Cornish Game Hens were on sale, so I made Alton Brown’s recipe, which calls for pressing the hen under a tin-foil wrapped brick while roasting. I scrubbed the brick by hand, but now I’m wondering; if I do the recipe again, can I just put the brick in the dishwasher? Will the brick dissolve? It’s an old red brick from the garden, and there’s a bit missing from one corner.
IANA mason, but I’ve been under the impression that red bricks are a ceramic (closer to a ‘glass’, if you will) rather than something like a dirt clod or a sugar cube. Since there are brick buildings that have been around for a couple/few centuries, I’d say they’re not greatly susceptible to dissolution.
You don’t need to make the brick sterile. Just get the dirt off.
In the dishwasher I bet flakes small and large will come off. Would you put gravel in your dishwasher.
The brick is already clean (from your first use) and you are wrapping it in foil. Why the need to super clean it in the washer? Just rinse it and you are go. The question is still interesting from a purely academical point of view, though. I agree with Johnny LA in that bricks last a lot under the elements, so I doubt a run through the dishwasher will send it back to its mud days.
Useless information for the OP but I did it once.
I took a light colored brick from a goldfish pond that was all covered with drab green alga and run it through the dishwasher. I wanted to put it in a guppy tank without any alga. It came out of the dishwasher a magnificent chartreuse color.
To be pedantic about it, a ceramic like a brick has undergone a process called “quartz inversion” which happens to clay bodies quite suddenly at a temperature of about 1060 F. this is what changes it from dried clay into a ceramic, which isn’t going to return to mud, even under the influence of large amounts of water at any temperature over long periods of time. Red brick is fired at something in the vicinity of 1600 F, according to a quick google check. Any degradation that happened to the brick in the dishwasher would be physical - bits being flaked off or stress causing cracks. I doubt that it would happen, though.
Still, the thing’s being wrapped in tinfoil and placed in the oven. I don’t see why you need to do more than hose the dirt off it with the garden hose.
How was it?
A little bit of germ-phobia. I took a food safety class a few years ago and emerged permanently traumatized. I’m fully aware that I don’t have to wash the brick that’s going to be securely wrapped in tin foil, but I have a need to do it. I’m sorry I’m being illogical; I can’t seem to help it. Perhaps buying a new, smooth brick will help.
Thanks for the datapoint, janeslogin. And you too, Johnny. I’ve put ceramic dishes in the dishwasher before and figured bricks were in the same class of stuff. I just wasn’t sure if the glaze was what held the ceramics together.
It was pretty good, and the Devil’s Grandfather liked it too. Worth doing again, IMHO. I recommend doing the spicy version. You can find a transcript of the show Fowl Territory on the fan page. I think next time I will add a little garlic.
on preview: thanks yabob!
The brick will get wet
I would imagine that being in a hot oven will do more to kill germs than anything a dishwasher would do.
Yeah, the brick is porous so the dishwasher would force water into the little nooks and crannies. If anything, this could actually encourage bacterial growth upon return to room temperature.