Dishwasher guide: salt will harm the stainless steel lining. What about salt water in stainless steel pots?
Dishwasher guide: salt will harm the stainless steel lining. What about salt water in stainless steel pots?
The manual for my dishwasher says to refill salt just before running a wash cycle, because if any grains of salt spill onto the stainless steel interior it will corrode. If it runs right away, no issue because the salt is quickly dissolved, diluted, and flushed.
So then I realized when I cook pasta I heavily salt the water (following the advice that pasta water should taste as salty as the ocean). But what happens when I leave that highly salty brine in a pot, sometimes for a couple days to reuse it? Does that risk corroding the pots?
You reuse pasta water? That's kind of gross. Starchy water sitting around is a breading ground for bacteria. Don't do that.
Also, dishwashers don't clean with salt water. They use the salt to reset their internal water softener.
Starchy water sitting around is a breading ground for bacteria. Don’t do that.
That water is brine, if you do it right. Salt is a good preservative. I’ve tested it with up to 2 reuses.
Also, dishwashers don’t clean with salt water. They use the salt to reset their internal water softener.
Not sure why you thought I thought dishwashers clean with salt water. The manual’s advice was to mitigate salt grains that did not get into the salt reservoir that would sit on the stainless steel potentially for days.
Brine is the exact condition that life needs/thrives in. "About as salty as the ocean" is really good at supporting microbial growth. Source
the main concern from the manufacturer is likely something like salt water sitting on the surface for days at a time over and over while the machine sits unused. any reasonable cook time is unlikely to begin harming the surface of any moderately high grade stainless.
Even stainless steel will corrode, and salt especially will speed up the process. Solid salt is much worse than salt water, because the concentration of solid salt is 100% vs a fraction of a percent for pasta water. Regardless, leaving salt water sitting in your pot for days on end is definitely going to make corrosion occur faster, although by how much I can't say.
Although, I will say that needing to buy even one additional pot might offset any environmental benefit from reusing your pasta water. Industrial manufacturing uses a ton of water, so if your goal is to preserve it, you're likely better off just washing & drying your pot out between uses so that it lasts longer.
I could always transfer it to glass or plastic to protect the pot but I guess laziness was the original motivator. Salt is cheap enough that I’ll probably just toss it going forward.
Refill the salt? Like the shakers?
Ah, I wondered if I needed to explain that, since dishwashers in N.America do not take salt. European dishwashers tend to have built-in water softeners (because it’s somewhat uncommon to have whole house water softeners). So we periodically have to fill a salt reservoir in the dishwasher to feed the water softener.
Salt-resistant stainless-steel is the 316/316L steels & the 317/317L steels.
( the L versions are low-carbon, which means they can be welded & the low-carbon won't create carbon-rich defects in the welds )
Salt-resistant aluminum is 5052 aluminum ( low-copper. iirc )
normal cheap aluminum kitchenware is Commercially Pure aluminum, not alloy.
I've no idea what percentage of aluminum food-contact things are made with alloys, but it wouldn't be that much, I don't think?
Nobody bothers using those salt-safe alloys for making kitchen stuff, because there's no market-pressure to do-so.
( those stainless steels are costly, & 5052's used mostly for boats/marine/nautical stuff )
Therefore, using salt in the other alloy bowls/pots/pans does release metals ( including nickel or/and chromium ) into one's diet or/and ecology.
I won't add salt to normal "stainless" pots or pans because of that: it can get added after, even-though that's a harsher taste.
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