Would You Cook a Steak in a Dishwasher?

Cooking sous vide is all about precisely controlling the water temperature to the exact value you want your meat to be: "rare", or "medium", or whatever. Sure, you can bag a piece of meat and run it through the "extra scrub" cycle, but you'll have no idea what the temperature was.

And don't try it with chicken at all, which, to be safe, needs to reach a higher temperature than most dishwashers achieve.

I first learned of dishwasher cooking, living in Denver in the mid-70's. Then I believe it was encouraged as an energy saving solution.

I first encountered dishwasher cooking in a cooking class in Atlanta in 2005, or thereabouts. The class was fairly elementary, but the one brand-new technique I learned was worth the price of admission: the instructor sealed a sea bass in an oven bag, and ran it through the dishwaser. The fish cooked beautifully.

This reminds me of a favorite story. In 2008, my wife and I were vacationing in Napa. Against all odds, we scored dinner reservations at the French Laundry. During dinner, one of my courses was a piece of perfectly cooked salmon. I asked the waiter how it was prepared. He told me something absurd about wrapping and deep-frying at 300 degrees. I said "I don't think that's what they do." He gave me a look that said "I work at the French Laundry, and you are a rube," but what he actually said, very professionally, was "Let me check."

A few minutes later he came back looking vaguely amazed and said "You were right. They vacuum seal it and cook it briefly in a water bath at 120 degrees." "Oh, OK, thanks for checking" I replied and went back to my salmon. When the waiter left, a lady at the next table tapped me on the shoulder and asked "Did you understand what he was talking about?" I was dimly aware of the sous vide technique at by then and told her "Yes, it's a new technique that involves quite a bit of specialized equipment, but you can get much the same effect by sealing your fish in an oven bag, and running it through the dishwasher."

The entire room burst into laughter. Apparently, my conversation with the waiter had attracted a lot of attention. So I enjoyed 10 seconds of fame, and the waiter invited us down for a kitchen tour after the meal, all as a result of dishwasher fish.

this. is. insane. i'm curious though. let's test it!!

We 'baked' a cake in a dishwasher. It was a strangely lopsided cake, but still tasty.