OK, this may sound completely ridiculous but I have been hand washing dishes incorrectly my entire life. Since my parents didn’t have the skill, I assume there are some others who would benefit from this short, visual and accurate (according to Food Handler’s, the people who do the professional training for most restaurants) steps to properly hand washing dishes.
The American Cleaning Institute (that I didn’t know existed until this research) has a nice, clean outline of the whole process: Dishwashing Made Easy
I have a sink situation, I have just one large sink, no parts. Fortunately, I did learn these hand dishwashing steps for camping and I do have the supplies from going on Boy Scout outings and “Being Prepared.” I dug out the dish bins gave them a good clean and sanitize, and now I can follow the hand dishwashing steps. Who knew that washing dishes could have this much detail? This is for sure not a basic level skill, so if working with children guide them until they are big enough to really handle all the steps on their own. And, if you have a teen like me, keep an eye out for possible shortcuts they may be taking and remind them about our favorite word in the kitchen…CROSS CONTAMINATION, and the importance of keeping up good kitchen habits: Types of Cross Contamination.
There are some variations, but I’m now following these steps:
- Scrape off the food into the trash.
- Wash in hot water, use gloves, with dish soap. (Note: recommendation is to replace sponge weekly, so I bought a 3 pack of Silicone Sponges at Walmart (near the register in the As Seen on TV section.) They last forever and don’t hold the bacteria.
- Start with light soil like glasses and utensils
- Move to heavier soiled items such as plates and bowls
- End with heavily soiled pots and pans, some may need to soak
- Rinse with warm to hot water. There is some variation on the temperature recommendations but I usually aim for pretty hot water.
- Sanitize: How to Sanitize says it all, I learned some important stuff about bleach.
One day I hope to own a dishwasher again, but since I have reverted back to my childhood oppression of not owning a dishwasher, and I learned a whole lot today about how to do this right, I thought there might be some others out there who would appreciate this info.
Next Level Skills:
PS – I love how clean and fresh my dishes look. The information is also correct, adding the sanitize step does make them dry faster.
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