I have noticed that there are two kinds of households - the kind that rinses dishes before putting them in the dishwasher, and the kind that just scrapes the dishes and then puts them into the dishwasher unrinsed.*
I was brought up in the former, and so I was shocked a few years ago when we had house guests staying with us who consistently did not. Sticky, greasy dishes, with bits of food still stuck to them, were quickly piled into the dishwasher, and I was absolutely horrified by this filthy practice. And yet my (stubborn) guests insisted that it was the job of the dishwasher to clean the dishes, and what was the use of washing them twice?
I had no doubt that I was right, and they were wrong, and so I did a bit of research on the internet, the source of all well-vetted and reliable information, and it turns out that I am actually mistaken.
Indeed, modern dishwashers are made to remove food particles and grease from dishes, and so rinsing them first is just a waste of water. Of course, you shouldn't put a plate in the dishwasher with a chicken bone still on it, or marmalade positively stuck to it, but if the plate is well-scraped and exceptionally sticky things have been removed, it's best to put it in as it is.
But what if you live in the city, where there are roaches who love food particles and grease, and you don't go through dishes often enough to run the dishwasher every day?
Then you have an excellent excuse to keep on rinsing!
* There is of course the third kind of household, the kind that does not own a dishwasher at all, which is extremely common in New York City. For a while I was concerned that using a dishwasher at all wastes water, but apparently the dishwasher (esp. set to the short cycle) typically uses less water than hand-washing dishes, unless you have a divided sink where you can fill a wash section and a rinse section and thus not leave the water running at all. But who has a set-up like that, any more?
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