Everyone loves Ina Garten’s classic, comforting, home-cooked dishes and easygoing tips for hosting, but you don’t always see the messier side of things in her kitchen. Even for the most revealing celebrity chefs, the show usually stops the second dinner is served. We may see the mistakes leading up to a finished dish or where they get their ingredients, but anyone who cooks at home knows that is only part of the battle. Every big dinner you cook is bound to leave a mountain of pots and pans to clean, and keeping them in great condition will save effort and money in the future. So how does a consummate hostess like Garten do it? Like so many other things she does in the kitchen, she actually keeps it pretty simple with soap, water, and patience.
Garten has revealed that her big trick for keeping pots and pans going over decades is to be gentle and avoid using the dishwasher if possible, especially if there are bits of food still caked on the surface. It turns out that the intense heat of the dishwasher can actually cook some of the food onto pans permanently before it gets it off. Instead, Garten opts for a much more low-tech approach to cleaning, and even for tougher jobs with caked-on food, she instead opts to soak her pans overnight in the sink.
Let pots and pans soak in soapy water to limit wear
There is really nothing complicated about Garten’s method either. She just recommends filling the dirty dishes with the hottest possible tap water and dish soap before letting everything sit until morning. Time does all the work for you. By then, any caked-on food should come off with a basic sponge and very little effort. She says this method is all it’s taken for some of her pots and pans to last 40 years. You want to avoid using harsher scrubbers, or if you need something a little more heavy-duty, stick with a bristle brush. And the one thing you do want to do to maximize the effectiveness of soaking is to make sure you get water on those pans as soon as you can after cooking. The longer they sit, the more time they have for food to harden on them.
The other trick to long-lasting pots and pans? Buy good stuff. Garten says she uses AllClad and LeCreuset cookware, and while they are an investment, they will repay your care. AllClad’s fully clad stainless steel cookware, in particular, is incredibly durable, and LeCreuset’s enameled cast-iron pots and pans are famous for lasting a lifetime. Plus, having high-quality pans adds a little extra incentive to keep them looking their best. As Garten would know, sometimes the old-fashioned ways of quality and simple kitchen ingenuity really are the best ways to do things.
