Sanitary handling of raw meat, especially poultry -- does anyone have a good, comprehensive guide to this? cookingforbeginners

I feel like this is one of those areas that's assumed you already know about when you're following a recipe. I've seen people complain as well that instructional cooking shows don't follow good sanitary procedures because it would cost time and the food that gets made doesn't get eaten anyhow (I don't watch them so I don't know). I have some tips I've cobbled together but I'd love to see a simple but full guide to this if anyone knows where to find one.

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Here's what I think I know already:

• Always thoroughly wash hands after handling raw meat.


• Don't cross-contaminate; don't use the same utensils and chopping boards for raw meat that you do for fruits, vegetables, cooked meat, or anything else (unless it's all going to be cooked together anyway).


• Spray your sink down every so often with bleach water (could use some tips here on how often, proper dilution, good spray bottle to use since the one I have doesn't spray well when pointed downwards).


• Don't leave frozen meat out to thaw all day; the safe way to thaw it is to stick it in the refrigerator the night before (or up to a few days before if it's a large chunk of meat). If you forgot to thaw it the night before, I believe you can submerge it (still wrapped) in cold water for 20 (?) minutes.


• Don't stick frozen meat in the slow cooker because the bacteria that builds up while it thaws can't be neutralized by the cooking process.

Questions I have:

• When you use something to cut raw meat which shouldn't go into the dishwasher, how should you wash it? I assume you don't want to use your regular kitchen sponge/cloth/scrubbie. Paper towel? And is regular dish soap good enough to use?


• When cooking it on the stovetop, what do you do with your stirring utensil? Since it's only put in the pot or pan periodically, I assume that the bacteria wouldn't be completely neutralized by the cooking process. Should you switch to a clean utensil (and spoon rest) partway through?


• The frozen pre-wrapped chicken breasts that I like to buy say to remove the wrapping before thawing. Why is this, and what should I put it in instead?

Submitted November 04, 2014 at 04:23AM by ayakokiyomizu http://ift.tt/1yS7tRY cookingforbeginners