The perils of washing dishes
I wash dishes at work often – we sometimes work in community centres with kitchens because food is a great way to promote any outreach we are trying to do. I also anticipate helping to wash dishes during the holidays here. I have one complaint and one curiosity about washing dishes in Britain. I’ll start with the complaint.
Why do many British people not rinse the soap off their dishes when they wash them by hand. The dishes get scrubbed and then go straight onto the draining board all soapy. I’ve been served cold drinks in clear glasses where you could easily see the partially disolved dried dishsoap in the bottom of the glass. Dish water gets dirty folks – I don’t care if you dry your dishes immediately, your dish towel will just collect the dirty soapy water and thus the dishes just stay dirty.
Now for the curiosity – what exactly is a tea towel? I’ve used both fluffy cotton towels (which in my opinion tend to leave a little fluff on the dishes) and I’ve used the smoother, tightly woven stiff types of towels. I thought both qualified as tea towels but when British volunteers work in the kitchen with me they often ask for a tea towel when they have a perfectly good clean towel in their hand. And I did try to work out whether one type of towel was more likely to be accepted as a tea towel but it seems both types are unsatisfying to some. So – what makes a towel a tea towel?
A quick Google revealed you can even get a Daniel Craig Tea Towel hahaha!
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Dreamer…unrealistic?…do i care? on 
yankeebean on 
Oh, and I thought I was the only neurotic one to notice this too!;)
yes I have had many conversations with my boyfriend and flatmates in the past about not rinsing the suds off… umm, that was an awkward conversation to have with out sounding like a freak! British people… please fill us in about this matter??
I love the Daniel Craig tea towel… only in England!
Tea towels in UK are funnier and more interesting than American dish towels (which are apparently the same thing according to Wikipedia). Score for Britain.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Towel
My guess is that not rinsing is a hangover from the days when lots of people didn’t have a double sink in their kitchen – our kitchens are short of space, so can’t always accommodate a double sink (although most do these days, I think).
I’m not really an expert on tea towels, but I agree that those towelling ones do leave fluff, so I prefer the linen ones, although you have to use them for months before they become soft and absorbent. When they’re new, they’re like paper.
Can’t believe it’s 2 days before Christmas and I’m writing about tea towels. I need to get a life.
I am so glad you mentioned this because I’ve noticed it too! My mother and sister both do this and so I thought it was just them. When my mother came to visit me in Florida, I NEVER let her touch the dishes, and if she did, I secretly re-washed them! Surely, the soap is full of bacteria? Yuck….
I’ve never thought about it this way, until you mentioned it.
The idea is that the teatowel will remove the suds and traces of them, if one dries up properly with a decent one. Decent teatowel will made of a tough but absorbing fabric.
Beforehand, you leave the dishes to drain on a rack for a few minutes to drain off the suds, after you’ve washed them.
Hope that helps!
I realize this reply is a bit late in the game, but it might shed some light on the failure to rinse the dishes in England. My sister in law is a microbiologist. It would be a major understatement to say she is anal about hygiene in the home; dish cloths are thrown away in 2-3 days because of bacteria. Same with flannels (wash rags). But they don’t rinse the dishes. I finally asked why. She gave me a spiel about surfactant and whatever else applied (it eluded my grasp I’m afraid), but the gist of it was that insufficient soap was left to need to worry about it. I’m like pacificyorkshirebird however, I rinse. Once in a while I pretend I am in England and try to slip something unrinsed into the drainer, then look at it, slip it back out and under the faucet it goes. Aarrrgggh! To avoid spotting you do have to wipe right away though, and I prefer the drip dry method.
You’ve got me worried now Linda: I boilwash my teatowels just once a week! I do use three towels over the week though….
As for flannels… I just use a srubbing-brush (or a scouring-pad for tougher stains) to clean plates. Oof, I must be a right trog!
I never even thought about the fact that the soapy water is dirty when I was bothered about people not dishes – it was more because several times before I realized what was going on, my glass of water had had soap bubbles in it and definitely tasted soapy. But now that you mention it, yes, not only do I not want soap left on my dishes, but I don’t want the dirty water left either! doesn’t matter to me what the microbiologist lady said … eeek!
I’ve since been rescued from having to eating from soapy dishes at the in-laws. Ever since they got a dishwasher it’s been smooth sailing…
Nothing quite like eating your first spoonful of yoghurt and getting a teaspoon fulla left-over soap…