Shoutout to the old guy at the fish market who told me to stop washing scallops

He saw me rinsing a batch under cold water at the Fulton Fish Market and said, 'Kid, you're washing the flavor right down the drain.' I was sure he was wrong, but I tried it his way on a small order of diver scallops last week. The sear was perfect and the taste was way better, no more waterlogged middles. Has anyone else had a piece of simple advice that went against what you thought you knew?

3 comments

3 Comments

daniel_wood29d ago

Wasn't there a whole thing about not washing chicken too? I read something about how it just spreads bacteria around your sink and doesn't really clean it. The heat from cooking kills the germs anyway. I tried not rinsing chicken before roasting it and honestly couldn't tell a difference in the end, except my kitchen was cleaner. It felt wrong at first though, like I wasn't preparing it right.

harper69325d ago

Exactly, like @johnson.paul said, old habits die hard.

johnson.paul29d ago

Yeah it's like we pick up these little habits without knowing why. @daniel_wood is right about the chicken thing, same deal. I've found that a lot of cooking "rules" are just passed down without anyone asking if they work. Like salting pasta water way more than feels right, or not flipping a steak a bunch of times. Sometimes the old way is just the easy way, not the best way.