"aem" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:Or maybe that should be, "What do you clean as you cook, and what do
you leave until later?"
In my kitchen, knives are always wiped, dried and replaced in the rack
immediately after use. They never ever lie around dirty. That's best,
I believe, for the knife, and it's a safety measure.
Anything cooked in a non-stick skillet gets moved to the next stage of
cooking or plated or set aside while the skillet is immediately rinsed
and dried. That's because it's so easy and fast to do. A matter of
seconds.
Measuring cups are hit with a soapy sponge if necessary, rinsed and
placed on the drain rack as soon as their contents are poured out.
That's because I don't have extras and may need it again. It's become
a habit.
The woks are always cleaned, rinsed and dried over heat as soon as the
cooking is done. That's the best maintenance practice, as well as
being *much* easier and faster than letting a wok sit out dirty.
Just about everything else gets left until later, but I'm sure there
are other things I could do as I go along that would be more efficient.
What else could I do? -aem
The reason I can see it being more efficient is if it's easier to clean
right away than it will be if it sits a while. Otherwise, you're just
stopping one thing to do another. My idea of "clean as you go" is keeping
my workspace clean, and cleaning up during natural breaks in the process.
I tend to do tasks in groups, so I'd probably never stop to wash an
individual item after I used it. I'd rather finish the chopping or mixing or
whatever, then move on to washing/rinsing a bunch of things all at once.
Then again, I've got some problems with contact dermatitis on my hands, and
I've found that the more washing and drying I do, the worse it gets. I use
gloves a lot in the kitchen, and almost always when washing things. So it's
better for me if I can stage the things to be washed, put on the gloves, and
do all the washing at once. Otherwise I'm not just pausing to wash, I'm
pausing to put on and take off gloves.
If I'm doing dry prepwork, I'm less likely to be wearing gloves, and less
likely to stop and wash things often. If I'm doing wet prepwork and I'm
wearing gloves anyway, I might stop and rinse things more often, probably
when I'm washing my gloved hands anyway.
Once thing that I've done to eliminate the need for some of the washing is
to have extra measuring cups and spoons, and I leave them in the product
containers of the things I use most often, and in the increment I usually
need. No need to find the cup or spoon, and no need to wash it three times a
day.
Donna
