Dishwashing Master Class
By Mrs Mary Aris- Always start and finish with a clean sink area and draining board. Sanitize the sink once or twice a week. Wash and sanitize all dish cloths and dish brushes you use. Never wash your dishes in a dirty sink or use a dirty dish cloth or brushes.
- A little organization: To begin, gather all the dirty dishes, salad and dessert and dinner plates, glasses, mugs, cutlery, pots and pans and start to scrape off any food remaining on the plates. Rinse the items under a HOT tap to remove all sticky residues. Stack the dirty plates by type on the right side of the sink. Purchase an extra utensil container and use this to put all cutleries, cooking utensils, etc in that needs washing.
- Rinse all the items to be washed under a hot flowing tap. Use a dish brush to scrape any remaining debris off the plates and dishes. Put hot water with a little detergent in every dirty pot and pan. Set the pans aside on the hob to soak. Rearrange the rinsed items according to type; dinner plates stacked one on top of the other, salad plates on top of each other, dessert plates on top of each other, glasses arranged in a group to one side, etc.
- Clean the sink of any debris. Place the dish bowl in the sink. Squirt a tiny amount of dish detergent and 1 capful of bleach or distilled vinegar to 1 gallon of HOT water in the bowl. (The bleach sanitizes the dishes) Fill the bowl with very hot water, as hot as your hands are comfortable with. Wear gloves and fill your bowl with BOILING water if need be. The water needs to be VERY HOT to get rid of any bacteria that linger on the items. Let the dish detergent form lovely bubbles.
- Wash your dishes in proper sequence: Wash the glasses, cups, and mugs first, followed by the dessert dishes and salad bowls. (Always wash the least dirty plates of its kind first). Wash the dinner plates next, then the utensils and cutlery, then move on to the pots and pans. To wash stubborn stains on pots and pans you can either set the pot (filled half way with hot water and a squirt or two of dish detergent and a capful of bleach) on a low hob and let it come slowly to a boil or use a scouring pad (or a crumbled up piece of aluminium foil) and give it a bit of elbow grease.
- As you fill your bowl with each set of plates or mugs, soap each item well. Finish soaping each item before rinsing them. (If you're lucky enough to have a double sink, then fill another bowl with clean HOT water; if not turn the Hot tap on and rinse each item under a running tap before placing it on a CLEAN dish drainer). Make sure all your items are washed and properly rinsed before moving on to the next step. Change your water regularly; at least twice or if the bowl gets really grimy between dishes. Never wash dishes in a dirty, grimy bowl.
- Purchase a large dish drainer capable of holding up to 11 items plus a few mugs. Arrange the plates by size order and leave to air-dry. Place mugs and cups upside down on the dish draining board to thoroughly drain. When the dishes are air-dried but still a bit damp, dry and buff them with a CLEAN tea towel. Always use a clean tea towel to dry your dishes. So make sure you have a weeks' supply of tea towels and wash them on a HOT cycle on a weekly basis.
Figure
3 Purchase a large dish drainer and stack the plates and cups
accordingly by size. Place cups and mugs face down to drain properly.
Never allow items to collect water from dripping items above. Allow the
items to air-dry before buffing them with a CLEAN towel and putting them
away.- Put all the plates, salad plates, dessert plates, ect away in their proper shelf. Never leave clean plates in the dish drainer as they can get dirty again or contaminated with germs.
- Drain the excess water in the bowl. Wash, sanitize and dry the bowl. Put it aside. Wash the sink and draining board. Put all dirty tea towels and dish cloths in the washing machine. Wash and sanitize your draining board. Revel in a clean kitchen.
Dish detergent
Dish cloths (preferably one with little holes)
Sponges
Dish bowl
Dish drainer
Dish brushes
Rubber gloves
Steel wool pads or even crumbled up pieces of aluminium foil
Bleach
