Comments on: Why a Waterbath: Food Safety

By: Friday Faves: Miscellaneous Homemaking | TheHouseholdHelper

Friday Faves: Miscellaneous Homemaking | TheHouseholdHelper — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:40:32 +0000

[...] HomeEc101 explains how to safely thaw a a chicken. [...]

By: Heather

Heather — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:50:20 +0000

Cool water is best. Hot water will begin to change the protein structure of the outermost layers of meat. It probably wouldn’t COOK it, but it’d start it on its way and it certainly wouldn’t be enough to start the maillard reaction which is where you get all the tasty goodness of searing.

By: Heather

Heather — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:49:02 +0000

The packaging is rarely impervious. Pin holes develop during shipment and handling. While the package may keep most of the water / chicken juices in or out there is frequently some exchange. Also of concern is cross contamination.

By: Stacy

Stacy — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:31:57 +0000

I don’t really get this. I do use this method, but it doesn’t make sense to me that you’re getting rid of the bacteria by keeping it running or changing the water when the chicken is in a package. How is it getting rid of it if it’s all sealed up?

By: Angela

Angela — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 21:15:20 +0000

Oh Crud, I could have used this post this morning… I hope my chicken is not too water logged… maybe the grill will dry it back out. Lets hope so.

By: dani

dani — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:38:04 +0000

yes, remember to leave it in the packaging!

I had a group of kids in school who took salmon out of the package to thaw it, and it actually ruined the salmon, as it destroyed it as the water ran (that and i think they had the water running too fast).

By: Chuck Boyd

Chuck Boyd — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:57:07 +0000

I was told NOT to immerse the chicken (pork chops, hamburger, etc.) in hot water because that actually starts “cooking” it.

Was that just a tale my old wife told me?

By: gracie

gracie — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:04:43 +0000

one thing that wasn’t mentiones is that you need to leave the chicken/turkey in its packaging to do the running water thing.

we had a kitchen sink once where the divider between the sinks was shorter then the sides so — the night before thanksgiving finding that the turkey was still in the freezer, it went in one sink with the drain-plug in and we started the water at a trickle waited to make sure that when the sink was full the water would drain to the other sink – w/no drain-plug and not over flow — the next morning the turkey was fully thawed