Wash Your Potatoes in the Dishwasher
ByThe look on my boys’ faces were priceless.
I mean, when I give out orders like, “Fold and put away the laundry” or “Go clean the bathrooms” I usually just get a routine shrug, nod, and a big high five. (Just kidding. My kids don’t like cleaning the bathrooms enough to warrant a high five.) But when I asked my boys to fill the dishwasher with potatoes, they thought maybe I’d finally lost my mind.
Apparently they hadn’t read the same tip I had that stated that if you need to scrub a large amount of potatoes, you could let your dishwasher do the work for you. Mom, crazy? Naw, just efficient.
(Okay, yeah, and a little crazy too.)
Recently, after ordering 50 pounds of potatoes from our food co-op, I had my boys put about a third of them into the dishwasher. I ran the load, without soap, and had tons of potatoes ready to bake and make into Homemade Hashbrowns.
I just wanted to share that tip in case you’re feeding a bunch of people for the holidays, in case you want to make Homemade Hashbrowns…
Or in case you wanted to make your kids giggle when you ask them to do a chore. ;)
Side Note: I typically bake a full roasting pan full of potatoes (with lid on) for about an hour and a half at 350°. Easiest way I’ve found to bake potatoes!
Ever washed potatoes in the dishwasher?
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Q: What temperature is your d/w water; didn’t they get partially cooked? I like the idea; I just can’t wrap my mind around it………. :)
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Laura Reply:
November 16th, 2012 at 7:51 am
They get a tiny bit steamed, but not much. I still bake them for just as long as normal.
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Thankfully I don’t have a need for that many potatoes at one time… What an interesting idea!
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Yes, I have washed potatoes in the dishwasher! I worked in the kitchen at church, and about once a month we had a “potato bar”, so we washed several loads of potatoes in the dishwasher before wrapping them with foil and baking them.
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Wondering if the cooking time will be reduced any? Since the dishwasher temp would likely steam cook them a bit.
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Laura Reply:
November 16th, 2012 at 7:50 am
It does steam them a tiny bit, but since I tend to bake so many potatoes at once, I still bake them for 1 1/2 hours.
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I’ve never washed potatoes in the dishwasher but I do remember my mother washing carrots in the washing machine.
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Carol Reply:
November 16th, 2012 at 10:18 pm
Inez always had a huge garden. One time I was at her house and she opened her washing machine to show me the load of potatoes she had just washed (cold water wash, I’m sure, since she was just as frugal as she was labor efficient!). :-)
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We tried this, it works for baked, but does not work if you are making them into french fries, must be the precooking, not sure, but my fries weren’t right when I did this…………..
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I had a friend who put her rolls in the dishwasher to raise. She turned it to the dry cycle and put a bowl of water on the bottom rack. She had the lightest, fluffiest rolls…
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Cathie Reply:
November 16th, 2012 at 10:24 am
I put mine on the counter on top of the dishwasher, then run a load. I have to say, I get the best rise this way!
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I used to work in a school cafeteria and we once washed a huge amount of potatoes in the dishwasher (it was one of those pass-thru kinds used in institutional settings, not the type used in homes). The ones we used right away were fine. However, they were cooked about 1/8″ beneath the skin, and we discovered this several days later when preparing some of them for lunch and they were spoiled. You wouldn’t leave cooked potatoes out at room temperature without expecting them to go bad, but that is exactly what we were essentially doing! So maybe if you can control the temp of your dishwasher I’d suggest running them through at a low temperature. I don’t have a dishwasher and am not familiar with them, so this is a statement made in ignorance: run them through just a rinse cycle or something, hopefully with a low temperature. You just want to clean them, not partially cook them.
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Hey, whatever works! When my gramma needed loads of stale bread for Thanksgiving stuffing she used to lay out bread on cookie sheets and stuff them under the beds for a day or two to harden. When my great gram made her Easter donuts, you’d walk in and see trays of doughballs rising up and down all the staircases. I host Chrismas, and I stick the wine bottles, soda cans and juice bottles out in the snow to chill which also saves on refridgerator space. Sometimes you’ve gotta innovate!
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Neat! I have to admit my first thought was won’t you taste the detergent lol.
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This is absolutely brilliant! Wow! Thank you for this tip–it is just about to come in real handy for holiday cooking :D
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I’ve never done this, but I will now! Probably this week.
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Great idea! Thanks Laura and all. Can I do carrots in my front load washer?
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Love it!
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Ok, question….what about washing in the dishwasher and then peeling and dicing for pressure canning? Would that work?
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Laura Reply:
November 16th, 2012 at 10:25 pm
I don’t know for sure, but I’m guessing it probably would. :)
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Wow – that is a great idea :) Never heard of that
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nice idea but I don;t have a dishwash. I would sure try it if I did
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I can’t see this as being a good idea from an energy or time saving standpoint. I can’t imagine it taking much less time, water, or electricity to just wash them in the sink. By the time you got them all into the dishwasher without falling through the racks you could have them finished being scrubbed in the sink using no electricity, not to mention less water being used, and your hands would be clean to boot!
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Laura Reply:
November 16th, 2012 at 10:30 pm
My boys had them loaded in the dishwasher in about 1 minute since they all worked together. It would have taken them/me about 45 minutes to stand at the sink washing 20 pounds of potatoes. We didn’t have any trouble with them falling through because these were some pretty big taters! :)
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I have never done that but if I ever had a lot of potatoes to wash, I’m definitely going to try it.
Way to go with ingenuity.
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My husband works in the University Food Service industry, so has LOTS of experience with large quantity cooking. We have used the commercial dishwasher to wash potatoes when we had to feel A LOT of folks. It is even faster than the home dishwasher. Works great!
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Oh, great idea!!! I’m getting 50 lbs. from Azure this week, gotta try this! :)
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Okay…washed a bunch in the dishwasher, came back and read more comments and now I’m worried about them spoiling since they are errr…partially cooked…? Any problems there you think? Do I need to store them in the fridge now?
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Laura Reply:
November 20th, 2012 at 6:41 pm
You may want to store them in the fridge. I bake, shred, and freeze mine right away, so I’ve never actually thought about it. Fridge would probably be best just in case!
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I do ours in the crockpot! A huge one that holds a lot!
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The last two years, when we’ve dug our potato crop for the year, we washed all the tiny ones in our old twin-tub washer (spin basket no longer works, so we bought a front-loader). It worked great to get them clean; they just needed a quick rinse afterwards. They don’t keep, though; the first year we had to throw away most of them. The second year, we canned them! Wonderful convenience food. The second year, however, the motor was going out, so next time, I’m thinking about buying a toilet plunger and have boys wash them in a half-barrel by plunging them up and down. We’ll see if that works. I have six boys, infant to almost 13, so lots of man-power!
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I recently discovered baked potatoes in the crockpot. So easy and wonderful!
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I mentioned this idea to my husband, who said “no way!” Apparently, the dirt washes into the motor of the dishwasher and will ultimately result in an expensive repair bill…
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