There's a big difference between my post-cook mess and my partner's.
I clean as I go; not even a hassle. They leave it all to the end; monumental post-meal dread.
this post was submitted on 27 Mar 2026
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A lot of it depends on the recipe. Dishes like Japanese cream stew or beef bourguignon have lots of prep but end with slow-cooking in a single pan, so you have plenty of time to clean before dinner is served.
Compared to something like, I dunno, steak with scratch-made bernaise sauce and buttered kale - it all comes together at the end very quickly, so you'll have pans and measuring jugs and ingredients on the counter right until the moment you plate-up. No time to clean as you go.
I often choose what to cook purely on the basis of how much mess there will be at the end, because I hate clean-up!
I completely agree. I'm a clean-as-you-go type guy, but sometimes you still end up with a mess, especially if the meal has multiple components that come together at end.
Sounds like you need to improve your mise en place.
I will always do the cold prep first, then wash and tidy away everything I can before starting to cook.
But having organised prep before you start cooking isn't necessarily going to lead to zero mess after.
The recipe I chose as an example was specifically because it's one which makes life difficult. The bernaise sauce in particular wants to be served when it's freshly made and hot. So you'd cook the steak, and while the steak is resting you cook the sauce.
The sauce requires combining eggs and hot melted butter in a blender and blasting it until emulsified, and then after that adding the fresh tarragon you prepped earlier. Then you serve immediately.
So no matter how much mise-en-place you did, at the end you've still got at least a dirty steak pan, butter pan, kale pan, blender, dish for the tarragon, measuring jug, and various utensils...
And oh - the measuring jug was not used for measuring, but rather to transfer the hot butter from the pan to the blender.
If you found a way to avoid all that then great, you're doing very well indeed.
The bernaise sauce in particular wants to be served when it's freshly made and hot
Who cares what it wants. You're the chef, you take charge.
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Why does everyone not understand the value of clean-as-you-go? So much better.
I want to eat sooner
It doesn't take any extra time, it's just kerping busy in your down time. Waiting for water to boil? Wipe the counter. Waiting for your steak to sear? Clean the cutting board and throw away any bits left over. Baking anything? Well there's plenty of time before it's ready.
Waiting for water to boil? Chop some veg. Waiting for steak to sear? Get the plates out of the cupboard. Baking anything? Then putting it in the oven is usually the final step, and all the mess has already been made.
I'm filling the waiting time with other tasks already.
Not trying to argue so please please dont take it that way, just wanted to add anecdotally that my wife says the same thing, yet more often than not when I pass the kitchen the waiting time thats allegedly being used for other cooking related tasks and cannot be reallocated to cleaning as she goes is actually being used to surf Insta, Pinterest, or Etsi lol
And also to be extra clear, I could care less what she does when she's cooking dinner up to and until the point that the deal is that she cooks and I clean. Since I genuinely do clean as I go when im cooking and she's cleaning, I feel like she's violating the terms of our agreement when her cleaning up behind me always only takes her 10 minutes yet whenever im cleaning up behind her Im dealing with so many pots and pans that the water heater gets tapped out halfway through and im still standing in front of the sink over an hour after I started cleaning up the unholy tragedy that is often left behind in her wake.
When two people are cooking the same basic meal and the cleanup time is orders of magnitude higher depending on who is cooking the meal, thats a conversation worth having in my book lol
Lol. I think for regular cooking, post-meal cleanup needs to be done by whoever cooked, for this reason. Because even though I don't think cleaning as you go is always feasible or making a big difference, it certainly can be done or not, by the choice of the cook, and that is unfair.
My partner and I take this approach and are very happy with it. Actually we take it further by having a whole week each of cooking, and so many associated tasks like wiping down kitchen surfaces, shopping, etc, alternate also on that cycle.
Maybe you could try a different deal. My other half and I also used to have the same disagreement. Now, the one who cooks also does the cooking-related cleanup, and the other one takes care of the rest.
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Depends on if you’re comfortable and planned ahead with the prep and steps of cooking.
Sometimes it’s all done at once and there’s no time to spare or risk burning, cooling or delaying one of the items.
On some meals I cook regularly, cleaning as I go is fine. But other times when I’m trying something new or just super tired after work, all I have time for is to throw it in the pot just in time prepping and then go sit while it cooks or eat right away if it’s fast.
I’ve had thoughts of making detailed recipes with cleaning steps, and also a streamlined design for ingredients and when and where they’re needed that I use on recipe cards. Sort of similar to the cooking for engineers cookbook, but for more visually oriented peeps.
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I actually toyed with the idea of making a YouTube channel dedicated to recreating food from other channels and only showing the clean-up. Like "thanks for the tip Babish now I get to scrape off sticky eldritch bullshit from a ridiculously tiny whisk AGAIN" and "we're going to soak these plates for at least an hour because we fell asleep as soon as the guests left and the sauce hardened into concrete".
Any YouTube money would've gone into a dishwasher fund. I would've reviewed the dishwasher after buying it and that would've been the last video on the channel.
I'd watch that religiously.
DO THAT
This is the kind of idea that works and actually makes your chanel relatively popular.
I'd watch it
last video on the channel
Why kill a perfectly good cash cow?
I mean, there's only so many ways to do dishes in an entertaining fashion lol
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One of the things I consider when choosing a new recipe is how many different pots and bowls are involved, and how many things have to come together at the end; I like to minimize them to keep the amount of work and cleaning low. My wife has a knack for choosing ones that maximize those things, and there's always so much more to do. I love a one-pot meal.
This is why the one who does the cooking should do the dishes.
When I am done cooking?
The only dishes are the plates we eat off of, and the utensils.
It is not difficult to clean as you go .
My wife somehow uses every single pot, pan, cutting board, and cooking utensil we own. Like good damn it was just a grilled cheese. What happened
Lukewarm take: if you don't make some effort to clean up to have less of a mess while you cook, you're not competent enough to be in the kitchen.
~Just my opinion; don't burn me at the stake.~
Agreed, came here to say this. Clean as you cook. Not always super easy or possible, but if you're waiting for something to finish/warm up/cool down/whatever, you can probably wash a cutting board or some spoons or something
It's really just an amortization, or perhaps, an atomization of effort; sadly many don't really value the benefits of that behavior.
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If they can write a 7 paragraph story about their dying grandmas old family recipes, they can show us the mess.
Slow cookers have entered the chat.
90% of slow cooker recipes:
-
Ingredients
-
Put in slow cooker
-
Cook for 4-8 hours
-
Eat for a week
Clean out the slow cooker crock and maybe a cutting board. God-tier appliance and cooking method.
Agreed. The real slow-cooker superpower is where it cooks dinner for you while you're away at work, letting you come home to a hot meal.
That's why baking wins every time
When my partner bakes, there's fucking flour everywhere. And I mean everywhere. I'd rather have post meal mess.
By baking, I simply mean I of in the cold food of out hot eat the food, not the entire process before it.
For example, bake pork chop. Put tinfoil on the tray, put the pork chop on, add some salt, put another tinfoil to cover it. You don't even need to wash the tray.
Cook some rice with a rice cooker to go with the pork chop and you're done.
CAYG
Clean As You Go
Yup. Or just fill the sink with soapy water and toss stuff in to rinse off after you eat (or if you forgot you needed it for a later step).
...and that's the exact moment I need the sink to pour out my noodle water or fill my water filter.
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What mess? Never heard about cleaning your station while cooking? There is more than enough time to put things away and dishes in the dishwasher while dinner is cooking. Knifes are cleaned immediately after use. No mess.
When am I going to find time to clean while cooking? I'm too busy cooking!
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A ha ha ha ha ha hah.
Depends on how many things you are making at the same time and the volume of mess.per item.
Cleaning as you go is the best, but sometimes you can't stop stirring or chopping or peeling to do it.
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This is why we have mise-en-place.
Isn't that the opposite? Makes it easier to get the timing right, but at the cost of dirtying loads more little bowls? Whereas if i dice my carrots while my onions are sweating etc, I can keep the production line going and only use one pot..
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Clean as you go... i should follow what I preach... but its hard
with new recipes it's not always clear because you're not sure what you need to reuse or the timing ...
I've been leaning heavily on my dishwasher in the past year. It's been such a relief.
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one of the main reasons why I hate cooking :P
That’s why I choose tv-dinners and microwave ovens.
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