When the Kitchen Knives Come Out

Funny article from today's WSJ - http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... eadStoryNA

Kind of depressing, actually.

interesting read,. I had no idea the kitchen can be such a hot button issue for some couples. Arguing about how to load a dishwasher, etc, seems kind of trivial in the big picture of life.

It's a good thing my wife doesn't cook.

Good reading, but I guess we are boring-
we get along-
I cook, he does the dishes...
it has worked for us for 28 years....

Darren72 wrote:Kind of depressing, actually.

My thoughts exactly. Many (most?) of these couples seem to have problems that have little to do with the kitchen at all. Sad.

Gee whizz! If you're smashing dishes that often, maybe you should eat out. It may seem like to much bother to drive all the way across town to an lth favorite, but if the choice is between that and destroying several plates and damaging your walls, it's worth it. Maybe that's the secret argument of the article: go out for dinner more often, have a happier marriage (you know, depending on the marriage!).

HI,

I laughed at the dishwasher anecdote, because we have dishwasher issues in my family:

- Mom will happily stack stuff in the sink. She loads the dishwasher when it hits critical mass or I complain.

- Dad likes to run the dishwasher when it is loaded.

- I like to load the dishwasher as I progress. I get pretty frosty when I find clean dishes inside, dirty in the sink and I want to cook dinner. I spend time unloading and loading the dishwasher to find it loaded and ready to run. The dishes I generate cooking now go to the sink when they should go to the dishwasher.

My preference is load the dishwasher up to the point where the next meal's prep will fully load it. I prefer to start a meal with an empty or a few dishes in the dishwasher. When it is 75% loaded, it is time to run if there is a long time to the next meal.

Regards,

There is an amazing and heartbreaking scene in the movie Rachel Getting Married about how best to load the dishwasher.

I read this article and it was interesting -but I couldn't help but be disappointed that it wasn't actually about kitchen cutlery.

Wow, this really was depressing. We do like irisarbor—I cook, he does dishes. Occasionally I do dishes after a big baking spree, and either way we tease each other here and there about missing a spot. It seems to work out nicely. No more rice surprise for dinner and we're out of each other's way for either chore.

Not to go down the path of these couples, but really, there is only one way to load the dishwasher, in the macro sense-- facing the direction of the spray. How precisely you do that depends on the design of any model, but if you want water to remove something, it needs to be in the path of the water, no?

If people understood that basic principle of physics, countless marriages would be saved.

Mike G wrote:Not to go down the path of these couples, but really, there is only one way to load the dishwasher, in the macro sense-- facing the direction of the spray. How precisely you do that depends on the design of any model, but if you want water to remove something, it needs to be in the path of the water, no?

If people understood that basic principle of physics, countless marriages would be saved.

That's the only bone I have to pick with my wife. She has a habit of sticking the utensils in the dishwasher basket dirty side down. Yet, she's the first to complain when the utensils come out dirty.

Dave148 wrote:

Mike G wrote:Not to go down the path of these couples, but really, there is only one way to load the dishwasher, in the macro sense-- facing the direction of the spray. How precisely you do that depends on the design of any model, but if you want water to remove something, it needs to be in the path of the water, no?

If people understood that basic principle of physics, countless marriages would be saved.

That's the only bone I have to pick with my wife. She has a habit of sticking the utensils in the dishwasher basket dirty side down. Yet, she's the first to complain when the utensils come out dirty.

I used to be an ardent enforcer of the dirty-side-up rule, but then I heard a tip from Martha Stewart one day: she suggested putting some utensils in the basket eating-side up, and some eating-side down, as this prevents them from nesting together and not getting cleaned. I put this tip into practice, and things seem to be working well.

As for plates & whatnot being placed correctly to maximize exposure to spray heads, I'm totally with you on that. There's a reason why dishwashers' drawers have the little spikes lined up in certain directions and leaning certain ways - I think honoring the intentions of the sage & venerable dishwasher engineers is the best way to ensure clean dishes.

Khaopaat wrote:

Dave148 wrote:

Mike G wrote:Not to go down the path of these couples, but really, there is only one way to load the dishwasher, in the macro sense-- facing the direction of the spray. How precisely you do that depends on the design of any model, but if you want water to remove something, it needs to be in the path of the water, no?

If people understood that basic principle of physics, countless marriages would be saved.

That's the only bone I have to pick with my wife. She has a habit of sticking the utensils in the dishwasher basket dirty side down. Yet, she's the first to complain when the utensils come out dirty.

I used to be an ardent enforcer of the dirty-side-up rule, but then I heard a tip from Martha Stewart one day: she suggested putting some utensils in the basket eating-side up, and some eating-side down, as this prevents them from nesting together and not getting cleaned. I put this tip into practice, and things seem to be working well.

As for plates & whatnot being placed correctly to maximize exposure to spray heads, I'm totally with you on that. There's a reason why dishwashers' drawers have the little spikes lined up in certain directions and leaning certain ways - I think honoring the intentions of the sage & venerable dishwasher engineers is the best way to ensure clean dishes.

Yes, yes and more yes. This is the biggest sticking point between my wife and me - the dishwasher. My wife has argued that it shouldn't matter how she loads the dishwasher but I completely disagree. I use the dishwasher for glasses, cups, bowls, small plates, large plates, plastic cutting boards, and utensils (typically only knives, forks, and spoons). I may even include a random prep tools (cuisinart bowl), tupperware, vegetable peeler, pizza cutter, or ice cream scoop but that's it. The pots/pans, good knives, casserole dishes and large utensils (especially those wooden spoons) never go in - waste of space and potentially harmful to costly items. These are washed by hand - but that's another topic altogether.

I also agree that there is a certain way to load the dishwasher as it was designed by a team of engineers and improved upon over years of R&D. The water typically sprays from the bottom middle, meaning if you have a large item right in the middle, the smaller items on the outside are blocked by the water. Small items on on top (glasses, some bowls, etc.) and larger items on the bottom with small plates/bowls towards the middle and larger plates on the outside and finally plastic cutting boards on the very outside. The utensils go in the basket. In a perfect world, the spoons should face up (eating side up that is) and the forks and knives should point down. Never, never leave a knife with the sharp side up for risk of stabbing oneself.

All items should be rinsed of debris before they go into the dishwasher - use your garbage can for large pieces of waste and meat/bones/fat/etc., your disposal for the rest. If you choose to add overly dirty dishes to the dishwasher, you will risk clogging your dishwasher's filter, reducing it's efficiency and potentially leading to a breakdown of the machine. I will run the dishwasher when it's full or close to being full (let's say 75%, especially at night, before bed).

These are the basics. If learned and practiced one could become a pretty efficient kitchen cleaner after meals. My wife always comments on how quickly I clean up after the meals she cooks and I tell her that my "system" doesn't fail me. Besides this, I think we get along quite nicely in the kitchen (although she may consider me a little anal about some things - ).

Dishwashers sound like a giant pain in the ass.
Do you still have to pre-rinse?

Pie Lady wrote:Dishwashers sound like a giant pain in the ass.
Do you still have to pre-rinse?

Not me.

Do you still have to pre-rinse?

There was an article someplace recently that suggested overly pre rinsing was actually bad, because detergents are designed to break down food matter in the washer, and in the absence of food, it can damage the finish on plates,etch glasses, etc.

So you don't want to put chunks of bone and vegetables in, but the dishes don't need to be scoured either.

Pie Lady wrote:Dishwashers sound like a giant pain in the ass.
Do you still have to pre-rinse?

Newer dishwashers are fantastic. For the cost of getting our decade-old, broken-down econo-dishwasher repaired, wee bought a middle-of-the-road GE in 2005. The thing's got 3 sets of spray arms (bottom, middle & top), heavy-duty sound insulation, and a built-in (albeit light-duty) food disposer, so no pre-rinsing required.

The old one, on the other hand, was a certifiable pain in the ass. Only one arm on the bottom and no built-in disposer, so if dishes weren't properly rinsed, it would chuck all the gunk off the plates and onto the glassware, where it would be baked on by the heating element during the drying cycle. We used to hand wash all dishes, then use that crappy dishwasher as a big, built-in drying rack.

Pie Lady wrote:Dishwashers sound like a giant pain in the ass.
Do you still have to pre-rinse?

They are more pain that they are worth - even the new ones. I much prefer handwashing.

Lin Brehmer gave some funny advice on getting along in the kitchen on an XRT show earlier this week. Something like, MEN, if you need to use every pot in the household to make a meal, this is really not a badge of your manliness, you need to at least wash, and put away, some of them. Also, if someone feels the need to rearrange the dishes in the dishwasher, just let her. I burst out laughing, because I always rearrange the dishes in our dishwasher, but I don't even think my husband knows I do it! In my mind dish washer arrangement is like Tetris, and doing it right saves on energy and water.

jlawrence01 wrote:

Pie Lady wrote:Dishwashers sound like a giant pain in the ass.
Do you still have to pre-rinse?

They are more pain that they are worth - even the new ones. I much prefer handwashing.

Can't wait to show this to Mr. Pie. Though he might try to persuade you to come by around 8pm every night.

Cinnamon Girl wrote:Lin Brehmer gave some funny advice on getting along in the kitchen on an XRT show earlier this week. Something like, MEN, if you need to use every pot in the household to make a meal, this is really not a badge of your manliness, you need to at least wash, and put away, some of them. Also, if someone feels the need to rearrange the dishes in the dishwasher, just let her. I burst out laughing, because I always rearrange the dishes in our dishwasher, but I don't even think my husband knows I do it! In my mind dish washer arrangement is like Tetris, and doing it right saves on energy and water.

I too rearrange the dishwasher sometimes after any other member of the family loads it. I love your comparison to Tetris--which I have heard is much more played by women than men.

And I would never give up having a dishwasher.

Lucky for me, I am the boss in my kitchen. My hubby doesn't know (or care) where anything goes, therefore no arguments.
Now, about this whole one spouse cooks, one spouse cleans deal... I think I've been jipped. Is it arrangement quite common?

I tend to clean as I go, so there really isn't much to clean up after the meal is finished.

To those who split the cooking and cleaning, does your S.O. tend to get upset if you're too messy? I would love to cook and not worry about the mess I'm making while I do it!!!

It started out as an I cook she cleans agreement. It's slowly over time grown to an I cook, I clean agreement. But it's evened out by my slowly not touching the rest of the house as my kitchen cleaning has increased.

bella54330 wrote:To those who split the cooking and cleaning, does your S.O. tend to get upset if you're too messy? I would love to cook and not worry about the mess I'm making while I do it!!!

I get an earful. "Do you really need to use this many bowls," "There's always so many dishes after Pie bakes," or the latest, after checking to see whether the gas is indeed off, "stickyyyyy..." etc. etc. It's a shame I find this more hilarious than shaming. Lately he's so busy that I've decided to help out with dishes once in a while, but I still leave the pots and messy stuff for him.

bella54330 wrote:To those who split the cooking and cleaning, does your S.O. tend to get upset if you're too messy? I would love to cook and not worry about the mess I'm making while I do it!!!

I do all the cooking, and my wife does all the dishes. We work as a team in stages, I do prep, then get out of the kitchen while the dishes/cutting board, knives, etc are cleaned, then I return later to do the cooking, and those dishes are done with the dishes from the meal.

With a cooking background I dont use items(pots, pans, etc.) I dont need, or make a mess(I clean my work area as I go), but I definitely have the better end of the deal, but she gets to eat my cooking which is a pretty good tradeoff I am guessing.