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Her simple, time-saving hack makes kitchen clean-up a breeze.
When it comes to decorating, I’ll preach the virtue of patience all day long. Good things come to those who wait for the right piece of art for the powder bath or the perfect crusty planters for the porch. But when it comes to cooking and the consequent cleaning—and perhaps this is because I’m a home editor, not a food editor—I am all about the shortcut. I’ll pay more for pre-chopped onions (no tears!) and tend to avoid handwash-only serveware like the plague (though I’ll make an exception for the hand-me-down silver). That’s why I love my mom’s hands-off pot-cleaning trick.
The Time-Saving Trick That Will Transform Your Dishwashing Routine
Once, when I was home visiting my parents, my mom scorched the stew out of something she was making for dinner. Eyeing the marbled brown-black sludge that marred the pan’s interior, I grimaced at the thought of the elbow grease it would require to revive her enameled cast-iron brasier.
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But at the end of the meal, rather than pulling out the rubber gloves and her toughest sponge, she stuck the pan in the sink, filled it with warm water, dropped in a dishwasher detergent pod, and walked away. By morning, the detergent had done all the hard work for her: She dumped out the pan’s contents, wiped the once-scorched surface with the soft side of the sponge, and the brasier was as good as new. “Oh yeah,” she said, as I stood there slack-jawed, dumbfounded by the simplicity. “How about my new trick?”
Now, anytime I stir together a soup that leaves sticky residue or I accidentally burn the rice, I don’t even try to fight the mess. Instead, I do as my mama does: fill the pot with water, drop in a detergent pod, and walk away. When it comes to kitchen chores, there’s no shame in choosing the path of least resistance.
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