Ditch the conventional stove and trendy toaster oven for cooking your next meal in the dishwasher. Yes, you heard that right. The dishwasher can be heated up into the triple digits to fully cook everything from salmon to potatoes.
The trend started with cooking poached salmon in the dishwasher by wrapping it tightly in aluminum foil. After adding some lemon, oil and spices, the foil package is then placed on the dishwasher’s top rack and set to a normal washing cycle without adding soap, like you would when washing dishes. The cooking process then begins, where the mix of hot water and steam that reaches around 140 to 150 degrees Fahrenheit essentially poaches the salmon to a soft and creamy texture.
Over the years, the idea of cooking food in the dishwasher has drawn confusion and criticism for its waste of energy and water – after all, you can’t simultaneously wash your dishes while there’s foil-wrapped salmon in the dishwasher.
Italian author Lisa Casali has a different take. In her book “Cucinare in lavastoviglie” (Cooking With the Dishwasher), Casali writes about how to use the dishwasher to cook meals and save energy.
The main difference: Instead of using aluminum foil, Casali suggests wrapping meals in airtight sealed jars during a regular dish cycle, with detergent. That way, the hot water doesn’t touch the food and soap can also be added to the cycle to simultaneously clean dishes while cooking dinner.
Although the book is in Italian, Casali has posted some instructional videos with English subtitles on Vimeo.
Follow the links below for tried-and-tested, dishwasher-friendly recipes:
