<story><title>Dishwashing detergent hack: Two ingredients (2015)</title><url>https://www.whatlisacooks.com/blog/2015/5/8/dishwashing-detergent-hack-two-ingredients</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>crazygringo</author><text>Everything I know about dishwasher detergent is that it is formulated to clean &lt;i&gt;chemically&lt;/i&gt;, i.e. with enzymes etc. that actually &lt;i&gt;break food down&lt;/i&gt; over the course of tens of minutes or hours.&lt;p&gt;Dish soap does NOT do that. (It&amp;#x27;s also why you shouldn&amp;#x27;t wash dishes by hand with dishwasher detergent, because the chemicals are too harsh.)&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t doubt that this &amp;quot;hack&amp;quot; does &lt;i&gt;some&lt;/i&gt; cleaning, but for things like crusted-on tomato sauce, hardened cheese, dried egg yolks, etc. -- it&amp;#x27;s just not going to work as well. Dish soap simply doesn&amp;#x27;t break these things down. It&amp;#x27;s not meant to.&lt;p&gt;(Washing by hand with dish soap works because you&amp;#x27;re applying intense pressure and abrasion, neither of which a dishwasher can do -- which is why it does it chemically instead.)&lt;p&gt;I just don&amp;#x27;t find it credible that &amp;quot;the results are identical&amp;quot;. Either the author isn&amp;#x27;t paying enough attention, or else they&amp;#x27;re doing extensive &amp;quot;pre-washing&amp;quot; of their dishes before loading them, or they&amp;#x27;re washing so incredibly quickly after eating that food never has the time to dry&amp;#x2F;harden in the first place.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>twic</author><text>I once met a chap who told me he used his dishwasher without any powder or soap at all, and it still worked.&lt;p&gt;Now, maybe he was making it up. But i suspect that there is a common class of dish dirt where prolonged steaming and jetting with hot water is adequate in practice - i&amp;#x27;d expect anything water-soluble to dissolve in hot water! So, residues from tea or coffee, water-based pasta sauce, fruit juice, jam, etc. It won&amp;#x27;t work for everything, of course, but it might work for a surprising range of things.</text></comment>
<story><title>Dishwashing detergent hack: Two ingredients (2015)</title><url>https://www.whatlisacooks.com/blog/2015/5/8/dishwashing-detergent-hack-two-ingredients</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>crazygringo</author><text>Everything I know about dishwasher detergent is that it is formulated to clean &lt;i&gt;chemically&lt;/i&gt;, i.e. with enzymes etc. that actually &lt;i&gt;break food down&lt;/i&gt; over the course of tens of minutes or hours.&lt;p&gt;Dish soap does NOT do that. (It&amp;#x27;s also why you shouldn&amp;#x27;t wash dishes by hand with dishwasher detergent, because the chemicals are too harsh.)&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t doubt that this &amp;quot;hack&amp;quot; does &lt;i&gt;some&lt;/i&gt; cleaning, but for things like crusted-on tomato sauce, hardened cheese, dried egg yolks, etc. -- it&amp;#x27;s just not going to work as well. Dish soap simply doesn&amp;#x27;t break these things down. It&amp;#x27;s not meant to.&lt;p&gt;(Washing by hand with dish soap works because you&amp;#x27;re applying intense pressure and abrasion, neither of which a dishwasher can do -- which is why it does it chemically instead.)&lt;p&gt;I just don&amp;#x27;t find it credible that &amp;quot;the results are identical&amp;quot;. Either the author isn&amp;#x27;t paying enough attention, or else they&amp;#x27;re doing extensive &amp;quot;pre-washing&amp;quot; of their dishes before loading them, or they&amp;#x27;re washing so incredibly quickly after eating that food never has the time to dry&amp;#x2F;harden in the first place.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ajsnigrutin</author><text>&amp;gt; I just don&amp;#x27;t find it credible that &amp;quot;the results are identical&amp;quot;. Either the author isn&amp;#x27;t paying enough attention, or else they&amp;#x27;re doing extensive &amp;quot;pre-washing&amp;quot; of their dishes before loading them, or they&amp;#x27;re washing so incredibly quickly after eating that food never has the time to dry&amp;#x2F;harden in the first place.&lt;p&gt;They run the washer many times per day... al the food is probably still fresh and not dried up and hard to remove. Same is true for professional&amp;#x2F;restaurant dishwasher, where dishes are put inside immediately and washed in a few minutes.</text></comment>