I’ve been bicoastal this year. Half my time in Seattle, half in NYC. I’ve had an opportunity to see how things really differ between East and West.
I’m of the mind that the differences essentially boil down to one thing: sponges don’t smell in Seattle like they do in NY.
You NYers out there know about sponge-rot, right? That god-awful odor the kitchen sponge develops after a week or so of routine service. Having been raised in NY, I devoted considerable time and thought to avoiding sponge-rot altogether (My Mom believed the kids should help clean up after meals, irrespective of risk to life and limb). Out of self-preservation, I learned of/developed several protocols to combat this scourge. The best methods by far are to:
Run the diseased sponge throught the dishwasher (my Mom’s method)
Microwave the damp, diseased sponge for approximately 1 minute (my favored method).
My time in Seattle has taught me why Seattle really was voted the most livable city; their sponges don’t stink! It must be the healthy Pacific NW air, but my kitchen sponge in Seattle never develops an odor of any kind.
And now to the GQ: Why do sponges develop sponge-rot in NY but not in Seattle? Presumably, this has to do with ambient microbial flora. Are the causative organisms specifically known? Are they absent in Seattle? Also, please feel free to chime in to confirm and/or extend my general observation about the geographical distristribution of sponge-rot.
I suspect humidity is a big factor. When I’ve been in humid areas, towels get stinky real quick, but in drier climes they stay fresh longer. I suspect this is because in humid areas the towel stays wet longer, and thus the microbes have more opportunities to stink.
Thanks douglips. Humidity may be a factor, but no seasonal variation in stinkiness is apparent in NY (where the winters are dry and summers are humid). Additionally, since I’m a clean-buff, whether I’m in Seattle or NY, the sponges stay at least moist all of the time.
As stated, this is just a WAG, but could it have anything to do with the amount of crap in the air in such a large city as NYC, as opposed to the (relatively) clean air of the PNW? In addition to the air FROM those two respective cities, where does the air IN those two cities come from? I believe Seattle’s air comes from out over the ocean. I don’t know where NYC’s prevailing winds come from, but isn’t it inland?
So nobody’s buying the difference in ambient flora idea? I like it because it jives with what I’ve read about Trapist ales. They are fermented by ambient yeasts (in fact fermentation begins with the exposure of the wort to the atmosphere in a shallow tray in a room with fans and open windows). Apparently, you can brew beer that good with just any ambient yeasts. You need the hard-working Belgian kind.
And nobody is confirming (or rebutting) my observations. C’mon guys, I know you live in places, and you probably use sponges. Chime in
I like the idea of laid-back non-stinky Pacific NW flora vs. aggressively in-your-face NYC microbes. My bread cookbooks say that sourdough starters made in different locations will often taste different because the ambient yeasts are different. Some give rise (ha!) to yucky sourdough.
Up here in VT we don’t seem to have too of a problem with sponge-rot, unless the weather’s really gross. (But on the Simpsons last night, Moe answered the phone “Moe’s Tavern, Home of the World’s Smelliest Rag.”)
Yes, Seattle’s kitchen sponges are indeed fresher, due to the mellow hippy microbes indiginous to the Pacific Northwest. However, I bet if you get just a little more anal and start microwaving your sponge every single day (like I do), you won’t have any spongerot at all, ever. Your mileage may vary.
