Rinsing chicken with vinegar? Cultural thing?

Question

My BF grew up in Suriname and always (I Mean ALWAYS) rinses chicken and seafood with vinegar (red wine, white wine or cider, even plain white, really doesn't matter which). In fact, he'll ask me if I did the same when I do the cooking. Has anyone ever heard of this? At first he said this was due to cleanliness. Vinegar would kill germs (?). I then, rather obnoxiously, explained that chicken from the modern supermarket is not like grabbing one running around the streets of Suriname's capital city, and that FDA regulations will help deliver consumers a clean bird. So then he said it affects the 'texture' of the meat. I think it is a childhood comfort thing, or maybe cultural - the ladies he grew up with did it. Anyone ever hear of anything like this in other cultures?

Answer

re: "FDA regulations will help deliver consumers a clean bird"
 
You can't count on the "cook-it-to-death-for-your-own-safety" USDA for that, I'm afraid. Processing conditions are pretty appalling, but for the most part, the USDA puts it off on consumers by telling them they'll be fine if they cook everything hot/long enough. True though that may be, I myself would prefer eating something other than overcooked meat with a lot of now-dead bacteria on it, if it's all the same to them! Unfortunately, like-minded consumers and I cant' match lobbying budgets with industry...
 
I have trouble imagining that a simple vinegar _rinse_ would change the texture all that much, but as a marinade it certainly tenderizes flesh-protein of all kinds. If you let it sit too long, in too strong a solution, in fact, the surface can get kind of unpleasantly mushy and some cuisines rely on acids to "cook" (ie, fully denature the proteins in) fish and shellfish, or to preserve it after cooking.
 
In your BF's case, though, I suspect it's more habit/cultural - if he can't tell whether you've done it or not unless you tell him, there's obviously not a dramatic difference. Which may be in part because that chicken running down the street (or pig rooting around the yard, etc.) would be a lot tougher than the commercial meat we get in supermarkets here. More flavorful too, I'm sure, but certainly tougher as well.

Answer

Oh good, this allows me to expand on my prior post about only heat eliminating pathogens in food. Pathogens also have difficulty living in a high acid (low pH) environment such as vinegar. When your BF explains it also affect the texture, he is absolutely correct. One important element in cooking is the process of breaking down proteins. When your marinate a protein in an acid environment, you have actually started the cooking process--that is the breaking down of the protein. Leave fish, chicken or meat in a marinade too long and it turns to mush. Things like pure white vinegar and lemon juice are awfully strong acids.
 
 Don't dismiss the cultural thing. Since time immemorial and long before the USDA and refrigeration, societies have learned how to foil the pathogens. These rituals usually exist for a reason.

Answer

My parents are Jamaican and I was born here in the US. I was taught that I have to clean my chicken with lemon, lime or vinegar before I season it or whatever. I always clean my chicken with lemon. I squeeze the lemon over it and then rinse it with cold water. Then I season or cook or whatever I do with it. I think it is very cultural. When my mother watches the cooking shows, she gets really upset when she doesn't see them cleaning chicken. I have to say though, cleaning it, to me, takes out that raw chicken smell from it. It's definitely cultural because Caribbean people all clean their chicken like that.

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I soak everything in a 1/2 white vinegar and water mix, then rinse in water. Meat and chicken and some fish is sort of a rinse, but I do clean everything in it. Homeopathic advise.

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Yes it’s cultural, and cleansing meat is so important. Most Caribbean people also clean ALL of their meat and fish with lime lemon or vinegar. In Fish it cuts that strong fishy smell and flavors the fish. In all meat the acid from the vinegar lemon or lime....kills the bacteria....also ground beef should be soaked in the vinegar...meat can have spillage from the intestine of the animal or it falls on the floor or contaminated knives cut the meat. These are things most people don't think about. I am so afraid of eating out...because you know the cooks don't clean the meat. I just wrote to a television cook ( they grouse me out ) she was cooking ribs she took and season the ribs right in the butcher package you could see the plastic rap with the price tag on it ..after seasoning one side she dumped the ribs out of the pack right in to the baking pan and seasoned the other side...now you know (I just was so disgusted I wrote to the show (semi home made) I was disgusted...people who eat raw or rear meats are the ones who get sick from eating unclean meats....I know most people say it's cooked at 350 degree oven..But you are eating 350 degrees of filth. I know by now you know this is one of my peeves. Chow gal listen to him you will avoid getting sick....Dont trust the FDA

Answer

When I was a kid, I worked at a restaurant, well a fast food place, that served a lot of fried chicken.

We routinely washed the chicken with vinegar and water to get rid of any blood smell that had accumulated on the chicken. It was also how we could tell if the chicken had gone bad. If it smelled after the vinegar rinse it was bad. 

I know when I go to the store, the packaging collects a lot of blood, so it isn't going to hurt anything or effect the flavor especially if you rinse with clean water after the vinegar/water rinse.

I can't see a problem rinsing any meat with vinegar and water and then rinsing again with clean water.

Your boy friend is just particular because of where he was raised. In most parts of the world they sell chicken hanging in an open air market. I would want to rinse that chicken.

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Hi, have Surinamese decent and live in Amsterdam. The reason why we wash chicken or any other meat in vinegar is to get the germs killed in the first place. Second, to get rid of that "animal smell". Chicken can have a distasteful animal smell or taste to it even when it is cooked, especially a whole chicken. Same goes for pork, I like porkchops when it doesnt have that nasty animal taste or smell. Once you have washed your chicken in a vinegar bath with some water, and see what dirt is left behind, you will probably never want to have "unwashed" chicken again.

Answer

I have seen this recommended in South Asian home cooking, too. The vinegar or lime/lemon juice kills the bad smells and cleans the meat. Some people prefer lime/lemon only and say that vinegar toughens the meat. Interesting info in this thread. I have picked up the habit and use vinegar on fish and sometimes if I buy and freeze chicken I prepare it with turmeric (also purported to kill smell and germs), red chile powder, and lime juice and then store it in the freezer. There are huge numbers of South Asians in the Caribbean, so I wonder if this is S. Asian influence. The South Asian presence in the Caribbean deeply influenced West Indian cuisine, too, so why not food prep?

Answer

I'm glad I saw this thread. I had posted on a different one that I'd been doing this forever (lemon juice or vinegar) but I couldn't remember where I picked it up from, didn't know if anyone else did it either. I'd forgotten about a cooking lesson I had with my grandmother before passing and I'd also learned how to clean squid, I was about 12. She was Italian and I too do this with poultry, fish, lamb, veal and pork. I always felt that at the very least it gets the slime off from the meat. I don't know if it's cultural, but not everyone does this.

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I dated a Filipina when I was in the Navy. She diced up raw chicken, onions, garlic, fresh jalepeno peppers added a little bit of fresh shaved ginger and about a quarter cup of white vinegar. She set it in the fridge and pulled it out the next day for dinner. I asked about cooking it and she said the jalepeno juice and vinegar cooked it. The onion and garlic protected it from bacteria while the juices cooked it. The reason italians like garlic and onion so much is the anti-bacterial effect. In roman times they would rub there meat down with a garlic/onion paste and then salt them. It would hold meat for 2 days in the summer and up to a week in the winter.

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Mama always taught me that if the chicken was any less than perfectly fresh, a good wash with white vinegar would kill the smell and make it cookable... but it's better get it in the freezer asap after it's bought so you don't have to worry about it!

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Growing up in a Caribbean household ..taught me how to clean raw chicken with lemon or lime with salt..

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Well, one thing about your comment that grabbing a chicken at your supermarket would make it "cleaner" (less bacteria) FALSE. Raw meat at your supermarket contains many more bacteria than if you killed a chicken off the streets and cooked it. Difference being, how long it sits between butcher, and your kitchen. If you kill an animal and promptly prepare it and eat it, you do not give the bacteria time to multiply. Think of sushi grade fish, compared to fish in the butcher counter display. The fish in the butcher window usually cannot be consumed raw, because it is teaming with bacteria from sitting there. You could pull an average salmon right out of a river and bite right into it....

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yes my family is from Central America, as a child I always seen my mom clean her chicken with vinegar . She says it kills germs and bacteria so I figure as woman cleaning your private area with vinegar and water is ok, then so is cleaning chicken or any kind of meat

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Yes this is cultural, I'm from a Caribbean background and this is what we always do whether it's vinegar, lemons or limes. 

it is about cleanliness. Pathogens can't survive in acidic conditions and this is the main reason vinegar lemons and limes are used.

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I had heard about this - so I tried it with some chicken that was maybe a day past ideal. Since it was just me, I tried washing with vinegar. 

I don't know that it would have tasted "off" in the first place, but it worked and I will do it with chicken that has sat for a few days.

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ANY TYPE OF VINEGAR IS A NATURAL DISINFECTANT..... MOST PEOPLE USE WHITE VINEGAR TO CLEAN ANYTHING WITH, ESPECIALLY CAT BOXES, COUNTER TOPS, FOOD, ETC.. tHEY USE WHITE BECAUSE IT DOESN'T LEAVE A TRACE OF A SMELL OR FILM, STICKINESS, ETC.. THAT APPLE VINEGAR, RED WINE VINEGAR CAN POSSIBLY LEAVE.. BUT THEY ALL ARE NATURAL DISINFECTANTS.

Answer

Vinegar , Lime, Lemon wash chicken or any other meat IS a cultural thing , although It's mostly done as a disinfectant and adds flavor ! We are talking here about the time before refrigeration or Ice blocks . When you have a piece of meat that has been kicking around the back yard chopping block or in the kitchen , unsanitary conditions , In 100 degree weather , you better wash It ( REAL GOOD ) with something acidic ! Most of the population doesn't understand this , many people have gotten food poisoning , this Is nothing ! Some strains of food poisoning, ( you actually think you're going to die ) ! I have met a few Caribbean Individuals that have stopped eating meat for a while for fear of pain , more than death ! They scrub every nook and cranny 3 times before they let their children eat It ! The herbs and spices disinfect and add much flavor ! It's something I've always done and always do since my near death experience ! If you think your safe because you shop at Safeway , think of all the processing your bird has gone through to meet you ! There's got to be at least one Individual In at least 100 that hasn't disinfected his hands after having a shit ! Wash It , scrub It , cook It and then enjoy It ! You're digestion will thank you ! Michael .

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Rinsing chicken with vinegar? Cultural thing?

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