Human beings have come a long way since the days of only cooking on open flames. We have stoves, microwaves, air fryers, electric pressure cookers… Heck, we even have egg poachers, rice makers and so on and so forth. Why then are people using their dishwashers to cook a meal? It’s food up top, filthy dishes down below. Make it make sense.
Social media is filled with videos of people trying out this thing called dishwasher cooking. From lasagne to salmon and even chicken breasts, nothing seems to be off-limits – even when it could come with a side of salmonella. And, as you can imagine, netizens are divided. Some are completely grossed out, while others are curious.
We at Bored Panda are a bit of both. But not enough to try it out ourselves, so we did a deep dive into the world of dishwasher cooking – and here’s what we found…
People have been cooking food in their dishwashers, and we want to know why
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There’s even a dedicated salmon dish that’s prepared in the place usually reserved for dirty dishes
Image credits: dunkkane
This woman posted a video showcasing her attempt at dishwasher cooking
Image credits: Flashy-Disaster-3098
Does it look cooked and appetizing? We’ll let you decide…
Image credits: Flashy-Disaster-3098
Image credits: Flashy-Disaster-3098
Dishwasher cooking has been around for decades, and some food experts even swear by it
If you Google “dishwasher cooking,” one of the dishes that’s likely to pop up is salmon sous vide. In case you’re wondering, sous vide is a cooking technique where the food is vacuum-sealed and cooked in a low-temperature water bath. It means ‘under vacuum’ in French.
Apparently, all you have to do is wrap the salmon tightly in foil, add a lemon wedge and spices or herbs, stick the packet in the top rack, and then run the dishwasher on a regular cycle. Once the cycle is done, the salmon is (supposed to be) cooked and ready to eat.
Bob Blumer, the former host of the Food Network’s The Surreal Gourmet, swears by it and claims to have cooked salmon in dishwashers around the world. According to him, the dishwashing method is similar to poaching salmon, and produces “perfect, tasty” results.
Poaching, you say? Well, according to Dan Pashman of the Sporkful podcast, the hot water and steam essentially poach the salmon. “And at the low temperature, about 140 to 150 degrees Fahrenheit, the fish cooks very slowly, so it turns creamy and soft,” he adds.
While some people prefer to stick to cooking during the dishwasher cycle, others like to multitask and do their dishes at the same time. All you need to do is add the detergent and place your dirty dishes on the bottom rack.
Many of us might assume that cooking with a dishwasher is a waste of time and energy. Italian food writer Lisa Casali disagrees. She argues that the method can be quite environmentally friendly. There’s just one trick, she says: Instead of using aluminum foil, you should put the food into airtight canning jars or food vacuum bags. Then the hot water doesn’t touch the food. So you can add soap to the cycle and really clean your dishes while poaching dinner.
Image credits: Getty Images / Unsplash (not the actual photo)
Casali has even based an entire cookbook on dishwasher cooking. Cucinare in Lavastoviglie (Cooking with the dishwasher) has recipes for a variety of dishes, including couscous, veal, tuna, fruits and even desserts.
The foodie says that dishwasher cooking is best for dishes that need to be cooked at low temperatures. “After some experiments, I found that it wasn’t just a different way to cook — it was a really particular technique,” she reveals. “Something I was looking for years: the way to cook at low temperature at home.”
Not surprisingly, dishwasher cooking has raised a lot of eyebrows. In 2019, food blog The Kitchn’s Senior Recipe Editor attempted it.
“About 45 minutes after I turned the dishwasher on, the cycle was done. I opened up the dishwasher nervously and sniffed. My dishes looked clean and the dishwasher smelled like it usually does after a load. No fishy smells,” wrote Kristine Gallary.
“I took the salmon packets out, put them on a plate, and opened them up,” she added. “There was a little liquid in each packet, but no more than I expected from salmon cooking inside a foil packet. Another sniff test and all I could smell was cooked salmon, no smell of dishwasher detergent.”
The food expert says that when she tasted the fish, “the salmon perfectly flaked, was just cooked through, and had a texture quite similar to salmon I’ve had before cooked with the sous vide method.” She claims it was absolutely delicious.
Gallary concluded by saying that she wouldn’t ever cook salmon in an empty dishwasher because she feels like it’s a waste of water and energy, but added, “The fact that I can do it and get a load of dishes is pretty cool.”
“That’s nasty”: many people felt the whole idea was gross, and some highlighted the dangers
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