Don’t Cook in the Dishwasher

Posted in Food Safety,Our Blog on June 22, 2026

Recently a post went semi viral on social media about people using their dishwasher to cook a ham. Immediately I know my eyes got huge and I had to see if this was even a real thing. Much to my surprise– it was not a myth. Apparently I was very behind on this very bizarre trend as it piqued the interest of the internet around 2013.

Why would anyone want to cook food in something that sees all things nasty. If you have ever cleaned your dishwasher filter (and if you haven’t it is time to) you know how disgusting they get. I take mine out pretty regularly and clean it with Dawn Powerwash because one word: gross. Sometimes we even have to soak it, so that’s just another reason to add to my “don’t cook in the dishwasher” list.

What does the internet say?

The dishwasher is basically the poor man’s sous vide, and as such offers many more limitations for the types of things you can cook (this varies by the dishwasher you have and its selection of settings, as well). One thing I do like about the dishwasher method, though, is that you don’t need to buy extra appliances. True sous vide requires an actual sous vide wand or entire sous vide “bath” in addition to the recommended vacuum sealer and vacuum sealer bags. That’s just a lot of investment for something you most likely won’t use that often.

I can’t imagine putting my dinner and dishes in the same area and calling it cooking, but apparently there are many people who take the challenge. Even Oprah gave the dishwasher cooking method a try. To me the chemicals that are inside including the rinse agent and the pods that are used to clean the dishes just don’t seem worth it.

There doesn’t seem like a way to get the inside clean enough (yes the dishes are clean when they are done) to prepare a meal. The more I read on Google the bigger my eyes seem to get including an episode of Worst Cooks in America where a contestant scoured the kitchen for a dishwasher to prepare salmon and ended up saying “guess I will use the oven instead.”

While I am all about experimenting in the kitchen, this is one trend I think I will leave to others and stick with safe cooking methods that have been tried and true long before the invention of the dishwasher. With so many of us having Instant Pots that have sous vide, slow cookers, ovens, microwaves, etc I will leave the dishwasher to washing the dishes and keep my dish pan hands focused on proven food methods.

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