Our second house came with a small dishwasher sunk into the corner of the counter, and once I'd had one, I never wanted to be without one again.
David pretended not to understand the dishwasher, so by default I became loader and unloader, and developed my own ideas about How It Should Be Done.
I generally put all cutlery in handles-down, apart from a couple of small spoons with wee skinny handles that might slip through the basket. My late in-laws were so paranoid about spoiling their cutlery that they took the cutlery basket out of their dishwasher and washed all of it by hand.
I've been quite surprised at how often I fill the dishwasher now that I'm on my own - I probably run it every other day.
My brother and sister-in-law did the final clearing of out family home. We had an old dark-grey metal colander that was over 70 years old. Imagine my surprise when visiting them to find they had a shiny silver colander. It was the same one, after it had been through their dishwasher several times.😮
I've been quite surprised at how often I fill the dishwasher now that I'm on my own - I probably run it every other day.
We fill ours most days with the 2 of us, so your usage would be in line with that. Since retirement, I have more time to bbq so that does cut down cooking utensils.
My dishwasher has a drawer thing with prongs for the cutlery so they are laid horizontal but up on their sides... if that makes sense.
I run the dishwasher a couple of times a week but I don’t like leaving dirty stuff in there because it smells. So I usually have piles in or by the sink that I transfer when I’m ready to wash them. Which probably is not very sensible or efficient.
My dishwasher has a drawer thing with prongs for the cutlery so they are laid horizontal but up on their sides... if that makes sense.
I run the dishwasher a couple of times a week but I don’t like leaving dirty stuff in there because it smells. So I usually have piles in or by the sink that I transfer when I’m ready to wash them. Which probably is not very sensible or efficient.
The quick rinse cycle can come to your aid. It does for us when there's not enough in the machine to justify a wash load.
My brother and sister-in-law did the final clearing of out family home. We had an old dark-grey metal colander that was over 70 years old. Imagine my surprise when visiting them to find they had a shiny silver colander. It was the same one, after it had been through their dishwasher several times.😮
I have one of these - part of the kitchen equipment I inherited from my grandmother - who equipped her kitchen on her marriage in 1928. I wonder if it might shine as well one day...!
Since retirement, I have more time to bbq so that does cut down cooking utensils.
[tangent] Especially if you wrap your vegetables in aluminum foil with a few drops of water, and steam them on the grill. [/tangent]
I recall recipes some years ago about wrapping raw foods and running them through the hottest dishwasher cycle. Perhaps taking a bath with the dishes is also possible..
I run the dishwasher a couple of times a week but I don’t like leaving dirty stuff in there because it smells. So I usually have piles in or by the sink that I transfer when I’m ready to wash them. Which probably is not very sensible or efficient.
When Mrs C and I first moved to the US, we rented an apartment with a dishwasher. But there was just two of us, so I never thought it was worth bothering with the dishwasher - I'd just wash things by hand.
These days, our dishwasher runs 2-3 times a day, but we have more people, and we're all in the house all day...
We have a dishwasher but you had to have just the right kind of stuff to go in, otherwise you'd have to wash most of it by hand anyway. Then it stopped working. Then one day, just as we were leaving for school, there was a nasty smell of burning and the circuit breaker flipped off. You guessed it - it was the dishwasher. It's now well and truly unplugged.
Our house wars are cutlery up or down in the drying rack. Also my husband doesn't bother hanging laundry up to dry, because I go round and re-hang it afterwards.
Since retirement, I have more time to bbq so that does cut down cooking utensils.
[tangent] Especially if you wrap your vegetables in aluminum foil with a few drops of water, and steam them on the grill. [/tangent]
Yes, that sort of cooking works well. I usually bbq in a smallish oven, with charcoal pushed to the back and sides when it's got to a good heat. Sometimes steaks/sausages/lamb chops, but more often a small roast, enough for our dinner that evening and perhaps lunch a couple of days later. Very good for either duck or chicken maryland pieces as well as a whole bird.
No more than two. But if a typical dinner involves 3-4 saucepans and a couple of mixing bowls or something, then you fill the dishwasher quite quickly. (Breakfast + Lunch + a few assorted cups of tea) is usually one load. Dinner is usually a second. If anyone has been baking, there's probably a third.
Pots and pans never go in the dishwasher - too bulky/too greasy. Nor yet baking trays nor chopping boards nor large bowls. It's quite a small machine and there isn't the circulation room.
This. Pots and pans come out much cleaner if hand washed and scrubbed with a scrubber. I usually hand-wash mixing bowls and storage containers also. The colander (mine is plastic) is a different matter.
We almost always put pots and pans etc through the dishwasher, and greasiness does not bother us. The machine deals with it much better than trying to clean them in the sink. Almost all our saucepans etc are stainless steel, now of advanced age, and they go through the machine very well. Corning wear likewise. There will be occasions when we do need to use a powder or paste cleaner, but having done that, we then put them though the machine. There is a set of dinnerware which is hand-painted and of course we hand wash that on the very rare occasions it's used. Crystal does not go through with detergent. Especially when we were working, the machine was the only answer.
Non-stick goes through ours with no sign of any problems.
As to pots and pans - ours are almost all stainless steel, with a copper base and an outer cover of more stainless steel over that. A small tip - a small amount of washing soda, about a half teaspoon, into the detergent pocket along with the ordinary dishwasher detergent, works wonders.
I have two sets of saucepans: one of very lightweight, non-stick ones that came with the flat, and go perfectly happily in the dishwasher, the other a Le Creuset cast-iron set I bought in a sale in Debenham's in the days before we had a dishwasher, which have wooden handles and aluminium hanging-loops, and most definitely do not.
Having said that, I confess to putting the cast-iron casseroles in the machine, and they don't seem to complain.
I found my electric knife!. Forgot about it. What a happy day, make me feel so powerful and strong. It is like a chainsaw for the kitchen. Cut through anything frozen. Can put the blades in the dishwasher.
Our dishwasher is on twice a day, for three people. Last night I had chicken and leeks (one pyrex dish), roast butternut squash (small roasting tray), carrots (small pan) and potatoes (mediium pan). Add three plates, three side plates (slice of cake in lieu of pudding), three mugs, two small chopping boards (red for meat, green for veg) and cutlery and that's a full load; the second of the day. Breakfast, lunch, and various mugs and glasses which accumulate throughout the day comprised the first load.
3 of us in the household, dishwasher on overnight.
Breakfast (bacon, egg, mushrooms, toast, fruit) = 3 each large and small plates, fruit saucers; Lunch (spinach & ricotta ravioli with sauce) = 3 large bowls; Dinner (chicken in prosciutto, new potatoes, salad, fruit crumble) = 3 each dinner plates, pudding bowls. Plus various serving dishes, mugs, 3 S/S saucepans, some cutlery.
Glasses, knives, sauté pan washec by hand; skillet wiped out with kitchen paper.
I found my electric knife!. Forgot about it. What a happy day, make me feel so powerful and strong. It is like a chainsaw for the kitchen. Cut through anything frozen. Can put the blades in the dishwasher.
I like my my electric knife for slicing bread hot out of the machine.
Breakfast (bacon, egg, mushrooms, toast, fruit) = 3 each large and small plates, fruit saucers; Lunch (spinach & ricotta ravioli with sauce) = 3 large bowls; Dinner (chicken in prosciutto, new potatoes, salad, fruit crumble).
Forget the dishwasher. I'm inviting myself over for breakfast, lunch and dinner!
I use the dishwasher to sterilize canning jars. It works great and is easier than boiling them in hot water on the stove.
Just to say 'me too' in the hope that this eminently sensible solution can somehow become findable by Google to help out those who think they need to boil and oven-dry jamjars.
Since moving to the new house 13 years ago (so not that new) I've been making jam with occasional excursions into Chutney when the wife's out and can't smell the vinegar fumes. I've found that the hottest possible dishwasher wash is perfectly adequate: I have yet to suffer from jam poisoning.
The one where I think I go over the top is washing beer bottles for home-brewing. I
- wash the (reused) bottles in the bath using domestic 'thick' bleach (I used to use thin bleach but it disappeared from the market at the start of the pandemic ) and tap-hot water.
- rinse the bottles (still in the bath) with clean tap-hot water. Both of these steps have the bottles upright and I keep going until the water is over the bottle tops.
- send the bottles through the dishwasher without detergent on the hottest possible wash.
Again, I haven't had much in the way of spoiled beer - and what I have had is (I think) down to not sealing the bottles properly.
I reckon that I could skip one of the rinses - but if I am right, which one?
Breakfast (bacon, egg, mushrooms, toast, fruit) = 3 each large and small plates, fruit saucers; Lunch (spinach & ricotta ravioli with sauce) = 3 large bowls; Dinner (chicken in prosciutto, new potatoes, salad, fruit crumble).
Forget the dishwasher. I'm inviting myself over for breakfast, lunch and dinner!
Yesterday was a physical work day. All three of us went to elderly neighbours who had a couple of trees come down in strongs winds: we chopped them up, producing vast amounts of logs, and re-did their log pile. Plus the younger generation have decided we all need to up our fitness so we're following a 4 week fitness programme produced by the Royal Navy 😳
I use the dishwasher to sterilize canning jars. It works great and is easier than boiling them in hot water on the stove.
I have a cookbook that suggests using the dishwasher to cook fish.
The claim is that, because fish protein cooks at a lower temperature than animal protein, then taking an individually-wrapped frozen salmon fillet and shoving it through the dishwasher works like a poor man's sous vide cooker.
That was Quite A Thing a few years back. There was also kitchen sink salmon, where you put a whole salmon in the sink, covered it with boiling water and just left it. By the time it was cold, it was ready to eat.
I've never tried either method; they were in vogue before I properly "discovered" salmon, and as David didn't like it, it wasn't something I ever cooked until after he died.
I always cook kippers and smoked haddock by covering them with boiling water - if the fish is in thick fillets, I may use a second lot of boiling water. I have a useful Tupperware device for this sort of cooking. Mum used a jug for the kippers. I've never tried it with salmon, though.
In dishwashers that load cutlery in baskets, segregated cutlery is more likely to "nest" (think "spooning") and therefore not get clean. Desegregated cutlery is less likely to suffer this fate.
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I hand-wash my baking pans without soap. This way the pans keep a thin film of grease which prevents sticking.
David pretended not to understand the dishwasher, so by default I became loader and unloader, and developed my own ideas about How It Should Be Done.
I generally put all cutlery in handles-down, apart from a couple of small spoons with wee skinny handles that might slip through the basket. My late in-laws were so paranoid about spoiling their cutlery that they took the cutlery basket out of their dishwasher and washed all of it by hand.
I've been quite surprised at how often I fill the dishwasher now that I'm on my own - I probably run it every other day.
We fill ours most days with the 2 of us, so your usage would be in line with that. Since retirement, I have more time to bbq so that does cut down cooking utensils.
I run the dishwasher a couple of times a week but I don’t like leaving dirty stuff in there because it smells. So I usually have piles in or by the sink that I transfer when I’m ready to wash them. Which probably is not very sensible or efficient.
The quick rinse cycle can come to your aid. It does for us when there's not enough in the machine to justify a wash load.
I have one of these - part of the kitchen equipment I inherited from my grandmother - who equipped her kitchen on her marriage in 1928. I wonder if it might shine as well one day...!
[tangent] Especially if you wrap your vegetables in aluminum foil with a few drops of water, and steam them on the grill. [/tangent]
I take it you don't have a cockroach problem . . . ?
I recall recipes some years ago about wrapping raw foods and running them through the hottest dishwasher cycle. Perhaps taking a bath with the dishes is also possible..
When Mrs C and I first moved to the US, we rented an apartment with a dishwasher. But there was just two of us, so I never thought it was worth bothering with the dishwasher - I'd just wash things by hand.
These days, our dishwasher runs 2-3 times a day, but we have more people, and we're all in the house all day...
How many courses comprise each meal?
Our house wars are cutlery up or down in the drying rack. Also my husband doesn't bother hanging laundry up to dry, because I go round and re-hang it afterwards.
Yes, that sort of cooking works well. I usually bbq in a smallish oven, with charcoal pushed to the back and sides when it's got to a good heat. Sometimes steaks/sausages/lamb chops, but more often a small roast, enough for our dinner that evening and perhaps lunch a couple of days later. Very good for either duck or chicken maryland pieces as well as a whole bird.
No more than two. But if a typical dinner involves 3-4 saucepans and a couple of mixing bowls or something, then you fill the dishwasher quite quickly. (Breakfast + Lunch + a few assorted cups of tea) is usually one load. Dinner is usually a second. If anyone has been baking, there's probably a third.
I don't have anything non-stick but I'm told it shouldn't go into a dishwasher.
As to pots and pans - ours are almost all stainless steel, with a copper base and an outer cover of more stainless steel over that. A small tip - a small amount of washing soda, about a half teaspoon, into the detergent pocket along with the ordinary dishwasher detergent, works wonders.
Our current diswasher has a tray at the top for cutlery. I aim to distribute it randomly, Mrs Cat puts things together.
I am of course right, to ensure that the water, as it gets sprayed through, is sent in all different directions.
She is of course actually right, because she is.
Having said that, I confess to putting the cast-iron casseroles in the machine, and they don't seem to complain.
Cutlery goes point down here.
Breakfast (bacon, egg, mushrooms, toast, fruit) = 3 each large and small plates, fruit saucers; Lunch (spinach & ricotta ravioli with sauce) = 3 large bowls; Dinner (chicken in prosciutto, new potatoes, salad, fruit crumble) = 3 each dinner plates, pudding bowls. Plus various serving dishes, mugs, 3 S/S saucepans, some cutlery.
Glasses, knives, sauté pan washec by hand; skillet wiped out with kitchen paper.
I like my my electric knife for slicing bread hot out of the machine.
Forget the dishwasher. I'm inviting myself over for breakfast, lunch and dinner!
Just to say 'me too' in the hope that this eminently sensible solution can somehow become findable by Google to help out those who think they need to boil and oven-dry jamjars.
Since moving to the new house 13 years ago (so not that new) I've been making jam with occasional excursions into Chutney when the wife's out and can't smell the vinegar fumes. I've found that the hottest possible dishwasher wash is perfectly adequate: I have yet to suffer from jam poisoning.
The one where I think I go over the top is washing beer bottles for home-brewing. I
- wash the (reused) bottles in the bath using domestic 'thick' bleach (I used to use thin bleach but it disappeared from the market at the start of the pandemic ) and tap-hot water.
- rinse the bottles (still in the bath) with clean tap-hot water. Both of these steps have the bottles upright and I keep going until the water is over the bottle tops.
- send the bottles through the dishwasher without detergent on the hottest possible wash.
Again, I haven't had much in the way of spoiled beer - and what I have had is (I think) down to not sealing the bottles properly.
I reckon that I could skip one of the rinses - but if I am right, which one?
Yesterday was a physical work day. All three of us went to elderly neighbours who had a couple of trees come down in strongs winds: we chopped them up, producing vast amounts of logs, and re-did their log pile. Plus the younger generation have decided we all need to up our fitness so we're following a 4 week fitness programme produced by the Royal Navy 😳
And we don't snack.
If you keep the dishwasher closed after the cycle is finished, the jars stay hot until you are ready to fill them with hot food.
I have a cookbook that suggests using the dishwasher to cook fish.
The claim is that, because fish protein cooks at a lower temperature than animal protein, then taking an individually-wrapped frozen salmon fillet and shoving it through the dishwasher works like a poor man's sous vide cooker.
I haven't tried this, though.
I've never tried either method; they were in vogue before I properly "discovered" salmon, and as David didn't like it, it wasn't something I ever cooked until after he died.
Mmmm, yummy. I think it's time for my evening snack.
I loved Red Green when we lived in Canada!
Duct tape heals all wounds.