No, its not necessary at all. Assuming you cook it to a safe temperature level, it will kill any bacteria. There are some situations where it is better to do so, such as to remove a brine, but it is not neccesary. Despit the FDA, I still rinse my whole chickens that are swimming in liquid, but thats really all. I would never rinse a steak. They only tell you not to rinse poultry to avoid contamination of your sink and surrounding areas, so as long as your smart about the water spray, and clean up after yourself, you’re ok.

As said above, not necessary.

Some will do as they have always done even if they know it is not necessary. The FDA's reasoning is they believe most of the population will place in the sink and use too much water pressure and contaminate nearby surfaces. Contaminate the sink and will drip juices all over when moving the meat to the cooking vessel.

Your Aunt probably is doing as she was taught, maybe a grandmother that either butchered her own in the backyard or from a butcher back in the day where it was more common to bring home a chicken and finish rinsing remaining left behind inner carcass offal. Or buying whole fish that has been gutted on the dock but needs further rinsing/filleting.

I remove the skin from bone-in chicken thighs in the sink inside a grocery bag, thighs go into a sink side bowl lined with a top-folded-over gallon ziplock containing marinade. Use my foot to open the under cabinet garbage pullout, then use a dilute bleach/soap spray to clean the sink asap, then barkeepers.

My niece is always in the kitchen with us and asks good questions. I always talk through what I am doing and why. DH taught her good knife skills. Her mother, my mother, and her other grandmother do not really cook so she would never learn much from them.

Steaks and pork chops are best as dry as possible. Using paper towel, then left uncovered in the fridge for a few hours or more. A dry surface will give a good sear in a hot pan. Too much exterior surface moisture is an enemy. Your meat will steam and not sear. Same with burgers.

You asked the wrong question. Your question should have been should I wash meat before "preparing it to be cooked". That leaves open the proper doors. Prep can be drying a steak for a day or 2. Prep can be a marinade. So I am going to say yes, generally, save the caveat many speciality cuts and cures were prepared before you got them, like bacon, charcuteries or hams. But when I cut full ribeyes or filets down into steaks I wash. I wash chicken before I slice for jerky. If some freakshow is worried about you to the level of you might get your kitchen dirty and it might grow something well thats actually insanely weird. Those people will not tell you to wash your hands after going potty in that same sentence. Ecoli and staph are common problems in kitchens and guess where they come from? The pooty end of animals, 2 or 4 legged. It lessens the biological severity of you eating someone elses butchering mistake. Now if you are 12 and have never santized a surface this post is not for you.

I never wash meat. I do rinse poultry and then I decontaminate the sink with lysol wipes. I knew a woman at work who was so paranoid of poultry that she actually admitted that she washed her raw chicken in Clorox water!

Depends on the meat....if it's bone in, I often find that the saw used to cut up things like T bone steaks and 7 bone roasts often leaves behind "bone dust"....and I rinse it off....and pat it dry with paper towel.
And I always rinse a chicken that is swimming in pink "juice" and I rinse chicken livers but not a big beef roast....unless it has "bone dust" or is swimming in "stuff" in the package.

Is your aunt Jewish? Washing is one of the steps in preparing kosher meats. It could be a holdover habit, even if she doesn't keep kosher.

Nope, I don't wash meat or poultry when I'm preparing to cook it. However, I raise and process my own chickens and those get a good cold soak in ice water immediately after cleaning and plucking, then another wash in the kitchen with the high powered sprayer to remove any residual offal or debris before I package them. Because they are well cleaned before being packaged and frozen, I do not wash them before cooking.

Beef gets patted dry with a paper towel if it seems very wet, which is seldom. I also grow my own beef, although I do not process it. It comes back to me vacuum packaged and my very fastidious processor has never sent me a piece of meat with the "bone dust" that LindaC mentions or any other kind of residue or debris.

Dad did use a meat packer when I was a kid, still used that white butcher paper instead of vacuum back then. Those cuts DID have that "bone dust" on them and Grandma scraped them with the back edge of the knife to remove it, but she never washed the meat.

So my vote is also "NO". There is no need to wash meat before cooking.

Annie

I don't wash beef as a rule, but I always always wash chicken. Couldn't bear to eat it otherwise.

I usually buy chicken parts and they're handled by more than one person before I buy them. Throughout the years I found on several occasions human hair that somehow got stuck on chicken parts, and sometimes there's bits of unidentified dirt.

I never manage to pat chicken dry with paper towels as they always stick to the chicken and it's hell to peel them. I use cloth towels insread.

Also, I've never disinfected my sink or counter with bleach after washing chicken. I just clean up with dishwashing liquid and water. No food poisoning so far.

I rinse the Korean LA cut short ribs due to potential bone fragments. If you have seen those, you'll know why. I rinse fish. Otherwise, no.

Oh, when i brined poultry, I washed the heck out of it before cooking, but it still was too salty. So i no longer brine.

I figure, just cook meat properly. If I cant remove all the salt, who knows if the E. Coli is all gone?

If it comes out of a cyrovac package, I wash off the blood. Other than that, there's no real need to wash meat. You are not going to remove all the bacteria and any that are left should be gone by the time the meat is cooked.

Dishwashing liquids are generally detergent grease cutters, and as such are antimicrobial as I recall. Plain gentle hand soap not so much unless there is an additive. I have heard detergents referred to as a low level germicide. I guess high level would be something like using clorox or the heat from a dishwasher.

Why on earth would you use dishwashing liquid or soap on meat???

Oh yeah....probably a good idea to scrub that roast with Dawn...?

Oh boy..the sink..the sink...not the meat..sorry

I do not want to see a detergent recipe on the BBQ channel!

I was thinking the same thing. "Why on earth would someone wash their meat with dish soap before cooking it". (snicker)

Sorry, dirtmechanic, I'll read more closely and wait for that recipe. :-)

Annie

FWIW, I don't wash meats, unless I drop something on the floor, or maybe if there are bone chips as mentioned above, and then it's just a rinse. I also scour my sink & clean counters every day, using proven germicides like chlorine bleach and 70% isopropyl alcohol. Not everyone does that, IMPE.

I tend to go by USDA recommendations.

https://www.fns.usda.gov/ofs/food-safety

And Barfblog.com is a good resource for latest news on food-borne illness, etc.

http://www.barfblog.com/

If they're gooky, I rinse them off, carefully. Then clorox bleach cleanser to the sink for clean up. I don't cook gooky meat that often though.

Barf blog. I love the internet.