Food industry secrets Exposed!

They didn't swear me to secrecy so here goes....

Many cook to order restaurants have a bin in the kitchen called "save for well." When a customer sends back a burger or steak that is overcooked (the customer is always right) it goes in here. When a subsequent customer orders a burger "well done" they pull the one that was sent back, put it back on the grill long enought to heat it up and the serve to the second guy.

Extra pasta or over cooked pasta frequently winds up in pasta salad the next day.

Many nice restaurants will reserve bread from the bread baskets on their tables.

Many groceries re-pack chicken in this order: day 1 - chicken is packed as whole or 4-cut, skin on, day 2 or 3 - unsold whole chicken gets repacked as split breast, leg and thigh etc. still with skin on, day 4 - chicken gets repacked again with the skin stripped off and the price RAISED = boneless skinless breast (@$4 - $6/lb). Legal as long as it is not spoiled and the skin spoils first so when they strip it off, the meat underneath looks fresh.

Many fast food chains sell their used french fry grease to dog food manufacturers. Many dried dog foods are a dry kibble base that gets sprayed with this grease.

Latex gloves are for show at best and actually aid cross contamination at worst. They provide the illusion of food safety while preventing workers from feeling whatever is on their hands (actually the gloves). Glove wearers wash less frequently and some manage to contaminate the gloves while putting them on (pull them on with dirty hands = dirty glove exterior).

There are good secrets also (a little milk in scrambled eggs makes them fluffier) but they lack shock value. ;-)

but I'm sure it's done.

The last stages of old chicken in a supermarket also include as pre-seasoned, ready to cook (teriyaki is the most common flavoring) and store roasted chickens.

I've seen the latex gloves get contaminated in restaurants with open kitchens. Rub your nose or suppress a sneeze and it's time for handwashing or new gloves, people.

And never order fish on Monday.

Wendy's uses a chili base (i.e. everything but the meat) and then adds hamburgers that were on the grill too long (overdone but not burned, but not ones they could sell) or hamburgers that didn't sell by the time they were done on the grill. I worked there very briefly in college (less than two weeks :P ), but I learned how the chili was made. There was a plastic bucket under the grill where those reject burgers were put; when the bucket got full, new chili was made. I still won't eat chili from Wendy's....:yoiks:

Old cooked hamburgers usually wind up in the chili the next day, and old chicken patties winds up in those wonderful chicken salads everyone loves.