Cutlery in the Dishwasher

Cutlery in the Dishwasher

We talk a lot about how certain types of coated cutlery should go in the dishwasher. But trust us, for your daily use stainless steel flatware the dishwasher is the way to go. And we, like you I’m certain, just drop all that cutlery into the bins on the bottom. The problem is that the cutlery smacks into each other while the water violently cleans and jostles them around. All those little hits add up to dents and marred cutlery. Well that problem can go away and give you even cleaner cutlery. The dishwasher designers figured out a solution but it seems they really didn’t tell us about it.

From the Dailymail.co.uk:

A professional cleaner has discovered a ‘mind blowing’ feature in her dishwasher for cleaning dirty cutlery.

Liesl Elizabeth, who runs a cleaning service called Clean-Freak Cleaning Co. in Perth, shared a video showing how the knives and forks are laid down in the top rack while loading the dishwasher.

Typically used for long knives, bigger utensils and chopsticks, the mum-of-three was able to stack the cutlery perfectly in between the ridges of the tray.

‘I was today years old… learning the obvious,’ she joked.

So we tried it out here at The Cutlery Review (as our dishwasher has those little ridges in the top rack) and yup, it works pretty dam good!

Read more at the From the Dailymail.co.uk:

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Ball of TinFoil for Sparkling Cutlery? Truth or Hoax?

Ball of TinFoil for Sparkling Cutlery? Truth or Hoax?

OK fellow flatware and cutlery experts out there. This TikTok video about leaving your silverware sparkling is everywhere. We need to talk about it.

It is proposed that a chemical reaction occurs between the aluminum and the ingredients in the dishwasher tablet. The foil itself doesn’t clean the cutlery, but as the tablet dissolves it reacts with the metal and shines the cutlery.

Rumor has it that the baking soda in the tablets is what does the powerful cleaning effect. These two components (and with water) remove silver sulfide – also known as tarnish – through an electrochemical reaction in warm water. We’ve talked about this before at this post.

But one big question: Wouldn’t this happen anyways if you had some cast aluminum cookware in the dishwasher?

And one big point to make: This works for only SILVERWARE not for regular stainless steel cutlery and the like. Your regular day to day scratched up forks, knives and spoons are going to get sparkling shiny for this hack.

Have a nice a sparkling day!

PS – That ball of foil will bounce around and likely land in the bottom and jam up your sprayer.

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Best Ways to Clean Silverware

Cleaning silverware cutlery can be many things. It can be tedious, fruitless, dangerous, destructive, successful or a complete waste of time. Yup, so many ways it can go wrong or right. Shiny forks, spoons and knives or pitted ones with toxic fumes. You decide.

Your regular household silver used for cutlery is a composite of pure silver, which is soft and stronger metals like copper to produce that silver shine. But that shine can begin to dull and tarnish in as little as a few months. That tarnish on sterling silver shows up as a yellow-gray or black film on the surface of the cutlery. But there are ways to clean it up efficiently and safely. Lets look at a few methods:

Toothpaste:

  • Pro: Cheap
  • Con: Sticky and stinky
  • Con: Abrasive and may cause scratching and dulling of the metals shine
  • Result: Not really a good idea, but if you are desperate I guess.

Lemon Juice or Vinegar & Baking Soda: 

  • Pro: Cheapish
  • Pro: Fun fizzy sounds
  • Con: Still a little abrasive and will leave clean but dulled look
  • Result: Fizzy but not shiny

Aluminum Foil, Baking Soda, Salt & Hot Water:

  • Shown in video above
  • Pro: Even more fun fizzy sounds
  • Pro: Soak for a short time and the black tarnish rubs right off
  • Pro: Leaves cutlery shiny
  • Pro: No harmful chemicals
  • Con: Slightly smelly and messy
  • Con: A lot of setup and cleanup
  • Result: Pretty dam good and cheap but lots of effort

Wright’s Silver Cleaner:

  • Pro: Not abrasive
  • Pro: Easy to use
  • Pro: No smell, ammonia free
  • Pro: Cheapish
  • Pro: Leaves silverware shiny
  • Con: Still gotta rub that spoon
  • Con: You gotta go buy it
  • Result: Worth the money and the effort for the result.

Wright’s Silver Cleaner and Polish Cream from Amazon

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Plating Spoons from Mercer Culinary

Mercer Culinary 7-Piece Plating Spoons

We have been reading a lot of books lately here at the Cutlery Review, mostly Chef biographies. And we always note when they talk about what equipment they take to a kitchen. The infamous knife roll is of course expected but the “Spoon Roll” was a new one for us. If you are doing any plating or saucing you need a decent spoon or two.

The Mercer Culinary 7-Piece Plating Spoons set looks great. It consists of a Saucier Spoon, 9-Inch Solid Spoon, 7 7/8-Inch Solid, 7 7/8-Inch Slotted
7 7/78-inch precision drawing Spoon, and 7 7/8-inch perforated Spoon. All this is bundled up in a heavy duty roll to take the kitchen or cooking class.
The flatware is made of 18-8 stainless steel.

Mercer Culinary 7-Piece Plating Spoons II Set from Amazon

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