You Can't Cook Meat In A Dishwasher, Can You?

When cooking meat, most people turn to tried-and-true methods like grilling, roasting, or pan-frying. But what if there was a rather unconventional yet surprisingly effective way to prepare your favorite cuts of meat that relied on the same appliance you trust to clean your dishes? That's right, you can indeed cook meat in a dishwasher. Although it might sound unorthodox, cooking meat this way has gained a quirky reputation for producing tender results. At a fundamental level, your dishwasher and oven are both appliances that essentially function as insulated chambers suited for high heat.

You'll find several tutorial-style videos on YouTube showing this method in action. "Inside Edition" featured a segment on how to cook steak in the dishwasher. According to guest chef Michelle Doll, the key is to put the protein in an airtight, vacuum-sealed bag before tossing it into the dishwasher with the plates. "It's going to cook in its own juices and kind of concentrate the flavor," she said. Another clip on the "Cook With Meat" YouTube channel gives an up-close look at how to cook a bone-in ribeye steak in the dishwasher. You can vacuum seal it yourself or savvily purchase an already-vacuum-packed steak and pop it in the dishwasher for a 90-minute wash cycle. When it comes to finishing your meat, you can achieve crave-worthy browning by searing it on both sides in a ripping-hot skillet with some butter for basting at the end.

When you think about it, it's not all that outlandish. Preparing meat in the dishwasher is a take on the French technique of sous vide, or "under vacuum," which involves cooking food in a vacuum-sealed bag immersed in a water bath at a precisely controlled temperature. This method can be especially beneficial for elevating a cheap cut of meat into a refined dish.

The sous vide cooking process is gentle and slow, often taking hours for tougher cuts of meat or delicate items like fish. However, the extended cooking time is precisely what makes this technique so exceptional. It allows for the gradual breakdown of unforgiving connective tissues in meats, resulting in an incredibly tender and juicy end product. Since the food is sealed in a bag, it retains its natural flavors, moisture, and nutrients. One crucial tip to keep in mind for the dishwasher method is to leave the detergent out.

A Reddit user shared their experiment with cooking steak in the dishwasher, complete with some impressive photos of the medium-rare result. It took some trial and error to get the temperature and settings just right, they explained, but once they did, they claimed it was just as tasty as if they had used a sous vide machine.

Meat isn't the only food that can be prepped in the dishwasher. In fact, Oprah Winfrey has featured how to prepare an entire lunch in the appliance by arranging ginger and cilantro salmon, asparagus, noodles, and mixed vegetables in foil packets and cooking them on the hottest and longest cycle until ready to enjoy.

It's also possible to cook a potato in the dishwasher. If you're going this route, it's best to slice your spud to allow for thorough cooking. Use the same foil packet method as Oprah, or go with an airtight pouch — either way, be prepared to be impressed.

Lisa Casali, an Italian food writer, has been playing around with dishwasher cooking for years and actually penned a book on the subject in 2011 (currently only available in Italian). Her recipes span everything from veal and tuna to fruits and desserts. She also launched a Vimeo series devoted to the technique.