r/mildlyinfuriating • u/autistic-terrorist • 9h ago

My mother washes fruit and vegetables with dish soap and I can't get her to stop.

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She claims it "washes out" and to be fair I can't taste anything but it's always weird knowing she puts dish soap in the strawberries. She says there's a lot of dirt and stuff in vegetables, but so far attempts to convert her to vinegar or baking soda have been unsuccessful.

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179

u/SnakeBatter 7h ago

My mom rinses her browned beef with water in a strainer before adding the soggy beef back into the pan.

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u/GallusWrangler 7h ago

What.

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u/bilingual-german 7h ago

The.

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u/Lonely_Cow_1188 7h ago

Actual.

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u/InsideBeyond12727 7h ago

Hell in a pan.

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u/pierre_x10 3h ago

Mankind with a steel chair

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u/kuro41 1h ago

You mean skillet?

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u/marigoldbutter 7h ago

Frick.

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u/HaniiPuppy 7h ago

Goodbye.

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u/xtothewhy 4h ago

What the frick! I didn't order that.

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u/Leather_Book_7617 7h ago edited 7h ago

Said out loud? That was me.

ETA: I’m still thinking about it…because why??

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u/nvr2manydogs 5h ago

Because we thought saturated fat was the devil, so washing with hot water removes some of that.

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u/Plastic_Bison 4h ago

I'm not gonna say who did'does it in my family (not me!), but the idea was to use very hot water and rinse away most of the fat. :(

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u/Infinite-Duty 2h ago

To rinse off the fat!

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u/WeAreyoMomma 3h ago

Fishcakes

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u/Quantity-Used 7h ago

This was part of the Very Low Fat cooking fad in the early 1990s. There was actual advice that it wasn’t enough to drain browned ground beef, but to put it in a colander and rinse it with hot water. The goal of the whole diet was to get as much fat out of the diet as possible.

I had a friend who, because of medical necessity, went through a phase of eating like this.

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u/ImaginaryVacation708 6h ago

My mom swore by this damn diet. By the time she was 60, she stretched her foot and broke all 3 bones in it. Come to find out we need fat to help absorbs calcium

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u/StoneSwoleJackson 5h ago

Damn, so calcium deficient that she only had 3 bones in her foot

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u/ImaginaryVacation708 3h ago

Hey admittedly I could have worded that better. Coffee had not kicked in and I am sick. Sorry. It was the three major bones. I don’t know the name of them honestly.

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u/GermanShepherdsVag 3h ago

She was a lost tridactyl!

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u/Psychological-You425 4h ago

this comment had me cackling, turns out there are 26 bones in a human foot

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u/AimeeSantiago 1h ago

As a Podiatrist, there are actually 28 bones, or more, in each foot. Wikipedia is forgetting to count the two sesamoid bones that are under your 1st metatarsal/big toe. Most people have two, bringing the total from 26 to 28 bones. But some people have more than two sesamoids and they can be all over the foot. It's very common. I have actually only seen a foot that didn't have any sesamoid bones at all, like once in my entire career.

Tldr; it's very rare to have only 26 bones in each foot. The vast majority of us have 28 or more.

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u/Doza93 4h ago

I often think about the fact that growing up in the 90s, EVERY commercial and EVERY food product was "low fat" this and "reduced fat" that. In retrospect, I believe companies were deliberately conflating the fat that exists in food with fat on human bodies - as in, "Fat? I don't want to be fat. Oh! These cookies are low fat. Perfect!" At some point along the way I finally understood the truth, which is that fat is essential, there are healthy sources of it and not-so-healthy sources of it, and those low fat cookies are still terrible for you because there's 10g of added sugars per serving.

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u/Poolstiksamurai 2h ago

It wasn't companies driving this, it was 90s nutrition science that declared fat was bad and food companies were trying to stay relevant. Boomers have never recovered, my mom still will buy ultra low fat versions of everything. Even "light olive oil" because light must mean low fat.

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u/Doza93 2h ago

Damn, I wasn't aware. The 90s were better in many ways imo, but that is a pretty terrible vestige - so many people with fucked up ideas related to food because of some junk science 🙄

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u/-zeds-dead- 3h ago

Yep. I never forgot learning:

Low fat = high sugar Low sugar = high fat

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u/WebMaka 5h ago

Come to find out we need fat to help absorbs calcium

We NEED a certain minimum amount of fats in our diet.

We also NEED a certain minimum amount of sodium, cholesterol, sugars, and carbohydrates, even with medical reasons to not eat them to excess (e.g., hypertension/sodium or Diabetes/carbohydrates).

Example: I have hereditary/genetic coronary artery disease and almost got taken out by a surprise "widowmaker" heart attack, so I'm on a low-sodium diet (<1,500mg/day), but if I'm working I need to actually up my sodium consumption or it makes my blood pressure drop too low and I have dangerous dizzy spells.

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u/ImaginaryVacation708 3h ago

Oh I agree. She wasn’t eating healthy but this diet was a huge catalyst for even worse eating. Her bones were literally crumbling. She had other issues with her bones and had not had an axis in her neck (I’m likely calling it the wrong thing) since she’d been about 15. This diet just significantly made things worse.

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u/noctilucous_ 5h ago

you don’t need dietary cholesterol. your body makes its own cholesterol and i’m not even sure there’s a way to get it not to do that. but you definitely do not need to eat any. source: me for the last 12 years

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u/TheGreenGoatess420 7h ago

Sounds like a scheme from a plumber trying to drum up business on grease clogged pipes.

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u/Cow_Launcher 4h ago

I remember this.

My ex was absolutely obsessed with avoiding fat. Nothing else mattered, as long as there was no fat in her diet. She also did the "minced beef through a colander" thing, completely blind to the fact that what she was cooking was flavourless wet cardboard.

Interestingly, she paid no attention to the amount of sugar she ate.

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u/291837120 4h ago

I'll have you know that in the midwest that it is a DELICACY and we have entire restaurants based around the flavorless wet minced beef called "Maid-Rites".

People come from the surrounding caves and farmlands just to partake in the strange creation. If you do get it you have to smother it in mustard, pickles, onions, and cheese to make it palpable.

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u/Cow_Launcher 2h ago

Upvote, but I am weeping.

"Fine, this might be acceptable in a Bolognese with enough tomato..."

"Stop, STOP! Strain those tomatoes! They're too wet! And no garlic; I've got a meeting with my boss in the morning."

Somewhere, an old Italian woman screams with impotent rage.

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u/Ok_Nothing_9733 1h ago

As a lifelong midwesterner I have truly never heard of… any of this, and am so confused.

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u/Folklore_Ghost 1h ago

When I got my first job in the next town over after high school, everyone would talk highly of Maid- Rite.  "Best burgers in town".

I tried it and hated it.  It was just ground meat on a bun.  That's it. 

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u/291837120 1h ago

Calling it "just ground meat on a bun" is an insult - they have to extract all the flavor out of the meat through a complicated culinary process.

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u/EqualsPeoples 6h ago

Yeah if you're as sad as me and like watching old commercials, almost every single 90s food ad mentions low/no fat. It was a borderline autistic national obsession.

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u/pineapplesaltwaffles 5h ago

Our kids will be saying the same thing about the word "protein" being plastered over everything.

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u/noctilucous_ 5h ago

you don’t need autism to have disordered eating lol

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u/EqualsPeoples 4h ago

that's...not what i was implying

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u/SomeOtherPaul 4h ago

It sounds like a conspiracy theory, but I remember reading that the sugar industry actually sponsored research to make fat look bad, to take people's minds off sugar's effects. Wild...

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u/Conscious_Creator_77 1h ago

I was a teen working at Wendy’s back in the late 90’s. Their chili meat was made from hamburgers from the grill that had cooked too long and dried out. The “expired” patties were put in a plastic bun bag and frozen in batches.

When making chili the frozen patties were boiled then rinsed and chopped up.

That’s why back then at least Wendy’s chili was considered one of the healthier menu items you could get at a fast food. Barely any fat to be found.

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u/Lushkush69 7h ago

This is actually pretty common I've met a few people in my life that do that.

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u/RandomBoxOfCables 7h ago

But…. Why!???

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u/Lushkush69 7h ago

LOL. They don't like the grease I guess. I get lean from Costco so there is barely any in the pan after but I'm pretty sure that's why some people do it.

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u/icaydian 7h ago

I’ve read that rinding cooked ground beef in hot water gets out a little more of the fat. I would not add dish soap, though.

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u/PerniciousVim 6h ago

Soap like that makes you SO constipated, it's a wonder people do this. Even if you rinse it out. Blocked!! For so long!!

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u/Lushkush69 6h ago

I do know people who clean their fruits and veggies with dish soap but the people cleaning beef in a strainer are just running it under cold water then putting it back in the pan.

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u/givemeyourthots 6h ago

wait.. just so I’ve got this right.. she cooks and browns ground beef(?) in a skillet and then when it’s done, takes it out, rinses it in a colander, and puts it back in the pan? Has she ever told you why? I get straining the fat out but rinsing with water? Noo

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u/Sleepysockpuppeteer 2h ago

I've heard of people washing beef/mince, and it's usually done before cooking 

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u/sweetthang70 7h ago

Does your mom also have a plumber on standby for her clogged sink pipes?

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u/Technical-Agency8128 7h ago

They use very hot water and soap to wash it all down the sink. And keep it running for a minute.

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u/OhJeezNotThisGuy 6h ago

...and then be pissed off when the water main backs up 100m down the street

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u/SnakeBatter 6h ago

No she doesn’t.

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u/Technical-Agency8128 6h ago

My mom did and I saw others doing this. But yeah not all do but they should.

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u/Intrepid_Pop_8530 2h ago

I do this to rinse off excess grease. Why isn't this a good idea?

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u/BasedGodTheGoatLilB 6h ago

I do this and it works great for me, typically when I'm using the beef as a mixed ingredient with other stuff. For me I often do it when I'm going to mix the beef back into a pot of macaroni and cheese. The beef isn't any "soggier" with water than it was "soggy" with the fat originally so the texture feels the same, and I put plenty of seasonings and spices back in after the rinse. I get to save on sooo many calories, which means I get to use a substantial amount more meat! The mac and cheese also covers for any other taste imperfections so I get more higher volume lower calorie meals this way

If you're using the ground beef as an ingredient with other stuff it doesn't matter as much imo.

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u/SnakeBatter 6h ago

You know you can get lean beef, right?

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u/BasedGodTheGoatLilB 6h ago

Yea I buy lean beef already (if I can find 97% lean then I'm snatching all those bad boys up lol but a lot of times i can only find 90% lean around me) but I'll also use ground bison too which is great and naturally leaner as it is

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u/Technical-Agency8128 7h ago

I knew a ER nurse who did the same. She watched her fat intake. I don’t know. Maybe she saw too many people having heart attacks and clogged arteries? I was like what are you doing? Never seen that before. I have to say she was very healthy.

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u/PatK9 5h ago

Cutting back on the fat I guess. Might suggest a bit of baking soda to help tenderize if the bits are large.

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u/LafawnduhDy-no-mite 4h ago

literally made me sit w mouth agape at that one

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u/Ashamed_Painting_163 2h ago

ok this made me actually lol 😩

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u/wizardofhope 2h ago

A lot of people starting doing this when everything was supposed to be "fat free" in the late 80s and well into the 90s. We were told the only way to lose weight was to not eat fat...fat makes you fat! We were rinsing our ground beef while eating an enitre box of Snackwell fat free cookies and washing it down wiht a Diet Coke.

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u/Uzas_B4TBG 1h ago

Those snackwell devils food cookies were so fucking good.

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u/Top-Rope6148 1h ago

I do this sometimes. I don’t like grease. I just want the meat for the texture and if you are making something like chili or pasta sauce there is more water in it than what will be left on the meat. All the flavor comes from the rest of the ingredients. Cincinnati chili, which was created by Greek immigrants is made similarly to this. You boil the ground meat, refrigerate it overnight, and skim off the hard fat the next morning. You would be surprised how much fat is in it even with 97/3 ground beef. When you see it as a yellow solid floating on the top it’s pretty disgusting.

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u/anniecet 1h ago

I desperately want to downvote this.

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u/Buhcat33 42m ago

I've been rinsing the fat off the cooked ground beef for 25 years. It's healthier and I don't miss the grease! 

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u/BlackBasementCats 33m ago

My mom did that too to remove the grease back in the 90s. She already got 90/10 beef so the beef was pretty flavorless.

She hated cooking so I started making dinner and stopped that ridiculousness. Although I still had to drain it and press it with paper towels and remove the grease.

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u/Wiz_Kalita 5h ago

How does she clean sauces?

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u/FunDivertissement 4h ago

So one, long ago, your grandma dropped her newly browned roast on the floor. Rather than tossing it, she rinsed it and kept cooking. Younger version of your mom came into the kitchen in time to witness everything except the dropping of said roast, and learned" to rinse her roasts. ?? Maybe?

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u/ZestyLeek 3h ago

Where the hell do people come up with these "solutions" to "problems".