• AA5B@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1 hour

    I’d definitely like to identify ones that have not been - these days it can be a challenge to sear chicken on the stovetop because of all the water.

  • Doomsider@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1 hour

    Great way to cheat the customer and also ruin recipes that don’t take into consideration that cups of salt water will come out while cooking the chicken.

  • Griffus@lemmy.zipEnglish
    8 minutes

    In Norway, chicken without added salt and water has become the norm after producers were made to inform how much of each is added. Also, one of the triopol groceries here has wholly switched from Ross chickens, so that is a good trend for animal welfare.

  • [deleted]@piefed.worldEnglish
    4 hours

    They also do this to beef, pork, and a bunch of other meats in the US. The higher water content is part of the reason preservation methods don’t work as well.

    For instance, trying to make Jerry out of water injected beef means you have to dry out the added water in addition to what was in the meat to start with, and you can’t use the post drying weight to calculate if it is dry enough.

    Plus poking the holes to add the water is one more vector for bacteria…

  • LaLuzDelSol@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1 hour

    Yeah it’s just brining. 30% and 500mg is crazy though. My local supermarket (and I checked-also walmart) value pack of chicken is 2% and about 50mg sodium per serving, which is pretty negligible. And it does make the chicken jucier.

  • Tattorack@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4 hours

    Well… Not really in Denmark. At least not salt water.

    Packaging on chicken often has it written on the from if there is any water inside, and if I’m not mistaken, it’s not allowed to exceed a certain percentage.

    There may be reasons why people might specifically want to buy chicken with water inside, so some supermarkets here sell both, one that has an statement on the amount of water inside, and another that will say “ikke tilsat vand”.

    • teyrnon@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      12 minutes

      The turkeys I buy on sale in bulk when I can, 50 cents a pound, have 15% of a salt solution with some other salted bullshit some phosphate or I don’t know I’ve been meaning to look it up. Probably not great for you though knowing the US Food supply.

    • corsicanguppy@lemmy.caEnglish
      3 hours

      not allowed to exceed a certain percentage

      America fired all the inspector-types, though, as conservative governments usually do on about day 1. So now consumers get to protect themselves the same way they ‘did their own’ epidemiological research in the last pandemic.

      • teyrnon@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        11 minutes

        This is been a thing since Reagan though, it gets worse under the Republican administrations but it does not get much better under the Democrats. We get more fucked every cycle.

  • TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1 hour

    I was talking about this is a thread last month and got downvoted and harassed for it by people who seem to think pre-made super market chickens were a great healthy way for poor people to get protein… people just refused to believe how unhealthy it was and that it was processed food and kept complaining how raw whole chickens were awful by comparison or something…

  • ViatorOmnium@piefed.socialEnglish
    6 hours

    Mandatory “in the US”.

    While this one is technically legal in the EU, it would require labeling the salty water as an ingredient if it changes the weight significantly.

    • some_kind_of_guy@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5 hours

      It’s labeled in the US. You’ll see language like “may contain up to N% x, y, z solution” etc.

      However that would require us to read

    • zout@fedia.io
      3 hours

      I can assure you that meat in the Netherlands is also filled up with water. Pretty much all meat sold in the super markets will when cooked first release the water, causing the meat to boil for a bit before it is evaporated. They don’t have to mention it on the packaging if it’s below 5%, which means in reality it’s closer to 10%. Since the Netherlands exports a lot of meat, it’ll be all over at least Europe.

      • ViatorOmnium@piefed.socialEnglish
        5 hours

        Adding salty water to food is perfectly legal, as both salt and water are allowed ingredients for processed food. Lying about it is not.

  • quick_snail@feddit.nlEnglish
    4 hours

    This doesn’t happen with seitan. Which is cheaper, healthier, and has about double the protein.

    • JasonDJ@lemmy.zipEnglish
      3 hours

      I’ve had some damn good seitan, too.

      There’s a vegan Asian-styled restaurant near me that has awesome general tsao seitan, and also use the same protein for their sesame-, mango-, and orange- sauced variants.

      Another place near me has these barbeque seitan strips (appetizer) with house wasabi mustard.

      God I’m hungry now.

      • teyrnon@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        14 minutes

        I only recently discovered that roasted sesame is the best thing in the fucking world. If it’s not roasted right it’s nothing, and the roasted oil is meh.

  • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 🇮 @pawb.socialEnglish
    6 hours

    I remember growing up seeing Foster Farms commercials saying they don’t do this. It was the main theme of nearly all their ads.

    When I was a teenager, I got a job at the local Foster Farms plant. My job was part of the process of injecting the chicken with saline. 😬

  • robolemmy@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    6 hours

    And basically all frozen chicken in US stores has been pumped full of brine. That includes raw chicken parts that look otherwise unprocessed.

    • Eldritch@piefed.worldEnglish
      6 hours

      Not only that. That’s the way most people like it. How many people here are equipped at home to brine their own chicken and turkey on any given day? It costs manufacturers more to ship that way as well due to the extra water weight. But chicken can often be dry enough as it is. If you’re grilling, baking for preparing chicken in any way that doesn’t involve cooking it in a sauce or reduction. You absolutely want it brined generally.

      • AnyOldName3@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5 hours

        In a lot of the world, chicken isn’t typically sold like this and people aren’t doing it themselves. If it ends up dry, it’s taken as a sign that it’s overcooked, not that it should have been brined.

      • Boomer Humor Doomergod@lemmy.worldEnglish
        6 hours

        Brining chicken isn’t terribly hard. Just a ziplock and some salt water with seasoning. (Or leftover pickle juice.)

        The problem is that if you want chicken now you’re gonna need a time machine to go back 12-24 hours to brine the chicken, and people will pay for convenience.

        Brining a turkey requires large and specialized equipment, though.

      • Bluegrass_Addict@lemmy.caEnglish
        6 hours

        How many people here are equipped at home to brine their own chicken and turkey on any given day?

        literally everyone that owns a bucket, salt and has access to water… do you think brining a bird is some fancy thing that requires specialized equipment? soak a bird in salt water… add spices if you want. done…

        • Eldritch@piefed.worldEnglish
          5 hours

          Have resources would have been a clearer choice of words. Most don’t have the resource of time.

            • Eldritch@piefed.worldEnglish
              3 hours

              Sure. It’s been a thing in America I know for a long enough time that many are completely unaware of it. Hence TIL. Which let me reiterate is not to shame anyone learning of this today. Learning is awesome and keep it up.

  • saltesc@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5 hours

    Same for many meats. Red meats are often sealed with O2 to appear redder.or “fresher” than was natural, for many extra days on the shelf.

    Meat not from a butcher is usually the lowest quality and actually more expensive considering the liquid weights.

    • teft@piefed.socialEnglish
      5 hours

      Not O2 but CO. You want to reduce oxidation, not increase it. Carbon monoxide bonds to hemoglobin 200x better than oxygen does and that keeps the hemoglobin red. Oxidation is what causes meat to turn brown.

  • taiyang@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3 hours

    Yup! Though if you shop around you can avoid it and some chains, like Trader Joe’s, tend to include less as far as I can tell (except recently with those big breasts of theirs?). Not even that much more expensive but definitely a jump in quality. A Sprouts nearby also has fantastic chicken.

    I’ve been meaning to visit the carnecerias near me, though. Getting meat at any specialized store tends to cook better, anyway, but I’m a little shy since my Spanish is terrible and last time I tried they didn’t speak English. Lots of pointing and gestures, lol.

    • TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1 hour

      chicken comes in price ranges. the highest price range is usually double what the lowest is.

      TJ has 2-3 ranges of chicken products. the higher end ones don’t do this, but the really cheap bulk ones probably do and a lot of cheap low end chicken in cheaper stores definitely do.

      just like they have 4 kinds of eggs, with the cheapest begin 3 dollars and the high end ones being 6-8.