"washing" news and stories

We all know we're supposed to wash our fruits and vegetables before we cook or eat them, but how do you know how much washing is enough? And should you use soap or is water plenty? The editors over at Cook's Illustrated recently took on this question, washing apples and pears with four different methods. They discovered that using a scrub brush with water was fairly effective, removing 85% of bacteria, but that using a solution of one part vinegar to three parts water was the best. That method removed 98% of the bacteria.

A good way of keeping that vinegar around is to fill a spray bottle with the stuff and leave it by the sink. Simply spritz the item that needs to be cleaned with a little bit of the solution and rinse off with cold water. Ninety-eight percent clean fruits and veggies will result!

Via NPR
(Thanks for the tip, Megan!)

The worst thing about cooking is, without question, the cleanup. Once you have cooked and eaten your fill, the last thing that you want to do is do the dishes. The process seems daunting when you don't have a dishwasher, and somewhat less so if you do have one, but it's called a "chore" because it is one.

Chip, at Cook Think Blog, put together a brief guide to loading a dishwasher properly, with tips that can really help you make the most out of each wash. Before you laugh, keep in mind that having a system makes doing the dishes go much, much faster than it ordinarily would. You'll spend five minutes loading because you know where everything goes, versus 20 minutes trying to figure out how to cram everything in. Here are a few to start with:

• The used ends of forks and spoons should be pointing up, maximizing exposure to the water, while knife blades should point down.
• Plates should not be loaded by size, again to maximize exposure to water.
• Bowls should go on the top rack, not the bottom.

Source

Trucking info website Layover.com recently ran a story about what it takes to keep tanker trucks kosher. A link in the kosher food distribution chain that many diners may not think of, kosher washing stations for tanker trucks are apparently a big business. When a tanker truck drops off its liquid cargo, it then goes to a washing station to have its tank cleaned. Trucks that may have been carrying animal-based fats are obviously a concern to those eating a kosher diet. Likewise, some washing facilities reuse their rinse water, thus creating another breach, according to an Orthodox Union article about kosher trucking by Rabbi Leonard Steinberg. For many, building wash centers that are all kosher is a more practical solution than just offering a kosher-grade wash at a non-kosher facility. As this list shows, there are plenty of facilities. Hey, I thought it was interesting.