How to Wash the Dishes

By Peter Miller

Find order and beauty in the kitchen with this delightfully elegant primer on washing the dishes that elevates and illuminates a seemingly routine chore.

Washing the dishes is an ordinary, everyday task--but with examination and care, it can become much more. In this reverent guide to the household chore, Peter Miller shows us how washing dishes can become a joy, a delight, a meditative exercise, and an act of grace and rhythm.

We pay so much attention to recipes but little attention to maintenance and cleanup. Washing the dishes is as much a part of making a meal as prepping the vegetables, making the sauces, or seasoning the meats. At times it is quite routine, sometimes raucous, other times complex. It is never convenient. Despite its din and clatter, and despite its reputation, washing the dishes is the coda to the meal. It is a bustling musical of water and soap, of flow and surface, and done well, the fragile shall sit as proudly as the cast-iron.

There are some who do the dishes for the clarity and privacy of it, and there are some who relish the quiet isolation of putting things in order where they belong. There are some who feel the time and movement is a kind of digestive. In the evening in particular, there is a silence when it is all done. How to Wash the Dishes brings elegance, art, and a bit of mindfulness to the sink. It is the perfect gift for those who love to clean and equally as apt for those we wish would clean a bit more.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Shambhala
• Release date: Mar 3, 2020
• ISBN: 9780834842700

Peter Miller

Peter Miller has been a writer and senior editor at National Geographic for over twenty-five years. He lives with his wife PJ in Reston, Virginia

Book preview

1

A PRIMER FOR

Washing the Dishes

ALMOST EVERYONE, at some point in their life, washes the dishes. Not many will do it well and even fewer will look forward to it.

It is a curious task, washing the dishes. Some people save it for themselves, some do it as a sacrifice, and some dread it or avoid doing it entirely.

Washing the dishes in a sink, with clean, warm water, is a luxury. If you have ever lived without clean running water or warm water, or even if you have ever camped in the wilderness, you already know this. It is also a task of order and of health and hygiene. The kitchen is an operating room, and although you may not always be the one operating, you are the one cleaning up after a kind of surgery. You have all the surfaces and all the equipment to scrub and make ready for the next use. You may be lucky enough to have a dishwasher. There will be a mention of dishwashers here and there, but this is a book about washing the dishes, not about machines that wash dishes. This is a book about enjoying your time and using it well. The dishwasher is the express train; your kitchen sink is the local.

This is a primer for the task, with rules and regulations, safety and sense, and a start and a finish. When the kitchen lights are dimmed, there should be a dish towel and a bowl drying. You have finished the meal and closed up shop.

The Task

A task is generally easier if you are prepared and have some plans and some knowledge about the job ahead. Here is a list of the elements.

Clean all the dishes, pots and pans, glasses, silverware, containers, and surfaces, including the stove, walls, counters, and burners.

Waste neither water nor soap, being both accurate and economical.

Work safely in regard to yourself and other people who may be helping.

Protect the equipment: care for the knives, pans, mixers, strainers, and such so they stay sharp, rust-free, and ready for their next appearance.

Safeguard the food: store leftovers and staples wisely and correctly, especially with regard to bacteria and shelf life.

Leave the kitchen bright, fresh, and ready for the next meal—as if it was new, and you had not been there.

Basic Tools

There are only a few things you need to wash the dishes well. You may already have them. You might also check that they have not been worked to a nub and want replacing. There are times that it is a treat to get a new sponge, scrubber, or dishtowel.

TO START

You will need a container for the dishwater. It can be a dishpan or even a rubber, plastic, or stainless bowl, and it should take up no more than three-quarters of the sink; you will need room to work and to rinse.

You will also need:

A good sponge or dishcloth

A good scrubber

A good dish soap

Several fresh, dry dish towels

When the dishes are washed, you will need a drying rack or an empty dishwasher to stack them.

The bowl is your tractor, your plow, and your very best piece of equipment.

At the Center of It All

Your bowl of soap and water is the center of your dishwashing operation. Everything depends upon it. The economy of doing the dishes is directly affected by it. If you protect your hot soapy water, you will use less detergent, your surfaces will be cleaner, and your glasses and dishware will be brighter. The bowl is your tractor, your plow, and your very best piece of equipment.

You may fill your bowl six to eight times during a cleanup if there are multiple dishes. When you fill it, do it slowly. As it is filling the first time, you can wash all the stuff on the periphery: the lids, the loose glassware, and the serving spoons. If you let the hot water run slowly, you may well have time to clear your counters of the stray bits and pieces that are generated by cooking. Clean and open space is your most intimate ally.

I usually use a thin, five-quart stainless-steel bowl for doing the dishes. It is a little battered and does other duty as a salad bowl or quick tossing bowl, but its main work is in the sink. It is not high sided, as I do not want it to be big enough to hide a sharp, eight-inch knife. I do not need a great depth of soapy water; I need its strength much more than its volume.

The soap bowl must not be so big that it clogs the sink. You need to be able to get in there, to clear food waste, to rinse silverware, to clear sponges and dishcloths, to rinse your hands. There are even