Should I wash my chicken before cooking?

Recipes tell me to wash my chicken before cooking. Why? Aren't Australian chickens clean? K. Zhang

Goodness gracious, no. Aussie chooks are dirty little buggers. I even received an email from the health authorities this summer warning us food-writer people not to tell people to wash their chooks in the sink before cooking because this spreads all the bugs on the chickens around the kitchen, increasing the risk of cross-contamination. The email, however, was from a government body that makes a living finding the worst in everything and, if you haven't noticed already, everyone wants you to feel slightly threatened by something. Now, Australian chickens are given a bath in chlorine during processing that knocks out most of the naturally occurring campylobacter and salmonella on the chicken skin – but not all the bugs. There is a lot of water used in processing and when packaged this water and some of the serum from the flesh leaches out. A lot of this ends up in the "pad". (Make sure you remove this before cooking – sounds crazy but I have heard that some people don't!) Health authorities reckon you should pat a chook dry with a paper towel and wash surfaces raw chicken has touched. I play Russian Chook Lotto and still rinse my chickens in the sink – washing up thoroughly after I go.

Why do some mousse and cheesecake recipes call for gelatin while others don't? Is there a vegetarian substitute? M. Thomson

Gelatin is a protein that comes from animals. Skin, cartilage, connective tissue. It's what gives stocks and braises that lip-smacking sticky quality. Add powdered gelatin to hot liquid and it dissolves. As it cools it forms a microscopic mesh that traps liquid. Gelatin is added to cheesecakes and other kitchen items where liquid is needed to be trapped. It is great for processed foods that are durable and can be transported. As the demand for vegetarian, kosher and halal foods increases, more foods are thickened with vegetable gum. A traditional vegetarian gel can be made from seaweed protein called agar. Buy it at melbournefooddepot.com. There are a squillion good recipes for mousse made with whipped cream or egg white and no gelatin at goodfood.com.au.

We recently visited Iran and tried date vinegar. Can you get it here? L. Bell

I reckon date vinegar will be the new balsamic vinegar. Date juice has excellent depth and length of flavour, some lovely savoury characteristics that make it a natural companion to meat dishes, and that fruit-caramel aroma. It is made with varying levels of residual sugar, so some are sour, others sweet. Try Middle Eastern stores or visit exoticdate.com.au.

Letters, corrections and apologies

Recently we wrote about biscuits that rise during cooking. H. Anderson suggested that creaming butter and sugar is a no-no and that one should simply bring all the ingredients together like a bread dough. R. Stonehouse had a simple solution and that was to flatten the engorged biscuits with a spoon halfway through cooking. Thank you.

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