Washing the meat insanity

[Anonymous]

When meat is cooked anything on the surface in terms of bacteria is destroyed by the heat so what is the point of washing?

I don’t know where you folks buy your meat, but I’ve never seen any dirt or slime on the surface of any meat I’ve ever bought whether from the grocery store, the local meat share program I participated in nor when buying a quarter of half beef directly from the rancher when I lived in Montana. Similarly when I got a deer processed (the tag filled by a hunter friend whose wife refused to cook or eat it), the meat came out of the paper wrappers looking very clean.

I *do* thoroughly dry the surface of meat with paper towels if I’m going to brown it, because wet meat doesn’t brown properly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When meat is cooked anything on the surface in terms of bacteria is destroyed by the heat so what is the point of washing?

I don’t know where you folks buy your meat, but I’ve never seen any dirt or slime on the surface of any meat I’ve ever bought whether from the grocery store, the local meat share program I participated in nor when buying a quarter of half beef directly from the rancher when I lived in Montana. Similarly when I got a deer processed (the tag filled by a hunter friend whose wife refused to cook or eat it), the meat came out of the paper wrappers looking very clean.

I *do* thoroughly dry the surface of meat with paper towels if I’m going to brown it, because wet meat doesn’t brown properly.

You’ve never seen dirt or slime? Now, I know you are being disingenuous because no one is going to believe that.
Or you must be a vegetarian.

[Anonymous]

I think they used to spray raw chicken with chemicals which is one reason why we weee told to rinse it. I gave up doing my it many years ago and can’t tell any difference.

[Anonymous]

When I was learning to cook, we were told to rinse the meat. That was standard practice at the time. Things changed and now they advise against it, but it’s an ingrained habit for me and I’m not changing.