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A dishwasher runs hotter than your hands can stand and uses a detergent far more aggressive than dish soap. That combination cleans well and destroys a short list of things. Six items that come out worse than they went in. 1. Cast Iron The seasoning on a cast iron pan is a layer of polymerized oil bonded to the metal. Dishwasher detergent is strongly alkaline and it strips exactly that. The pan comes out dull gray, sticky food sticks to it, and it starts rusting within a day because there is nothing protecting the bare iron. Hot water, a brush, …

My shower curtain started going pink along the bottom. I assumed it was rust from the water, or dye running out of the fabric. It is neither. It is alive. What the Pink Actually Is It is a bacterium called Serratia marcescens. It is not mold and it is not mildew, which is why mold sprays often do very little to it. It is airborne and it is everywhere — in soil, in dust, outdoors. It cannot do anything until it lands somewhere permanently wet with something to eat. A shower curtain is exactly that. What it eats is the …

My kitchen trash can smelled even with a fresh bag in it. I bought the scented bags, I sprayed it, I took the trash out more often. It always came back within a day. The smell was not coming from the bag. It was coming from the can. Where the Smell Actually Lives Under the bag, at the bottom of the can. Every bag leaks a little, or drips when you lift it out. That liquid pools at the bottom, under the next bag, and sits there for months. In the rim and under the lid. Splashes dry on the …

Everything came out of my dishwasher with a dull white haze on it. Glasses, plates, the inside of the machine. I ran a cleaner through and it came back within a week. There are two different problems that look identical, and they need opposite fixes. First Work Out Which One You Have Take a hazy glass and soak it in white vinegar for five minutes. If the film comes off, it is hard water minerals. Limescale from calcium and magnesium in your water. If the film stays, it is etching. The glass surface itself has been damaged and it is …

I pulled the metal filter out of my range hood and could not see through it. It was a solid sheet of yellow-brown grease. I nearly bought a new one. Then I put it in the sink with boiling water and dish soap, and twenty minutes later it looked new. The Method That Actually Works Boiling water, dish soap, and baking soda. In that order, and the water has to be genuinely boiling — hot tap water will not do it. Fill the sink or a roasting pan with boiling water. Add a good squeeze of dish soap and about …

My neighbor boils her corn in milk. Not water with a splash of milk in it — actual milk, with butter and a spoon of sugar. I’d been boiling corn in salted water my whole life and thought that was the end of the subject. It is not. What It Does to the Corn Three things happen that plain water can’t do. The fat carries flavor into the kernels. Milk and butter are fat, and a lot of what makes corn taste like corn is fat-soluble. Water rinses flavor out; a fat-rich liquid puts it in. The sugar keeps it …