It doesn't matter if you are the proud owner of an antique silverplate set of cutlery or if you use stainless steel. When your guests arrive, you need your knives and forks to be not only spotless but shiny. Keep reading to learn the best 5 tips for spotless cutlery.
1.- All cutlery types need the same basic care
Whether you use a dishwasher or you wash by hand, try to go through the process immediately after using your cutlery. This way, grease, and other rests will not stick to the metal. If you haven't got the time to do the washing up straight after eating, at least rinse it off and leave it in water.
The drying process needs to be also immediately to accomplish the shiniest finish. Otherwise, stains and marks from soap can ruin the final effect.
2.- How to clean silver (two tips in one)
First of all, avoid the dishwasher. Washing by hand takes longer, but it is safer. Because you will wash every piece of cutlery alone, scratches will be avoided. Use soft soap. Some chemicals can be too aggressive for the silver and they might damage it. After washing the cutlery use a cloth soaked in yogurt to polish it, then rinse the yogurt off and dry it with a clean cloth. It will shine more than the sun. If you have boiled some potatoes, you can also use the remaining water to soak your silver cutlery in it. Leave it there for two hours, rinse off and dry. You will not believe the result.
3.- How to clean stainless steel
If you follow the general rules mentioned at the beginning of this post, there are only two things that will damage the looks of your stainless steel cutlery: time and use. Even though stainless still is very durable, marks and scratches appear. To minimize them, you can put some drops of olive oil on a cloth and rub your knives, spoons, and forks. It will make the marks less visible and increase the shine. You can also use vinegar, cider or mineral water after the regular washing up. Of course, the less you use the dishwasher, the longer the stainless steel will last.
4.- What about plastic?
Kids are the main users of plastic cutlery. It usually comes with nice illustrations, cartoon characters or the kid´s name on it. Keeping the colors alive would be the goal if there wasn´t a bigger problem: illustration painted or printed on plastic tend to disappear very quickly. To make them as longlasting as possible, there is only one way: wash them with an extremely soft sponge. Or, you can always buy three or four identical items to substitute the deteriorated ones.
5.- Wooden kitchen tools and how to clean them
Wooden spoons and forks are still of very common use. Because wood is porous, we need to be extremely careful when cleaning these tools. Bacteria can find a cozy home in the wood pores and lead to infections. Once a week we can soak the wooden cutlery in a recipient full of water in which we will drop some bleach. Afterwards, we need to thoroughly rinse the tools. They will be absolutely disinfected.
