# Brits don't rinse soapy dishes? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 21, 2012, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-dont-rinse-soapy-dishes/635411 "2012-09-21T17:22:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2012, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-dont-rinse-soapy-dishes/635411/1 "2012-09-21T17:22:53Z")
Last night I heard that at least in the past, British restaurants would wash their dishes but not rinse the soap off, leaving it to dry on the plates, then serving food on the plates. In fact, there was no way to rinse them, as the wash water had soap in it. Is this true? Still? Britain only or the rest of Europe too? Does the served food taste soapy? I heard this from someone that worked in a British restaurant probably in the early 80s. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2012, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-dont-rinse-soapy-dishes/635411/2 "2012-09-21T17:39:40Z")
May well be true. If the food tastes soapy, you’re using way too much soap. You should be using little enough of it that the residue is, for all practical purposes, carried away by the run-off before the final evaporative (or towel-assisted) drying. ---
**Author:** ![svd678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@svd678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/svd678)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2012, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-dont-rinse-soapy-dishes/635411/3 "2012-09-21T17:50:06Z")
This sounds like a resurrection of a previous string about various countries that don’t rinse. I haven’t looked it up, but it went like this: Country A doesen’t rinse; citizen of A chimes in: I never heard of that, but Country B doesn’t; B responds we do, but C doesn’t. My conclusion is that its all urban fables. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2012, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-dont-rinse-soapy-dishes/635411/4 "2012-09-21T17:58:15Z")
> [@svd678](#): > > This sounds like a resurrection of a previous string about various countries that don’t rinse. I haven’t looked it up, but it went like this: Country A doesen’t rinse; citizen of A chimes in: I never heard of that, but Country B doesn’t; B responds we do, but C doesn’t. My conclusion is that its all urban fables. I don’t think it is an urban legend in this case. We did this one here a long time ago and it turned out to be common in Britain. I remember it mainly because I was so grossed out by it but it didn’t seem to phase all the people who admitted to doing it that way themselves. IIRC, it is done that way mainly because dishwashers aren’t nearly as common as they are in the U.S. and they also tend to use one large sink rather than a split sink. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2012, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-dont-rinse-soapy-dishes/635411/5 "2012-09-21T18:04:07Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > I don’t think it is an urban legend in this case. We did this one here a long time ago and it turned out to be common in Britain. I remember it mainly because I was so grossed out by it but it didn’t seem to **phase** all the people who admitted to doing it that way themselves. IIRC, it is done that way mainly because dishwashers aren’t nearly as common as they are in the U.S. and they also tend to use one large sink rather than a split sink. Nitpick: It’s _faze_ , not _phase_. If you could _phase_ people you could generate “people echoes”, like photon echoes. But people probably wouldn’t be fazed by that. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2012, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-dont-rinse-soapy-dishes/635411/6 "2012-09-21T18:06:30Z")
I found one thread on it. It does have some basis in reality: > **[British vs US: 2 kitchen questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=341595)** > > My in-laws were visiting from England recently, and I noticed two things. I am curious if these habits are widespread in England, peculiar to my in-laws, or common in the US, too, unbeknownst to me. Not rinsing dishes. When my British in-laws wash... ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2012, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-dont-rinse-soapy-dishes/635411/7 "2012-09-21T18:07:02Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > May well be true. If the food tastes soapy, you’re using way too much soap. You should be using little enough of it that the residue is, for all practical purposes, carried away by the run-off before the final evaporative (or towel-assisted) drying. If the food tastes soapy, I would be grateful. It is a huge improvement over the taste of your basic British food. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2012, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-dont-rinse-soapy-dishes/635411/8 "2012-09-21T18:07:45Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > IIRC, it is done that way mainly because dishwashers aren’t nearly as common as they are in the U.S. By dishwashers you mean people, not appliances, right? ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2012, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-dont-rinse-soapy-dishes/635411/9 "2012-09-21T18:15:54Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > By dishwashers you mean people, not appliances, right? I meant the appliance which may not seem to make immediate sense. However, if you have a dishwasher, you usually just rinse everything and put the dishes in it. Handwashing a load of dishes is usually done by filling the sink with water and used dishes and pulling them out one at a time when they are clean. If you just have a single large, sink, there isn’t an easy way to rinse everything after that without causing the sink to overflow. ---
**Author:** ![Ken001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/43a26b/32.png) [@Ken001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ken001)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2012, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-dont-rinse-soapy-dishes/635411/10 "2012-09-21T18:16:16Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > I don’t think it is an urban legend in this case. We did this one here a long time ago and it turned out to be common in Britain. > > IIRC, it is done that way mainly because dishwashers aren’t nearly as common as they are in the U.S. and they also tend to use one large sink rather than a split sink. Its a simple fact of life in most of the world. Dishwashers only exist in wealthy societies and even then are not ubiquitous. Older flats and houses often do not have space or convenient plumbing. In the third world where there often isn’t plentiful water, one sink or bucketload is plenty to wash the dishes. I certainly use a dishwasher but otherwise just wash dishes in a sink, place them on a draining board, and dry them with a tea-towel. My mother has done this for 80 years. Why would you waste time and water washing already clean items a second time? ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2012, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-dont-rinse-soapy-dishes/635411/11 "2012-09-21T18:18:49Z")
I have friends from Commonwealth countries who do the wash-but-don’t-rinse thing. To be fair, when we’ve lived together for weeks or months at a time I’ve never noticed the food tasting any soapier on the day after they wash the dishes than the day after I wash the dishes. That’s not to say that my way of hand-washing dishes is not objectively and indisputably superior, of course. It wastes less water, maximizes cleanliness while minimizing washing effort, doesn’t require a split sink, and avoids both soapy residue and dishwater-greasy residue on the dishes. Step 1: Scrape food remnants off dishes thoroughly into compost and/or garbage. Step 2: Soak any stubbornly smeared dishes (including utensils) in a small amount of hot water. Step 3: Stack the dishes by the side of the sink in preparation for washing. Step 4: Put a fairly clean pot or large bowl in the sink, and fill it (the pot or bowl, NOT the sink itself) with hot soapy water. Step 5: Use a little bit of the hot soapy water to scrub each dish with your sponge or scrubber, and stack the washed soapy dish in the sink next to the bowl. Repeat till sink is filled with washed stacked soapy dishes. Step 6: Quickly rinse the dishes under a thin stream of hot running water and put them in the drying rack. (You can do this almost as fast as you can pick up the dishes one by one and pass them from the rinsing hand to the rack-stacking hand.) If there were more dishes to wash than could fit in the sink at one time, repeat Steps 5 and 6 with the remaining dishes. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2012, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-dont-rinse-soapy-dishes/635411/12 "2012-09-21T18:26:11Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > I meant the appliance which may not seem to make immediate sense. However, if you have a dishwasher, you usually just rinse everything and put the dishes in it. Handwashing a load of dishes is usually done by filling the sink with water and used dishes and pulling them out one at a time when they are clean. If you just have a single large, sink, there isn’t an easy way to rinse everything after that without causing the sink to overflow. Gotcha. But there is. I have a single sink, and it isn’t that large, and I manage to rinse my dishes. Some might say I do it in a way that wastes water, but as a single man who eats out a lot, I’m not going to worry about it. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2012, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-dont-rinse-soapy-dishes/635411/13 "2012-09-21T18:44:34Z")
> [@Lazlo Hapsburg](#): > > If the food tastes soapy, I would be grateful. It is a huge improvement over the taste of your basic British food. Then by all means take yourself off someplace where the portions would choke a horse and everything’s deep-fried, including butter, or contains not less than one pound of refined sugar per serving, if not both, and you and I will both be the happier for it. ---
**Author:** ![MikeG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikeg/32/4329_2.png) [@MikeG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeG)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2012, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-dont-rinse-soapy-dishes/635411/14 "2012-09-21T18:55:16Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > Then by all means take yourself off someplace where the portions would choke a horse and everything’s deep-fried, including butter, or contains not less than one pound of refined sugar per serving, if not both, and you and I will both be the happier for it. I’ll have a chip buttie, a fried mars bar, and a BUTTER chicken. Oh and a scotch egg, canna forget that! And if there’s a sweeter candy than a jaffa cake, I haven’t heard of it. ---
**Author:** ![sweet\_chemist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@sweet\_chemist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweet_chemist)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2012, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-dont-rinse-soapy-dishes/635411/15 "2012-09-21T19:09:11Z")
> [@Lazlo Hapsburg](#): > > If the food tastes soapy, I would be grateful. It is a huge improvement over the taste of your basic British food. That is right. I would hate for some soap to ruin the flavour of my cheese from a can. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2012, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-dont-rinse-soapy-dishes/635411/16 "2012-09-21T19:11:19Z")
> [@Ken001](#): > > I certainly use a dishwasher but otherwise just wash dishes in a sink, place them on a draining board, and dry them with a tea-towel. My mother has done this for 80 years. Why would you waste time and water washing already clean items a second time? You’re not washing already clean items. If they haven’t been rinsed they haven’t been completely washed and they aren’t clean. The germs are still there, trapped in the soap. The soap carries the germs with it when it’s rinsed off. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2012, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-dont-rinse-soapy-dishes/635411/17 "2012-09-21T19:33:07Z")
\*\*Kimstu \*\*is perfectly correct in how to hand wash dishes with one sink. I’ve had to do this myself, and I find that the plastic dishpans are what I really needed. I also found that I’m going to insist on a double kitchen sink when I have a choice. ---
**Author:** ![Brynda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Brynda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynda)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2012, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-dont-rinse-soapy-dishes/635411/18 "2012-09-21T19:39:14Z")
Not an urban legend, I assure you. I had British in-laws, and they didn’t rinse. Saw them many a time, plus we talked about it. Like the posters above, they don’t see a reason for rinsing. I suspect it has something to do with saving water, expense of heating water, etc. However, I have to agree–no soapy taste. ---
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2012, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-dont-rinse-soapy-dishes/635411/19 "2012-09-21T19:42:03Z")
I think someone brought up this question in one of the other threads about this: When you take a shower do you get yourself wet, soap up, and then just step out and dry off? No? Then why would you do that with your dishes? Both clothes washing machines and dishwashing machines all rinse. I am not sure why handwashing dishes gets to be the non-rinse exception. ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2012, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-dont-rinse-soapy-dishes/635411/20 "2012-09-21T19:42:23Z")
> [@sweet\_chemist](#): > > That is right. I would hate for some soap to ruin the flavour of my cheese from a can. Cheddar cheese is one of the British food items that is actually pretty darn good. And it was not in a can, er, tin. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-dont-rinse-soapy-dishes/635411.md?page=2)