Soap Water

Soap Water is kept next to the sink and is used for actually cleaning the dishes (as well as everything else) because the dishwasher is more of a "good idea". Most dishes still need a basic cleaning before the dishwasher will actually finish cleaning it. Part of this reason is because our dishwasher is a "low temp" dishwasher and doesn't heat its own water. So hot water is coming from the water heater. Most of the time this never tops 120 degrees where other dishwashers have internal water heaters and will scald/clean dirty dishes with 190 degree water!

What you will need is the Dawn dish detergent in a pump (buy commercially at Sam's Club). Please don't buy the other cheap liquid detergents, that's exactly what they are! Cheap in price and cheap on quality. Also we need another disinfecting bucket (just like when we make Bleach Water) and we will fill it about 1/3 of the way with water. Again, we do not need hot water in this bucket. The active ingredient we are using here is the soap and hard work. You will use this Soap Water all day or until it gets nasty and you need to change it.

You will add one full pump of the liquid detergent to the water. DO NOT add the liquid detergent first then try to fill the bucket with water because it will just make a lot of soap suds we do not need and it will be hard to tell how much water is actually in the bucket.

Alright on to the scrubbing equipment. We usually only keep green scrubby pads and steel wool on hand for cleaning. We hardly EVER use the steel wool and when we do its NOT ON plastic dishes like cambro containers and such.

Here we have the setup most of us like. There is nothing different about the green scrubbing pads in the picture except one has been used more than the other. This creates two different style pads to clean with. The more used one (on the far left) is less abrasive and great for generally cleaning everything. The one on the right is newer and more abrasive. Great for stuff stuck on pots and pans. The steel wool / scour pad is mostly for looks and emergency situations like hard to get off items that have already spent time soaking. Not for everyday use.

There is a technique for cleaning and scrubbing dishes and we talk about that HERE. (click the link)

Both the Soap Water and Bleach Water should be part of your start up routine for each day. There is no Health Department point violations for having or not having a Soap Water bucket. That is a creation of experience in the kitchen.

My simple process for cleaning almost EVERYTHING is scrub with Soap Water scrubby and wipe down with Bleach Water towel. (except for dishes, they get run through the dishwasher so they get sanitized that way)

(You can keep the Bleach Water bucket on another counter or sink it does not have to stay close to dishwasher, move the buckets around as you need.)

Bleach Water

Bleach water bucket for sanitizing and disinfecting. Using towels to wipe down and sanitize counters, shelves, tables, equipment, and a variety of things.

Fill the bucket about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way with water. It doesn't need to be hot water because we are going to use this all day or until it gets really nasty. The bleach is the key ingredient not the temperature of the water. 

We will need some bleach, couple of clean towels, and a teaspoon measuring spoon. 

You want to mix in about 2/3 of a teaspoon of bleach. Here in the next couple of pictures you see I actually mixed it to strong. If you look closely at the Precision Chlorine Test Paper (and yes you need to keep a tube of these on hand for the Health Department, they will want to check the dishwasher with it as well). On the side of the container you see 4 shades of gray. We actually want the third darkest one to match the  test paper so we know its at least 100 part per million solution of chlorine, aka bleach.

Add a clean towel or two.

You can get counted off for not having the test papers, not having the bucket of sanitizing water and towel, and for it not testing properly.

If the water gets to nasty, change it out. At the end of the day hang the towels over dividers in sink or on the edges of the dirty laundry hamper/bag till they dry out over night. Then proceed to drop them in the bag dry. 

At this point we get our mats swapped and linens laundered & picked up every two weeks. Keeping wet items out of the bag/hamper helps keep things from stinking and growing molds.

Oven Cooking - Pulled Pork

Technique is simple, 225 degrees Fahrenheit overnight in the oven. In the video we are using a standard Boston Butt...Start it before I go home from VFCA and then pull it from oven first thing in the morning, put on metal table, take foil off of it, and drain fat & liquid. Come back after morning prayer and hopefully it is cooled down enough for you to start "pulling".

*UPDATE TO TECHNIQUE

I use the 4 inch chafing dishes now and put two butts in each pan. I don't season them or cut them down to fit into 2 1/2 inch chafing dishes that I talk about in video. Most seasoning melts right off of the pork anyway and it is wasted sitting in the juice and fat at the bottom of the pan. No need to cut butts down to fit into 2 1/2 inch chafing dishes because these things have just cooked 14 plus hours in a 4 inch chafing dish!

AFTER draining juice, liquid fat, and removing solid jelly type fat we then "pull" it. Now is when I add seasoning and/or some BBQ and Hot Sauce back into it because now seasoning the taste of the pork is most effective without waste.

THIS makes the whole process even faster than it was before when getting it into the oven.