September 26, 2012

Paperless Kitchen Tested: Twist Ravioli Scrubby Review

For part two of our Paperless Kitchen Twist product tests, I decided to give the Twist Ravioli Scrubby a whirl. Twist reports that the scrubber was made to clean the toughest baked-on messes like lasagna and pasta, so I decided to put it to work on one of my biggest kitchen messes. Typically, I let the baking dish from this particular recipe soak for 30 minutes in hot water and then still spend as much as 5 minutes scrubbing it with a cloth or a metal scrubber. My mission was to see if the Ravioli Scrubby could make cleaning up from this kitchen nightmare quicker and easier.

The Basics

The Twist Ravioli Scrubby is shaped just like the pasta from which it gets its name. Like a little pillow, the scrubber has a raised, padded center with a thinner perimeter. The natural hemp burlap casing gives the scrubber a rough texture, but it's finer than that of a metal scouring pad.

The Dish

Warning: just reading about this dish may put you into calorie overload. The messy masterpiece that I chose to make for this test is a recipe that my butter-loving, Polish grandmother (who was affectionately known as Babcia) loved to make: pirohi casserole. The dish consists of layers of lasagna noodles, mashed potatoes, bacon, mushrooms and cheese, which are baked until golden and delicious. To make the casserole bake evenly, I use Babcia's baking dish, which I was lucky enough to inherit, but its cranberry glass surface is very hard to get looking spotless. I was certain that if the Ravioli Scrubby could handle this mess, it could stand up to virtually any difficult pot or pan.

The Wash

To really see what the Ravioli Scrubby could do, I decided to just clean the dish right away without any soaking. I filled the sink with hot water, added my regular green dish soap, plopped the dish in and hoped for the best. The minute I started scrubbing, I turned to my kitchen assistant and exclaimed, "It's coming RIGHT off!" And it was--the hemp fibers lifted away the baked on cheese with very little effort, and the shape made it easy to even get the tough stuff in the corners.

I lifted out the dish and rinsed both it and the Scrubby and then ran the scrubber over the dish again out of the water. That and a second rinse were all it took to get the traces of grease off the sides and leave the pan picture perfect. I also used it to clean my Teflon spatula, and it didn't leave a single scratch on its surface.

The Takeaway

Babcia's pirohi casserole didn't stand a chance against the ravioli scrubby. Once I dried the casserole dish, I got on my phone and started looking for where I could recycle my metal scrubber. I'm quite sure I won't be needing its help any more.