Washing Chopisticks?

October 9, 2005 9:07 PM

What's the best way to wash chopsticks in a dishwasher? They always fall through the basket...

all the Asian people I know wash them by hand, but I prefer the sanitation of a dishwasher.

posted by Instrumental to food & drink (12 comments total)

Maybe cut a piece of plastic from a container lid (yogurt, sour cream, etc) to fit in the basket?

My husband did that for the counter dish rack, and it works really well. Hopefully, the dishwasher won't warp the plastic too badly.
posted by luneray at 9:18 PM on October 9, 2005

Put them horizontally in one of the plate racks.
posted by interrobang at 9:19 PM on October 9, 2005

Or a square of fine metal mesh, if you have some handy or are willing to go to a hardware store.
posted by Krrrlson at 9:19 PM on October 9, 2005

I just put them in pointy-side-up, and the wider end is wide enough to keep from falling through the holes in the basket. Maybe you need wider chopsticks?
posted by ambrosia at 9:24 PM on October 9, 2005

Don't necessarily think it's unsanitary. It's just like hand-washing dishes, it'll come off. Even though the wood is slightly porus a good scrub pulls all that stuff out. Don't put wood in the dishwasher, it starts crapping it up pretty quickly.
posted by abcde at 9:45 PM on October 9, 2005

I handwash mine.

When I do have to machinewash them, I bunch them together, put them in the top shelf horizontally, then weigh them down with a coffee mug. They usually don't fly around like that.
posted by spinifex23 at 9:55 PM on October 9, 2005

Yeah, we just lay them horizontally on the top rack, in the spot where the wooden spoons and stuff go. Haven't had a problem.
posted by librarina at 10:17 PM on October 9, 2005

Pop them in the cutlery rack, but at an acute angle (assuming your cutlery rack has one of those long-ish bits presumably for holding, er, lids or something).

Top rack would probably be better, since they're plastic (I assume you're not talking about wooden ones -- always hand-wash those), but they're so cheap you can easily throw one away when it starts to get a little ratty.
posted by 5MeoCMP at 10:23 PM on October 9, 2005

If you don't have a strainer-type section in the top rack, the n I'll second spinifex's suggestion that you simply weight them down with a heavy coffee mug. A caution though: I handwash mine, but when someone else is clearing up and they've gotten run through the dishwasher, plain polished wooden ones have always done pretty well. If, however, they're the type with a decorative, lacquer-like finish, my dishwasher has destroyed more than one.
posted by tyllwin at 10:27 PM on October 9, 2005

Lots of chopsticks here. There's a special basket that we use to hold them (pointy side up). I believe we picked it up at an oriental market.
posted by forforf at 1:35 AM on October 10, 2005

There's a lot of inexpensive tupperware that's dishwasher/microwave safe these days. I think I remember picking up a set of 5 cheap Glad plastic containers for something like $4 or $6 (USD). Buy a set of those, take one of the containers and perforate it vigorously with large holes. (Use the rest of the tupperware for leftovers, of course) Put your chopsticks in that and put that contraption in the dishwasher. You might have to change your perforation scheme/design if it doesn't work quite right after the first test-wash.

But, I hand wash my chopsticks because my dishwasher is too small to accommodate an extra contraption like this without sacrificing valuable dishes/glasses space.
posted by Jon-o at 8:40 AM on October 10, 2005

I just rubberband them up and stick the wide end down.
posted by buybelen at 1:52 PM on October 10, 2005