Tag Archives: salmon

THINGS YOU SHOULD NEVER PUT IN A DISHWASHER.

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In March, I wrote about a tenant of mine who complained about a bad smell in her dishwasher, and when I went over to her apartment to investigate, I discovered that she had been cooking fish in her dishwasher. I later found out that she was also making grilled cheese sandwiches with a clothes iron. I asked her if her stove was working OK, and she said it was, but she said she didn’t like to cook food on the stove. She preferred to cook food with household appliances, but I never found out why. So – maybe it is time that I listed some of the things that people put in their dishwashers but shouldn’t.

Food. Don’t cook food in your dishwasher. There are a lot of recipes online for food you can cook in a dishwasher, but you can get sick eating food that you cooked in a dishwasher. The temperature inside a dishwasher may not get hot enough to kill microorganisms like salmonella. Use your stove to cook food.
Sharp knives. Always hand wash sharp knives, cheese graters, slicers, and anything else that has an edge to it. They can become dull or nicked in your dishwasher.
Wooden items. Wood salad bowls, cutting boards, and utensils with wooden handles should be hand washed. The wood can crack and warp in a dishwasher.
Cast-iron cookware. Washing cast-iron cookware in a dishwasher strips off the baked-on oil and seasoning that gives cast-iron cookware a slick surface and prevents rusting and food from sticking.
Computer keyboards. Yes, it is hard to clean a computer keyboard, but if you put in your dishwasher, water will get inside the keyboard and probably ruin it.
Footwear. It may seem like the easiest way to clean waterproof footwear like Crocs and flip-flops is by putting them in the dishwasher, but the heat in your dishwasher can warp and shrink footwear and make it brittle.
Delicate clothing. Some clothing items, like wool sweaters, silk scarves, and bras say on them that you shouldn’t put them in a washing machine or clothes dryer. That doesn’t mean that is safe to put them in a dishwasher instead.
Insulated mugs. Water and heat can damage the vacuum seal between the inside and outside layers of the mug. Once the vacuum seal is broken and water gets inside, the mug will permanently lose its ability to retain heat or cold.
Dishwashing liquid. Never put dishwashing liquid in a dishwasher! Only use dishwasher detergent. Dishwashing liquid is designed to make lots of bubbles. Dishwasher detergent is not. If you put dishwashing liquid in your dishwasher, your kitchen could be flooded with bubbles. Even if that doesn’t happen, your dishes will likely be left covered with a sticky soapy film.
Non-stick pans. Washing non-stick cookware in your dishwasher will shorten the life of the non-stick coating.
Electric appliances. (This is the most dangerous!) A lot of people put small electric appliances in their dishwashers, things like coffee makers, blenders, hair dryers, and popcorn makers. You should never use an electric appliance that has been in a dishwasher. Toss it out! Put it in your garbage can before you get electrocuted!

What was the strangest thing that a tenant of mine put in his dishwasher? Well, I once had a tenant who put an expensive North Face tent in his dishwasher. The heat from the dishwasher shrank the fabric so much that it would no longer fit on the tent poles. He also put his hiking boots in the dishwasher. They were also ruined. He expected me to buy him a new tent and hiking boots. Predictably, he blamed the dishwasher. I refused to pay him, which surprised him, but not his roommates.


COOKING FISH IN YOUR DISHWASHER!

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A couple of years ago, a tenant called me on the phone and told me that her dishwasher smelled bad and that the bad odor was getting worse. I went over to her apartment, sniffed inside her dishwasher, and said: “Your dishwasher smells like fish. Do you know why?” She told me that she didn’t know why but that maybe – just maybe – it was because she had been cooking salmon in her dishwasher. That left me confused. She then showed me a cookbook with a recipe in it for salmon cooked in a dishwasher. This was something that I had not heard about before. I told her to stop cooking fish in her dishwasher and to run the dishwasher twice with nothing in it except dishwasher detergent. When I got home, I went online and searched ‘fish cooked in a dishwasher.’ To my surprise, I found dozens of recipes for fish cooked in a dishwasher. (No. I’m not making this up, although this story may sound just too bizarre to be true. Go to Google and check it out for yourself.)

Cooking fish in a dishwasher is a really bad idea, no matter what anybody tells you. Predictably, your dishwasher will smell like fish. Even worse, cooking fish in your dishwasher could make you very sick. The heat in your dishwasher may not be sufficient to kill parasites and dangerous microorganisms like salmonella. The temperature inside a dishwasher doesn’t get anywhere nearly as high as the temperature inside an oven. That’s why there are plastic parts inside your dishwasher, but there are no plastic parts inside your oven. I also found recipes online for chicken, turkey, eggs, lobster, and lasagna cooked in a dishwasher. You should never cook food in your dishwasher. It isn’t designed for that. (Yes, everyone knows that you have to be very smart to get into U.C. Berkeley, but unfortunately, the SAT doesn’t have any questions on it like: “Should you cook fish in your oven or your dishwasher?”)

I can’t figure out why anybody would want to cook fish in a dishwasher. If an apartment has a dishwasher, it also has a stove. There are lots of apartments that have a stove but no dishwasher, but I’ve never seen an apartment that had a dishwasher but no stove. Take a look at the photo below. I copied this photo from a recipe for salmon cooked in a dishwasher on the Realtor.com web site. It seems to me that they should know better than to recommend something like this. Look at this photo and ask yourself – What sort of person would look at this picture and not immediately know that there is something wrong – very wrong – with this?

Most Organic Food Is A Waste Of Money.

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MONEY-SAVING TIPS FOR COLLEGE STUDENTS.

The only thing that I buy in the organic section of the supermarket are strawberries. Strawberries grow on the ground, they are sprayed with a lot of chemicals, their skin is thin and very porous, and we eat the skin. I will pay a little extra for organic strawberries, but most organic food is just a complete waste of money. Frankly, I can’t even figure out what the word ‘organic’ means when it comes to some foods. Like – what is organic seafood? I have never been able to figure that one out. For example, what is organic Pacific salmon. I’ve seen that on restaurant menus here in Berkeley, but what is it? All Pacific salmon comes out of the Pacific Ocean, whether it is wild caught or farm raised, and there is a lot of junk in the Pacific Ocean – including radioactive junk from Japan. It seems to me that the only difference between organic Pacific salmon and regular Pacific salmon is the price. Think carefully about buying organic food. Go online and find out which organic foods make sense, and which are just a waste of money. Most of them are. I know a lot of people in the chocolate business, and they all say that organic chocolate is a complete waste of money. I don’t know a single person in the chocolate business who buys organic chocolate for his own consumption.

SOME MYTHS ABOUT ORGANIC FOOD.

Myth: Organic food tastes better. I know people who swear that they can taste the difference between organic and non-organic foods, but blind taste tests conducted at many universities have consistently found that people cannot tell any difference in the taste or appearance of organic vs. non-organic foods. The fact that organic food costs more (and often a lot more) doesn’t mean it tastes or looks any different than conventionally produced food.

Myth: Organic food is healthier. Maybe organic food is healthier for you, but there is no evidence of that. For over 50 years, scientists have been looking for evidence that organic food is healthier than conventional food, but there is still no good evidence that people who eat organic food are healthier or live longer than people who don’t.
 
Myth: Organic farms pay and treat their workers better. Sadly, that is also not true. The USDA organic label tells you nothing about the wages or working conditions at an organic farm. Workers at organic farms are just as likely as other farm workers to be underpaid, harassed, exploited, and cheated by their employers. Michael Pollan says: “If organic consumers went to those places (organic farms), they would feel they are getting ripped off.”

Myth: Organic food is pesticide-free. This is the most widely-held myth about organic food. An apple can be sprayed with a variety of powerful pesticides and still be labeled organic as long as those pesticides were on the approved list from the U.S. Organic Standards. But organic pesticides can be just as harmful to your health and the environment as inorganic ones. ‘Organic’ does not mean ‘safe’ or ‘good for you.’ Plants produce lots of toxic chemicals. For example, potassium cyanide can be extracted from a number of organic sources, including apricot pits and apple seeds, but that doesn’t mean that organic cyanide is good for you or safe to eat.
apple
P.S. – The majority of my current tenants are chemistry graduate students. They tell me that potassium cyanide is definitely not good for you, regardless of whether it came from an organic or inorganic source.

What Is That White Stuff That Sometimes Forms On Salmon When You Cook It?

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salmonHave you ever been served a piece of broiled or baked salmon that had some mysterious white stuff on the surface? That white stuff is albumin. When salmon is cooked, the muscle fibers contract, pushing albumin to the surface. Once the albumin dries out, it congeals and turns white. Not only does this detract from the salmon’s appearance, it also indicates that the fish will taste dry. The solution? Take the salmon out of your refrigerator 30 minutes before you cook it and let it warm up to room temperature. Then cook the salmon at a low temperature. This will slow the contraction of the muscle fibers, keeping more moisture inside the fish, reducing or eliminating the formation of that ugly white stuff on the salmon’s surface. Haven’t you ever wondered what that white stuff is? Well, now you know!