Need to wash a lot of potatoes in a hurry? Pop them in the dishwasher. Set it to quick rinse and go. Of course, don’t put any suds in!
Easy and Delicious Thanksgiving Turkey [The Happy Housewife via Money Saving Mom]
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Uh……………… no.
Don’t wash the kitty!
It’s the rare potato cat.
Caution: Potato cat is only edible in China.
Please, ALWAYS wash your kitty.
Cool trick but I’d be too concerned about residual soap inside the dishwasher.
Plus, where’s the love?
Is washing potatoes that complicated? Large bowl in the sink, pile them in, fill the bowl, rub each one with your hands, put the clean one in another large bowl.
Even if you have 20 pounds of potatoes (as the website uses as an example) you shouldn’t resort to using a dishwasher. Just take the 20 minutes and scrub with your hands.
Better yet, just peel them.
Aw, this was supposed to be its own separate comment.
Ha I was going to say, it seemed a bit hostile out of no where
But what if you need to do something else at the same time? Then this is a good option.
You’re supposed to wash them before you peel them.
I hate peeling potatoes so damn much after mom making me do it my whole childhood that I will now only buy red potatoes and make things where you can leave the skins on. (Which is almost everything, actually.)
I use a big colander in the sink instead of a bowl, but same idea.
If that concerns you, you probably shouldn’t eat off plates or drink from glasses washed in it either. If there are residues left in the machine, they’re just the residues that weren’t dried onto everything in the the last load you ran.
True, but potatoes are a bit more porous than my glass dinnerware.
That was my exact train of thought. “Ew, soap on my potatoes?” … “Oh wait, the soap washes off the plates…”. “Yeah, but plates aren’t veggies.”
Yes, but plates rinse cleanly and don’t absorb soap. A potato, on the other hand…
Could I use my washing machine as well, like Alton does when he needs to clean a load of greens?
You’re full of good ones today, eh? Real zingers.
No: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otQEdxiVWbg&t=6m25s
http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/Season8/lettuce/greens.htm
Not only thank you for the link, but up until now I didn’t know you could que youtube vids to a specific time. Awesome.
Love Alton.
Just throw all your veggies in the washing machine, turn it on, add some bleach and fabric softener (NO DETERGENT OF COURSE). Your thanksgiving dinner will be bright, soft and ready in a jiffy!
I’m going to try this next time I make my world famous mashed potatoes. And by world famous, I mean, at least I like them!
Wash potatoes under the faucet or wash them in the dishwasher?
This might be one of the stupidest ideas I have read in some time.
yeah, don’t want any suds in your spuds.
How hard is it to wash potatoes by hand? Even if it were time consuming (which it isn’t), it’s a task that you can give to that six year old who’s underfoot looking to “help.”
+1
I don’t have anyone under foot to help. So where do you find these 6 year olds to help with kitchen work & food prep?
But then again I don’t have 20 pounds of spuds to clean. Only 1 – 3 potatoes at any given time.
I dont even wash them. All you have to do is peel them and the dirt gets thrown away with the skins. Besides,, the skins are nasty to eat anyway. Nothing worse than ordering fried or mashed potatoes in a restaurant and then having to throw them away because they were lazy and left the skins on
Including skins in mashed potatoes is done very often and a lot of people really like it that way. I make mine both ways (with potato skins and without) and the texture really changes. I only leave the skins on if I’m using red potatoes, though.
I don’t think that’s lazy. Some people (myself included) like ‘em with the skins on.
If it’s a quick rinse, the soap exposure would be minimal, if any.
There are way better brine recipes that the one shared in the comments (Alton’s, for starters. And John Kass from the Chicago Tribune). Bags are fine, but a brined bird is just heaven.
I am intrigued by the comment about removing the backbone for faster cooking though.
I also secretly harbor a fascination with turducken, but I’ve never had the guts to try/order one.
I had turducken at an Archery Club Christmas Dinner last year…
It’s definitely a tasty experience.
if you have to wash 20lbs of potatoes, you’re cooking for family. Assign the kids to it.
But the theme is Thanksgiving. I cook for 10 to 15 people every Thanksgiving but it’s just me and Mr. Pi. No kids.
Wait, you cook for upwards of 15 people and not one offers to help you with the food prep? Daaaamn that’s cold.
Not that uncommon, depending on how they do thanks giving.I cook for around 20 people on thanksgiving, but I only cook stuffing. Someone else does the potatoes, another person the turkey, another the deserts and so forth.
When I had large family Thanksgivings, usually the hosting family would cook the bird and stuffing and the guests would bring sides. It just seems hectic and inefficient to have two people cook a meal for that many people. Even restaurants have line cooks.
I actually convinced my mother to give up years of slaving to come to our party Thanksgiving. I said you never have to cook again. So I plunk her in a chair, put a glass of wine in her hand and she keeps us company while we cook. I felt great about that. Just try to keep her from doing the dishes though…
Last year I made stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, and pie. It’s really not that hard if you’re organized. My parents do the turkey, but I enjoy cooking Thanksgiving dinner a lot more than my mother does, and I do a better job as a result. We never had really great, delicious Thanksgivings when I was a kid, so dammit, we’re having them now!
Said article doesn’t mention you should also make sure you don’t have rinse agent in your dishwasher, otherwise you and your guests will get a nice trip to the emergency room.
Mmm. Rinse Agent Mashed Potatoes.
(Besides which…if you have potatoes that need cleaning – USE KIDS.)
That’s exactly what I was thinking. As much as the talking rinse agent cap loves Jet-Dry, I doubt anyone in my family wants to experience it…
Your family may end up in the ER; however your potatoes will be spot-free.
As I recall, Kramer tried something similar with the shower….and that didn’t turn out well.
LOL.
I believe he solved his problem by installing a garbage disposal in the tub drain. Watch your step!
That was the germaphobe episode, I love the ending.
I wonder how many cycles it would take to actually cook them.
I really fail to see why one would choose to do this. I mean you would have to run a whole load. Unless you had a lot of potatoes to cook, what would be the point? Seems crazy to me. Are you going to run it for 6 taters?
Right, because the wasted electricity and excessive hot water to run the dishwasher is totally worth saving yourself the five minutes to run them under some water with a vegetable brush.
Washing dishes in a dishwasher uses LESS water than washing the same dishes by hand. I see no reason to believe that the same wouldn’t also be true for potatoes. That said, if you don’t have enough potatoes to at least half fill your dishwasher, you probably should just hand wash them. Personally, I use a natural bristle vegetable brush for all my root vegetables and skip peeling.
The one time I think it might be worthwhile – our synagogue’s latke party. We sometimes do 150 lbs of potatoes for that.
Ooooo, latkes! I so love them
I suppose if I had 50+ potatoes, I was childless, and was preparing them for an event I would be attending, I might consider doing this. A short rinse cycle, I’m guessing, is going to be about 15 minutes – that would be about the time it would take me to wash all the potatoes (I’d have to keep getting more bowls, as I don’t have anything big enough to handle 50 potatoes).
um, what if you have that jet dry stuff in your dishwasher? that can’t be good with potatoes
My DW has a “Quick Rinse” feature that simply rinses the dishes with hot water. No soap and no Jet-Dry.
I rarely use the Quick Rinse except when I will be going away for a while and don’t have a full load of dishes. The quick rinse removes all of the food residue so that after a week of sitting I won’t have a smelly dishwasher caused by rotting food particles and the food won’t be permanently glued to the dishes.
On another note, I now have a great idea on how to finally give the cat a bath.
Yes! Don’t forget the soap.
Make sure to use the dry cycle for a nice, fluffy result.
Nothing worse than a wet pussy.
Sorry, forgive me lord, I apologize. Please forgive me. I couldn’t resist.
The same method also works for washing cats.
On that note…have a lot of dishes to wash? Put them in the back of a pickup truck and take them to the carwash.
That’s………
genius.
You could do that with the potatoes too …
Exactly.
Or, just put them into a couple of garbage bags, throw them out, then acquire some more creatively from the college cafeteria… Not that I’ve ever seen this done by anyone… honestly…*cough*
This sounds a lot like the answer to a question nobody asked.
I wash my own potatoes, in the sink, with a small scrubber. It takes very little time. And I am never feeding an army so I’m never washing 20 pounds of potatoes.
I don’t want to be overly contrarian or anything, but come on, really?
First, if I’m not going to consumer the peels, I don’t bother with more than a quick splash under the faucet… there’s no point. And if I am cooking them with the peels intact, every square inch is going to get scrubbed with a brush under running water.
I eat the skin, but what’s a little dirt? I just rinse them and rub them under the faucet. No brush.
Cooking will kill virtually all the bacteria but not necessarily the viruses that might be in the dirt. And when there’s the possibility that the same dirt may have been used as a human waste depository, I’d rather not take the risk.
This website gets more useless by the day.
Or less usefull, it’s all a matter of perspective.
Just peel the bloody thing and be done with it!
I think I will try this, and fill the soap dispenser with BUTTER!
But where are you going to put the herbs?
Point of washing potatoes you’re going to boil is….? (especially if you’re also peeling them?)
So they don’t taste like dirt.
Incredibly wasteful.
How on earth many potatoes could you be washing to need to use the dishwasher?
This idea is so stupid someone may actually try to market it.
Everyone’s got more important stuff to do around the holidays than hangin’ out in the kitchen doin’ the knuckle shuffle on what the entire family likes to put in their mouth.
Hi, Vince here for the most exciting product of the year – the most exciting product of the decade – Spud Spotless!
Quit playing with your vegetables! Just look at this: Take your potatoes…carrots…rutabagas…even a WHOLE WATERMELON…and put ‘em in this clever device that fits neatly under your counter. Press a button, wait fifteen minutes and they’re not just clean enough to eat – they’re clean enough to eat off of!
Lettuce…tomato…potato…tornado. Spud Spotless will take the dirt off your veggies faster than that hooker in Miami took the smile off my face.
BUT WAIT! When you’re done pigging out, stick the dirty plates, pans, wine glasses – whatever – in Spud Spotless, add some soap and it’ll work just like your old dishwasher. WOW! In the same amount of space Spud Spotless helps you clean up before AND after dinner!
If you call in the next 20 minutes…because remember we can’t be doin’ this all day…we’ll give you this free mini-basket, perfect for cleaning radishes, green beans or baby bottle nipples just pay separate shipping and handling, Quit having boring meals. Quit having a boring life. Order Spud Spotless now!
is it sad that reading that actually made me want a “spud spotless”? haha
What color do you want me to ship: White, Black or Stainless Steel?
There is a downside to using the dishwasher for potatioes or as one post pointed out the washing machine to clean greans, that is there is water left in these machines from the previous use. This water in a dishwasher may be clean, but most likely isn’t as whatever was in it has had time to grow since the last use. Do you want that all over your potatoes?
As for Alton using his clothes washer to clean and then spin his collard / mustard / etc greens I wouldn’t suggest it. Clothes washers don’t fully empty. In the pump and piping you will still have dirty water left from the last cycle. This water will contaminate the clean water in the wash your greens cycle. This was can be very nasty.
I don’t know about yours, but I wouldn’t consider what my dishwasher does to be anything resembling “in a hurry.”
why stop there, for the next article please post about “Remove unnecessary appliances, use dishwasher to wash clothes also”
Not a good suggestion – a lot of dishwashers have automatic rinse aid dispensers that you can’t choose to just shut off. I’m lucky mine doesn’t work, but still. Something to consider.
When I worked as a dishwasher in a resturant, this is how we cleaned our potatoes. I would drain the dishwasher then run two soap free loads, drain it again then run the spuds. It took about 10 minutes total but we only did it before opening an after the lunch rush when we had time. It would have taken MUCH longer to scrub the 100lbs worh of potatoes by hand. Using your dishwasher’s quick rinse cycle shouldn’t be a problem to quickly wash a bunch of potatoes if you’re doing a large family meal.