The Best Tips for Cleaning Stubborn Food Residue
If only Santa’s elves could do the dishes for us during the holiday season. With tips from the pros, you luckily won’t need them to. While it might seem simple, the perfect dishwashing strategy can be more difficult to master than you might think. And who better to look to for help than culinary experts in cleaning off dirty dishes?
According to Chef Garcia, the best strategy to clean off dirty pans with stubborn residue is to start by scraping off as much as you can. “When faced with stuck-on food, be sure to scrape off as much residue as possible before loading the dishwasher,” he says. You can use several strategies to get rid of lingering stains, such as buying a scraper tool or scrubbing with a sponge. Once you have gotten off your food as best as you can, Garcia says the dishes are ready to go into the dishwasher, and your detergent will take care of the rest.
The surprising part of this tip is that pre-rinsing your dishes is only recommended if the food on your pans is very stubborn. For pans where the food is not stuck on, you can just load them in as-is—the detergent will take care of the rest. Finish further recommends that when you load your dishes into the dishwasher, you should make sure to place the items with the most stubborn of messes face down. This way, the spray arms of your machine can blast them with the highest amount of pressure possible.
Dishwasher bottom rack loaded with clean dishes
