Food Safety

Growing up in a immigrant household, I would liken it to being a depression baby. Your parents sole goal is survival, your first world kid problems, are not on their priority list.

My Parent’s Thought Process:

PTA? What’s that? Not important.

Homework? That’s something you do alone, YOU BETTER NOT FAIL THOUGH!

Food Safety? What do you mean this is not safe, I washed all the meat in the sink with salt water.

——-

The first two, I could handle as a kid and looking back it gave me a nice sense of independence. But the last one, Food Safety, I ended up being a huge food safety proponent because of this dark past (So many mysterious bathroom trips) .

As any chef/cook/person who likes to cook will tell you, your food can be great but if your diners are having to have an intimate relationship with your toilet, nobody will want to eat your food.

Therefore, Food Safety, is critical. Often times people will overlook this, but it’s really important that you remain mindful of what you are doing in the kitchen.

A few important reminders: (Obviously, Wash your hands first you dirtballs)

1- Do not rinse/wash your meat/poultry. All you are doing is making your entire sink a cesspool of harmful bacteria.  If for some reason you insist on doing this, make sure you disinfect your sink.

Solution: Just put your meat in a Metal or Glass bowl (not plastic). Because plastic porous it can still hold onto the harmful germs after you clean it. Not with metal or glass. 

 A great sink disinfectant is a bleach dilution (100ml Bleach x 900 ml Water) 

 (A great all around kitchen cleaner is a vinegar dilution (100 ml White Vinegar x 900 ml Water, and a few drops of essential lemon oil)

Both are cheaper solutions to buying household cleaners that have way more toxic chemicals than bleach/vinegar do.

2- Do not just thaw your meat on the counter. This just spreads all your germs onto your counter, thaw your meat out in the fridge so it can reach the proper temperature safely.

3- Finally, a big No No, putting your marinade into your cooked food! You are just asking to get diarrhea. Once your meat is done marinating, throw it out in the trash.