How to wash a sieve?

Question

After cooking pasta, I use a mesh-type kitchen sieve (aka colander, mesh strainer).

1. Immediately after getting the pasta out of the water and putting the pasta on a plate, I run tap water onto the sieve for a few seconds to remove the starchy water.
2. After eating, I clean the sieve with a nylon-mesh-covered sponge and dishwashing liquid.
3. I let it dry.

Problem: The sieve is never perfectly clean. There are always places where dried starch can be seen in the grid.

Question: How to wash my sieve perfectly, with spending too much time or money on it?

Answer 1

I use a dish brush to clean colanders and other kitchen items that have holes in them (like some cooking spoons). While sponges get torn apart if you scrub them over the mesh of the sieve, the bristles of a dish brush do not have that problem. The bristles also move independently of each other, and can find their way into the tiny holes in the mesh.

I recommend using the same technique dentists recommend for tooth-brushing: apply some pressure of the bristles against the mesh and then move in small circles. This allows the bristles to dig into holes of the mesh, rather than just dragging across the surface of the mesh. Also, you should clean both the inside and the outside of the sieve. (The suds from the dish soap will appear to penetrate from the inside to the outside, making the other surface look cleaned, but scrubbing with the brush is the way to remove stuck-on pasta and starch.)

Answer 2

Put it in the dishwasher. My sieves come out perfectly clean every time.

Answer 3

Fill a kitchen sink with enough (warm, soapy) water to submerge the sieve (or just the starchy part, if the sieve is big). Leave it to soak for 20 minutes (longer if the residue is really old and layered on). (You can soak other dishes at the same time as long as they are not greasy.) Rub with a sponge, or paper towel, or brush, or even your bare hands. The starch will come off. Then rinse under running water to remove soap.

Answer 4

You're really trying to solve the wrong problem here.

I've always hated sieves and similar gadgets; the time it takes to clean them tends to be far more than the time they are designed to save.

For draining thin noodles, simply hold them back with a pair of chopsticks, and for other pastas use the lid, while allowing the water to drain from the pot.

The chopsticks are also a handy way of serving the spaghetti.

Immediately after getting the pasta out of the water, I run tap water onto the sieve for a few seconds to remove the starchy water.

Pasta should be rinsed if you are going to let it get cold (e.g. for a salad, or left in the fridge to use later), because when it cools the surface starch will glue the pieces together.

But if it is going to be immediately covered with sauce, never rinse it; that starch will help the sauce to stick to the pasta. If you rinse it before serving, the sauce will tend to slide off, meaning you get less sauce in your mouth and more sauce left on the plate.

Answer 5

I suggest flipping the sieve over and running water through it to make anything trapped in it fall into the sink. Spray anywhere there are visible particles, and flip it back over to inspect it for any remaining objects. This can take between ten seconds to a minute, depending on how dirty it is. I have used this method to clean sieves used to collect coffee grinds, and it is very effective. If you have a spraying attachment on your sink, set that to the highest pressure setting. You can also run it through the dishwasher to get any remaining starch off.

Answer 6

(not exactly what you asked for) I think you can do yourself a favor by using a coarser sieve (if you have one). Searches "pasta sieve" on your favorite internet image search engine will probably yield sieves similar to this. Starch will not as easily get stuck in the wholes and the sponge enters the wholes better when brushing over.

The downside of those pasta sieves with slits is that with fine noodles like spaghetti, a few will slip through.

Answer 7

My mother gave me a green plastic Tupperware colander as a wedding gift, in 1977.

I have strained every batch of pasta or potatoes I’ve boiled over the last 46 years in it. The holes are small enough to prevent losing angel hair, and any starchy residue washes right off with a soapy sponge and hot water.

Do yourself a favor, save your metal mesh sieve for things that require straining, invest in an inexpensive plastic colander, and enjoy cleanup inside a minute every time.