For years, my mother-in-law insisted that adding baking soda helped with soaking dishes.  And for years I failed to understand the point.  Until the last time she came to visit, when the communication breakdown finally became clear and I understood what she’d been trying to tell me.

Once again, she was telling me that using baking soda would help soften up the dried-on food.  And once again I was protesting that water does just fine.  “Water softens up the food just fine by itself.  So I can use water by itself and do the job, or use water and baking soda to do the same job.”  That’s when she cleared up the confusion: “You don’t need water if you use the baking soda.”  (Imagine the light bulb going on over my head here.)

Okay, so you do need a little water, but not much.  I tried it soon afterward, and she’s right — it works great.  The basic idea is that you need to dampen the dirty surfaces of the dish, and you need to coat them with baking soda.  For simplicity’s sake, I actually did this the other way around; I dusted the dish with baking soda much like I would flour a cake pan, then misted it with water from a spray bottle.

I forgot to take any pictures ahead of time, but I just let it sit for maybe ten minutes, and then I took a finger and wiped, and you can see how easily the gunk wiped off:

The rest of it washed up just as easily.  (Do note that you have to wash it before it dries again.)

I don’t know if the baking soda actually plays a significant role in softening the stuck-on food, or if it just helps hold the dampness in place long enough for the water to do the trick, but it does seem to work.  If it’s just the bottom of a dish that’s nasty, it’s probably easier just to run water into it and let it soak the normal way.  But this is really great for deep dishes like this blender jar, because it would take a lot of water to fill this to the top for soaking.

So…thanks, Mom, for persisting until I figured out what you were trying to tell me. 🙂