Perhaps I Should Have Asked Before I Did It

Can you (should you) put chicken bones into a garbage disposal?

I do not come from a garbage disposal culture and the internet is not clear on this subject. I seek guidance.

Comments

[Mr. Bingley]

Garbage disposal?

You mean the landfill, right? We do live in Joisey, after all.

[Elise]

I do not. Bones are too much for most residential disposals.

[schmed]

Not one of those dinky half-horsepower jobbies. I have a 5/8 HP and might be tempted to try it, but it's a flying bitch to unclog one of those mammyslappers because you can't get your head at the right angle or distance if you wear bifocals to see wth you're doing. (Stinky, too.)

[LeeAnn]

My mom does. She loves the sound too. Of course, when my dad put the thing in, he looked for a cheap one and I think he got this one used from a commercial food prep place. I do know you cannot ever put celery in one.
I said "commercial food prep place" because I haven't had enough coffee yet to spell "restaurant".
Oh... wait.... huh.

[Karan]

Instead of grinding them, make a dinosaur:
http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/magazine/2001/10/stuff_eng_jaaaro_dinosaur.htm

[Teresa]

They say you can do it... we have broken a disposal blade when a bone inadvertently dropped in and we didn't catch it. So I don't believe them when they say it's okay. I've lived in houses with disposals for as long as I can remember.

Generally I take all bones and put them in a plastic bag in the freezer until the next garbage day. This way, even in the summer, they don't smell everything up. For that matter, I do this with all types of meat wrappings and left overs that are going to be tossed.

[dogette]

Off topic a bit, a friend told me it was a great thing to put used limes in the disposal. Oh it will just make your disposal smell fresh! Yeah, I guess, but it also beat the hell out of the chopper thingies.

[cynical]

Days late, dollars short, my 3 cents: Whenever I have lived in places with a garbage disposal, I have always put chicken bones down the hatch with complete impunity. I do not, however, use it for turkey/beef/pork/lamb bones or fish bones -- the former are too hard to be hacked and the latter too likely to get caught in the blades. I have always felt that chicken bones help keep the blades sharp, and citrus keeps everything smelling fresh -- although you may have to pull out some pulp manually. The only things that ever caused ours to malfunction have been fibrous matter, such as celery, onion skins, and gristle-y bits of meat. YMMV.