4 Ingredient Dishwasher Detergent

As promised, here is my homemade dishwasher detergent recipe! It works wonders on my dishes, especially since I discovered citric acid – this seems to be a key component. Yes, it does contain borax. See my FAQ for my opinion on its safety! Yes, the occasional crusty pan comes through – especially if I’ve fried some eggs, but i have never found a detergent that seems to kick fried eggy butt, franky. Especially on spatulas. What is it with that?! See my post on CREAM OF TARTAR for a solution for stubborn stuck on messes!

Anyway, here we go. You’ll need

1 part citric acid*
1 part sea salt / kosher salt (do not replace with table salt)
2 parts borax
3 parts washing soda – NOT the same as baking soda!

Mix well in a large bowl, and transfer to your container of choice!
Use about 1 tablespoon per load.

AND in your rinse compartment: full strength white vinegar – I find this to be crucial. If you find you are getting residues, check your compartment to make sure it is topped up.

I have been told that folks with softer water need less citric acid, and those with harder water need more. I have neither soft nor particularly hard water, so this mix works for me. If you have really hard water, though, and you are getting residues, add 1/2 part more citric acid and see how that goes.

This detergent MAY harden / clump over time due to the citric acid content. I recommend making SMALL batches, using it regularly and quickly, giving a shake every now and again, and adding a terra cotta brown sugar protector (soaked) to your jar. If you have any other tips or tricks to avoid this, please post a comment!

I hope this works for you – let me know how it goes!

*If you need citric acid, check your local soap making shop like The Soap Dispensary, or you can buy it online at New Directions Aromatics.

Homemade dish soap!

So it’s time for me to share another coveted recipe with you – this one is a tiny bit trickier, but not by much! One of the last products I replaced in my kitchen was my dish soap. This one is as sudsy as you are going to get! It is really tricky to come by a recipe that has long lasting suds like commercial soaps – and do you know why that is? Because some of the most harmful and toxic ingredients in commercial dish soap are SURFACTANTS, or those ingredients which act as foaming agents to give that sudsy effect to your dish soap. So when we eliminate these from our natural home made products, we just aren’t going to get the same amount of suds. And you know what? It doesn’t matter! Your dishes will get just as clean (if not more so, in my opinion) with this easy recipe, and you won’t have to worry about any carcinogens on your skin (despite many claims of soaps being “gentle”).

In a large mason jar, mix:

1 part soap flakes
1 part liquid castille soap
1/4 part washing soda

UPDATED 01/25/14 Add 5 parts boiling water and mix until ingredients dissolve into a clear liquid*. If you mix things with cool water, you will just get something kind of clumpy; the ingredients will not be as well distributed. Allow to cool – finished product will be whitish and may be somewhat thick.

This was one of the toughest to arrive at, but most rewarding recipes I hade made. This dish soap works wonders. Your dishes will be even squeakier clean (and I highly recommend this step) if you finish with a rinse in a sink full of water with a small amount of vinegar added to neutralize and strip the soap. Especially useful if washing plastics, as I find grease sticks to them more than other things! Do NOT add the vinegar to your washing sink, or your soap will flip flop into something non-soapy.

This mixture tends to congeal over time, so every now and again you may want to add a touch of hot water and re-mix. However, doing this too often will cut down on the effectiveness. Because of this, I just I scoop a bit out with my finger and swish vigorously into the sink under running water, rather than using a traditional squeeze bottle. A little goes a long way!

*This is what your dishsoap will look like before it cools:

Cream of tartar for cleaning?!

So a friend recently made me aware of the cleaning powers of cream of tartar, so when I came across a very stubborn eggy (stainless steel) pan that the dishwasher didn’t clean, I decided to try it out!

All I did was dust the surface of the pan lightly with cream of tartar, added a bit of water, let it soak for a about 15 minutes, came back and scrubbed with a scrubby sponge. The pan looked as clean as it had looked EVER. Like even better than brand new. Have any pots or pans with ‘stains’ on them, or a stubborn stuck on mess to clean? Try EDIBLE cream of tartar to clean those pots and pans better than any commercial cleaner could do. I wish I had taken a before picture of the pan……but I must admit I wasn’t counting on it working as well as it did!

Hooray for cream of tartar!