We have hard water. It’s been a fact of our east-central Illinois household forever. Sometimes we need a chisel.
But seriously, if you have hard water and do the dishes by hand:
~ Close the drain and put everything in the sink.
~ Add a small amount of dishwashing liquid and a tablespoon of baking soda.
~ Fill the sink with hot water.
~ Proceed as usual.
Yow! Everything almost washes itself. For the first time in many years we have dishes and glasses that sparkle, with virtually no hard-water stains.
How did I hit on this fix? We’ve taken to adding a dash of baking soda to a stock pot of (hard) water when we make pasta. Elaine found that tip, somewhere. So if it works for pasta, &c.
Tuesday, April 2, 2024
Baking soda for the dishes
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comments: 6
I figured out the baking soda solution (heh heh) when I thought of it as a way to add more base in order to balance our otherwise tasty mineral-rich (hard)water. It worked like a charm with black beans (which used to take two or three hours to cook). I use it with all beans, and now they take under a hour to cook, as long as they have been soaked. On a whim I added a pinch of baking soda to pasta water one day, and the pasta cooked more quickly. You mentioned adding it to dishwater the other day, and I tried it right away. It makes doing dishes a lot more fun.
Science! I wish it had been my night to do the dishes — I would’ve seen the first sparkles as they showed up.
Great tip! Thank you.
Happy washing!
A sentence that has never been uttered before: "I wish it had been my night to do the dishes."
Ha!
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