Dishwasher-safe

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Tuesday, February 28. 2023

It must have been over a year ago when we posted about using, or even rotating, the "good" china for everyday use. We asked "What are you saving it for?"

As we noted, the newer generations don't even like or want that stuff. Like old or antique brown furniture, it has no value today and likely never will. Well, maybe sentimental value which does matter. Mrs. BD and I switched to rotating our "good" china sets for everyday. Thai takeout looks better on it.

But what about silverware? Same thing, except silver has some value melted down. Why not use your wedding silver, or inherited silver, daily? It's heavy and attractive, and makes meals more meaningful. Not dishwasher-safe, but if you use it all the time it doesn't have time to tarnish.

We have noticed that Europeans use their "best stuff" all the time. Are we just lazy here? Do we not appreciate everyday elegance? La bella vita? La dolce vita?

Posted by Bird Dog in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 16:42 | Comments (13) | Trackbacks (0)

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We're Jewish, and our "best stuff" is reserved for Passover.

But our everyday china is still pretty nice, and stainless steel flatware is still good enough.

#1 Ken Mitchell on 2023-02-28 18:48 (Reply)

Interesting.
We are Orthodox - so we used the good stuff for fancy multicourse family meals every Sabbath.

For Passover we use "nice" mass-market tableware (Pottery Barn/Crate-n-Barrel type stuff) precisely because it is only once a year.

Now that family gatherings include grandchildren, we have shifted to more durable stuff, including reusable plastic and disposables.

#1.1 Ben David on 2023-03-01 14:21 (Reply)

Better yet cash in the high maintenance silver and sell the Occupied Japan you cant dishwasher or microwave and move into the 21st century.....

Best to stop pretending this is 1950 anymore.

#2 LibDis on 2023-02-28 19:07 (Reply)

I have living memory of three generations before me and I'm pretty sure none of them ever owned china or silverware. I don't see any point in spending a lot of money on it.

#3 jack walter on 2023-02-28 20:09 (Reply)

Since the ancient cave man, all men in the Burns family have said, "I don't see any point in spending a lot of money on it."
They were all overruled. Some lived to talk about it.

If the lady of the house wants all that fine china and silverware, bow out gracefully and live to fight another day. Remember, it's not a fair fight. Not only is the wife invested in this - so are grandma(s), miscellaneous aunts, bride's maids, nosy neighbors, Wedgewood and Royal Albert!!

#4 J. Burns on 2023-02-28 21:07 (Reply)

So 50 years ago we got married. We registered for the china and silver and, of course, we did not get the proper number of servings so we spent several years acquiring the full set of both. Not easy during graduate school and the first job...but we did it. And then came our first house and we needed a formal dining room so we could properly entertain with our china and silver. And here we are, retired and in a house with a formal dining room that gets used maybe 2 times a year. We no longer host Christmas or New years, or Easter as our daughter has taken on those duties. But we are often asked to bring the silver (service for 12) to her house so I dutifully polish the silver prior to the event. I said at New Years this year "just keep it at your house" but she said No, take it home with you. With respect to the v=china...I broke a cup about 5 years ago and never told my wife and so far no one has noticed--so I am safe.

#5 rocdoctom on 2023-02-28 21:22 (Reply)

My wife has fancy dishes and flatware that come out for Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. Elsewise, we use the regular stuff. She has promised the fancy stuff to our daughters when we croak, but they are not that impressed.

I suspect that what comes around goes around, and at some point in the future all the dishes, flatware and brown furniture will be once again sought after.

#6 Pod Hamp on 2023-02-28 21:57 (Reply)

I have to admit, although we have plenty of nice stainless flatware for day-to-day use, for some reason I really enjoy eating off silverware. Not that heavy obslocky silverplate stuff, I mean what they call coin silver - thin, rather delicate implements made from almost pure silver - I think it has about 10% copper in it, to lend strength to the alloy. People used to make it out of their silver currency. I have a few pieces that I use from time to time.

#7 Aggie on 2023-02-28 22:26 (Reply)

It is interesting to me that so much fancy china was acquired by young brides 100+ years ago and then never unpacked and used.

My mom and my wife have a lot of antique porcelain, but it is not to eat from, it is to be displayed.

Mom is very dismayed that no one is interested in old dishes anymore. She worries what will happen to her stuff when she is gone.

That said, the old porcelain limoges is quite pretty and increasingly rare. It would not surprise me to see renewed interest in it at some point in the future.

#8 feeblemind on 2023-02-28 23:31 (Reply)

We eat on china every day, but fancy china mostly only for dinner parties--not just holidays, but any dinner party. The silverware is for holidays or especially formal dinner parties. ("Formal" meaning taking extra care; it's generally the same neighbors in groups of 6 or 8, not visiting dignitaries.) We never use plastic or paper plates.

Designers keep telling us to get rid of the "heavy, brown" furniture. No thanks. We keeping buying it on the Chairish site instead, and reupholster as necessary. Some of it comes from our grandparents or parents, other pieces we've acquired over the last 45 years. A beautiful old wood grain pleases me.

#9 Texan99 on 2023-03-01 09:46 (Reply)

For a long time, in not-rich parts of America, the good china and silverware were viewed - especially by the women - as their store of real wealth. It was not valuable for use - it was to have this cache of value hidden away.

Using it was a risk to that value.

But it was only valuable as wealth if there was demand for it. Once that view of china faded, so did the value.

Hard to bear for that older generation.

#10 bobby b on 2023-03-01 12:15 (Reply)

When we grew up, my parents had everyday kitchen dishes and the good stuff. For many years, gifts to Mum were additions to the chinaware (a side plate, a cup and saucer). After Dad died, she moved near us, and regular Sunday dinners occurred. Towards the end (as in Mum in her '90s), the deal was that every other Sunday we would turn up for Chinese delivered from her favourite restaurant. The good dishes and silverware were always out; wine was poured, and it was a mark of being more grown up when an offspring was promoted to being allowed to pour the wine.
When planning Mum's funeral, there was a question as to what would happen afterwards. Our family held out for one last meal from Granny's favourite Chinese restaurant; one comment was "when I think of Granny, I think Chinese". It was a good dinner and enjoyed by all.
The dishes? I took them as part of my inheritance as an offspring had said for many years that wanted them. Said offspring has FINALLY organized things so has a place to properly house and display them.

#11 Frances on 2023-03-02 00:15 (Reply)

We've just been putting the silver-plated flatware in the dishwasher (separated from other flatware) for years with no problems at all, until the one day this summer when it came out brown!

I attribute it to a change in detergent powder. Fortunately, silver polish removed the tarnish easily.

#12 Douglas2 on 2023-03-04 20:45 (Reply)

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Tuesday, February 28. 2023

Dishwasher-safe