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I am starting to collect various piece of Silicone cookware. I would like to find out how others keep their silicone cookware clean or if they try.

I put my Silicone cupcake tray into the dishwasher last night and sure enough its does not clean well and feels greasy still. In the past I just wipe it out and learn to ignore the greasy part. But it still makes me wonder.

Thanks!

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  • We thought silicone cookware would be a Godsend -- we assumed silicone + dishwasher = magic. Then we got some and had a harder time keeping it clean than regular cookware so we got rid of it. Now the only silicone items we use are spatulas/scrapers/icers.
    – Dinah
    Jul 16, 2010 at 16:35
  • This question is very similar to How do I clean this silicone tray?, which has much better answers. May 31, 2012 at 20:02

5 Answers 5

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You're doing all you can. When I first started using Silpats (love them) I noticed the greasy feeling after washing. I googled and googled but all I ever found was that this just seemed to be a fact of life. I personally wash mine in the sink, and I think it turns out better, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's just my imagination.

From what I can tell it does not affect the quality of my food. I'm also pretty sure that it's not "grease" per se, but probably just some feature of washing and using silicone regularly.

3

It is real grease. For some reason, silicone doesn't get clean in the dishwasher. I suspect that this is connected to the fact that cleaning methods which work for hard surfaces will not always look for soft ones (see e.g. the research on ultrasound washing machines), but this is just speculation on my part.

What I do is to put the silicone cookware through the washing machine. It emerges without any greasy feeling, it is like rubber on touch. I have been doing this for years and it hasn't harmed anything. I normally put it in in together with the kitchen and bathroom towels, using a long, high-tumble, 60 degrees or higher cycle. Obviously, the temperature doesn't do anything (these moulds go into the oven at 200+ degrees Celsius, the washing machine only goes up to 90 and using this temp is the exception), and the tumbling and centrifugation also seems to cause no problems. I don't put them through a dryer afterwards, just shake off any clinging water.

I only wash mats and soft moulds in the washing machine. I wash utensils with hard plastic parts (spatulas, some of my novelty ice cube trays) per hand in the sink, as I avoid putting hard items in the washing machine if I can, and also don't know how the plastic will react to high temperatures.

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I was told to wash silicone bakeware with hot water only (no soap) and that it was supposed to stay with a slightly greasy feel in order to remain non-stick! That's what I do and it works perfectly for me.

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If it still feels greasy, put a bit of baking soda into and leave it alone for awhile. It will absorb the excess grease and then you can lightly wash it out again rinse it out and put it away.

0

Microfibre is your answer. Loofahs. Plus detergent by hand.

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