or starter out of a glass jar. This morning I had an epiphany - liquid Fabric Softener !! I filled the sink with very warm water, immersed my caked-on bowls, scrapers, etc and added maybe 1/2 cup of fabric softener, along with some liquid soap. Voila ! Took seconds to get sparking utensils and bowls.
I'm all for epiphanies and experimentation, but there may be a food safety issue here. The chemicals in fabric softener are not meant to be ingested. Some people even have concerns about them being on fabric next to their skin!
I will assume that after your bowls and utensils were sparkling, you rewashed everything in hot soapy water. Maybe even put them through the dishwasher to eliminate any trace of fabric softener?
there is an allergy to fabric softener. I also remove wallpaper with it. And yes, I did rewash in the dishwasher. :)
Anna,
The active agent in fabric softeners is a poison and not an allergen. Fabric softener is not a healthy product for anyone.
Jeff
my boys grew up snuggled in those soft blankets. Thanks for the information !
anna
A lot of us fell for the claims of manufacturers who somehow convinced us (to the tune of huge profits) that soft, natural fabrics need chemical assistance to smell pleasant and feel good against our skin. They're scrambling to come up with other uses -- even asking and rewarding consumers for ideas -- because the bottom is dropping out of their market now that people know the truth.
Lots of other products fall in the "invented need" category. Don't let me get started on that topic! :) Will just say that I feel it's good to stay on our toes. I heard a talk this morning that we each get over 3000 micro-hits a day about consumer goods we supposedly need to make us happy.
So back to the original quest for clean bowls and utensils. You've sparked a useful discussion. Sometimes I fall in with the "give it a good soak in cold water" camp. Other times, I need the danged bowl or beater again right away. Then I find hot water with a little elbow grease is just the ticket.
That was my mother's advice, and I've read the same thing in almost every good bread book. Soak in cold water, and wash in cold water, then rinse in hot.
I agree on the health issue. We won't even let fabric softener through the front door.
Jeff
As a person who can't even walk down the laundry detergent and fabric softener aisle in a grocery store because of allergies to the chemicals in them, I can't imagine cooking or baking with a utensil that came in contact with fabric softener. Nasty stuff!
Cold water soak works the best.
At the metropol bakery, we let the 5 gallon plastic dough proofing buckets just sit until the dough dried. Then, the dough just falls out in flakes.
Marc
My containers love to cake on pretty quickly
Whilst soaking will undoubtedly loosen dough from bowls and utensils, there is the problem of then getting it off the cleaning cloth / brush / scourer afterwards. I've never tried fabric softener, but does it break down the dough so that it is no longer sticky lumps that work their way into cleaning tools?
brushes and plastic scourers through a dishwashing cycle, and if the plastic scourer still shows traces, I put it into the washing machine with the dish towels.