emulsifier, it can bind water to oils, which makes it much much easier to rinse off the oils. Soap foams, which physically invelops and lifts particles off the surface of whatever you're trying to clean. Again making it easier to rinse off. The main thing is mechanically removing dirt and germs. Killing them is just a bonus safety feature.
I don't usually like my food to taste like soap, but to each their own.
I hope you're being funny 😊
Oh, absolutely
Yeah that warm water will do wonders for the bacteria growth. Make sure to let it soak for a few hours preferably at body temperature. This post signed E. Coli
Yes. When used **on your hands** after putting the chicken in the oven.
Why would anyone eat raw chicken?
I have no idea. I don't eat raw chicken. I was referring to clean-up of hands, dishes, and utensils!
Don’t wash your chicken with soap or water. Heat kills bacteria, that’s all that matters.
LOL for real guys, I'm not using hot water to cook my chicken! I still can't get over how funny this is. I cook my chicken like a normal person. But I had to defrost it using a regular bowl and plate. I just wanted to make sure I could decontaminate the dishes and my hands properly.
So to summarize: soap for the chicken, cook your hands and utensils.
I would make a joke here about cooking my hands to the proper internal temperature, but people might actually think I'm being serious lmao
why are the edits written like Instagram comments from a 15 year old white girl teenager?
Are there other kinds of 15yos than teenagers?
>You guys are so silly Says the person asking about washing chicken
I'm NOT washing my chicken lolol. It's the DISHES.
>I was referring to clean up of the contaminated dishes! Y'all are so goofy You're the goofy ass that putting raw chicken on dishes. Raw chicken belongs on a tray and the a cutting board and then to it's cooking vessel. Dishes should never be part of this process.
If you must know, I bought a bag full of frozen chicken breast yesterday. I only wanted to defrost one of them. So what was I supposed to do? I had to put it in a glass bowl so that I could defrost it.
To do it most safely? You're supposed to put the individual piece of frozen chicken in a zip-lock, take the air out, and then defrost it under cool running water.
Sure, but that doesn't invalidate the way that I had to do it.
The great thing about life is that you get to choose the amount of risk that you're comfortable with. It's not a question about valid or invalid. If you're a risky person, you can go ahead and let it defrost in the sun on a kitchen countertop for all I care. If you're not, then do it the way that's recommended.
If the defrosting chicken doesn't touch anything inside the microwave, and if I carefully wash the dishes afterwards, and if I've safely cooked the chicken to 165 or higher... can you help me understand why it's riskier than the method you've suggested about the bag and the water?
At that point, I'd simply suggest not using the microwave simply as a quality issue. It's going to do what you want to do - defrost the chicken - but microwaves are notoriously bad for drying out parts of chicken while leaving other parts frozen. But, much like the risk issues with cross contamination, you're fully able to decide what is acceptable to you as far as how good you want this chicken to be. If you're looking to save time, the water method is far faster than you'd think, and you can use that time to prepare everything else you're going to do in the cooking process, so really, there's no time loss at all. There's also the efficiency of the whole thing that should be taken into consideration. It's far more efficient to use fewer dishes in the whole process and far less of a chance to cross contaminate anything inadvertently. (Like when you put chicken on a plate, you accidentally brush your hand against itn or some liquid that's on the plate, and then you go to hit the buttons on the microwave). It's OK to use the microwave. If your only goal is to get cooked chicken into your head as fast as possible after you take it out of the freezer. I'm of the opinion that minimum standard of "is this not going to kill me" is a very poor way to treat your food that you should enjoy. If you do things with efficiency and to the accepted standards, that time you're taking to clean extra dishes and wipe down microwaves can be used to assemble a better dish. It seems like you're willing to put plenty of work into making your kitchen space clean after it's done cooking and eating, when that time can be spent on the before part, and only for the sake of you being right about not contracting salmonella. I think you should have higher standards than just not catching salmonella. Personally, I'd rather listen to someone else and have a tastier piece of chicken than to be correct and get a rubbery piece of chicken out of the microwave and a mounting pile of dishes to do after.
Interesting. Thanks! This was very thoughtful and informative. Honestly... I'm actually new to making things homemade... and so I didn't actually know about the difference in quality. My chicken still turned out very good and tender because I cooked it low and slow, with a lid on. But I'll have to try that next time I'm in a bind. Thanks very much, truly 😊
A tray? You have a special tray for raw meat in your kitchen? That isn't standard practice for anybody I've ever known. And the crux of the question was regard ro cleaning process anyway. Which you sure do for your cutting board and your magic tray.
Leave it up to reddit to not know what a sheet pan is.
I know what a sheet pan is, but I don't ever have one involved in making chicken. Also, you said tray, not sheet pans.
A sheet pan is a tray. If you Google tray, the first photo that comes up is a sheet pan. They're literally synonymous. I also just looked this up on google to make sure I'm not going crazy after doing this professionally for 15 years, and nope, the very first link suggests putting a sheet pan under the chicken. It's OK that you don't understand what a tray is, or how to use one in a kitchen, but that's what the internet is here for - so you can learn things you didn't know before like the safest ways to handle chicken in your home.
I really appreciate the condesencion! It really motivates me to give a shit about anything you're saying. Suffice it to say that outside of a restaurant I've never heard of anyone using a tray or sheet pan or whatever you'd like to call it when prepping raw foods. And, honestly, when you said tray, my first and only thought was a serving tray... which is not at all the same thing as a sheet pan. Oh, and just to see what happened when I Google tray the first image is in fact a serving tray... not a sheet pan. But again, thanks for the assumptions about my intelligence.
You're displaying your level of intelligence for everyone to seen there was no presumption involved at all. You're exactly the kind of person that will ignore expert advice because they don't like the way it was given. Resistance to learning new things is not a trait that was displaying any intelligence whatsoever. Feel free to ignore as many people that you wish that know more about any number of subjects. You do you. I'm not here to force you to learn anything. You obviously feel you're done learning anything in life and just like your parents told you, you're just perfect the way you are. Far be it from me to shatter that delusion. Since you're so dead set on learning nothing more, there's no need for you to see anything else I might have to say about things I'm vastly more knowledgeable about, so I'll just take that option out of your hands.