The Clever Kitchen Cleaning Trick That Julia Child Swore By

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Cooking can be a way to show love and to make delicious foods, but the aftermath can be a nightmare. When it's time to clean up, you likely have a mess of crusty, dried dishes that take a lot of time and elbow grease to get clean. This may dampen your love of cooking or lead you to only create easy meals that need minimal dishes. However, thanks to the wisdom of Julia Child, there is a better way to strike a balance between cooking your favorite culinary delights and cleaning up after. "Use all the pans, bowls, and equipment you need, but soak them in water as soon as you are through with them," she wrote in her book, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking."

By soaking them, you ensure you won't have dried food to fight at the end of the meal. However, this doesn't mean leaving them overnight, as doing so is a common dish-cleaning practice that actually makes everything dirtier. That's because it provides the perfect breeding ground for harmful bacteria to grow. Instead, do this only while you're cooking and wash up right after eating, at the latest. Fill up one side of your sink or a medium-sized bin with some hot water, and put everything you've used in there.

While it may not be a requirement, there's no denying that a good soak is a simple way to make washing your dishes easier. You can take Child's advice one step further and also add soap to your sink or bin. This allows the surfactants in the detergent to further loosen the food and oil from your dishes, making them easier to rinse. Just be aware that not all items benefit from a soak. Leaving cast irons in water for hours can ruin their seasoning and even lead to rust, and soaking wooden utensils or cutting boards can lead to warping or cracking. 

As a strategy to make washing dishes more efficient, if you have a few spare minutes while you wait for something to boil or heat up, take a moment to take out a few pieces and wash them. Even if you only get a few done, you will certainly end up with far less work at the end of the night, and your enthusiasm for creating more culinary marvels the following day will be renewed.