TikTok has delivered some terrific ideas when it comes to cooking at home, like the best way to chop onions, an easy baked feta pasta dish with just a handful of ingredients, and hot honey chicken that doesn\u2019t require a trip to Nashville. <\/p>\n
Recently, a TikTok video about washing ground beef has once again gone viral. The idea surprised us, so we checked in with the experts to get to the bottom of the question: Should you wash your ground beef before or after cooking, or at all?<\/p>\n
cooked ground beef in skillet
\nIs There Any Reason To Wash Ground Beef?
\n\u201cThe most important thing to know is that the U.S. food system ensures that all beef is safe to eat and does not need to be washed before cooking,\u201d Diana Clark, a meat scientist with Certified Angus Beef, tells Southern Living.1 \u201cIf you are worried about food safety, the best practices are to keep ground beef stored in the refrigerator to keep it cool and fresh, and to then cook your ground beef to 160\u00b0F.\u201d2<\/p>\n
If you do decide to wash your ground beef before cooking, Clark says that it\u2019s important to make sure you\u2019re cleaning your sink and surrounding surfaces to avoid the spread of bacteria that could make someone in your house sick.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn fact, USDA [U.S. Department of Agriculture] notes that water can splash bacteria up to three feet surrounding your sink, so it\u2019s vital to clean those surrounding areas to avoid any cross-contamination,\u201d she adds.3<\/p>\n
Heidi Meyer, co-creator of Pound of Ground Crumbles, concurs. <\/p>\n
\u201cI believe the wisdom suggests you should not wash raw ground beef for fear of splattering raw juices throughout your kitchen,\u201d she says. \u201cEither way you should always cook ground beef to a safe and savory 160\u00b0F.\u201d<\/p>\n
What About Washing Ground Beef After Cooking It?
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve also seen the trend of washing ground beef after it\u2019s been cooked,\u201d says Clark. \u201cFrom a food safety standpoint, there\u2019s no need, but if you\u2019re worried about the grease, my suggestion is to simply drain your ground beef. Anything that remains is going to be the great flavor that you don\u2019t want to miss out on.\u201d<\/p>\n
What do chefs have to say about the washing ground beef trend? We checked in with Ferrell Alvarez, a Tampa-based chef and restaurateur with The Proper House Group. Nebraska Mini-Mart, which is under the group\u2019s umbrella of restaurants, features hamburgers on the menu.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never heard of rinsing ground beef, ever,\u201d says Alvarez. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to harm anything, but there\u2019s no point at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bottom Line
\nPut down the colander. Rinsing raw ground beef could pose a health risk by splashing bacteria-filled juices all over your kitchen\u2019s surfaces.<\/p>\n
After the beef has been cooked, you\u2019re just rinsing away good flavor. If you want to get rid of some of the grease, drain the beef, but don\u2019t rinse it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TikTok has delivered some terrific ideas when it comes to cooking at home, like the best way to chop onions, an easy baked feta pasta dish with just a handful of ingredients, and hot honey chicken that doesn\u2019t require a trip to Nashville. Recently, a TikTok video about washing ground beef has once again gone […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2718,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-random-stuff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3676"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3677,"href":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3676\/revisions\/3677"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}