By Russ and Tiña De Maris
At the sight of the headline, some may reply, “Depends on how hungry I am.” Well, ours is not a story of some sort of new French cuisine, although we’ll take a stab at it: “Chaussettes savoureuses, à la Magic Chef.” [“Tasty socks…“] Our not-so-tasty treat recipe was born from desperation. A couple of weeks on the road, and far from a laundromat, there arose a need for a few days’ worth of clean socks. Cook socks in your microwave? A feast fit for your feet!
Cooking over the calf
The socks in question were cotton, over-the-calf style. Thick, comforting and, of course, sweat-attracting. The idea of putting them back on for a second round without the benefit of a washing just wasn’t—well—edible. Washing up was easy enough. The bathroom sink appeared the ideal “wash machine.” Since there was no suitable drain stopper, a zip-lock style sandwich bag, with a few ounces of water (and excess air pushed out) filled the drain hole nicely.
With a basin half-full of warm water, we needed the appropriate laundry agent. Fresh out of Tide, we reached for a handy squirt bottle of hair shampoo. Although ours contained melaleuca, unless your socks are prone to dandruff, you could probably use whatever you have on hand. Add socks, squirch well (that’s a technical term for stick your hands in and vigorously agitate, squish, and scrunch), then drain. Refill the basin with rinse water. Squirch again. Drain, repeat. You should now have relatively clean socks, with plenty of heft from the added water.
No matter what you do, twisting, slapping, and occasional swearing will not get those socks dry in time for the next day. We wrung out the socks as best we could, and hung them in the shower stall. But alas! An hour later, it was easy to project those socks would be a long time in drying. What to do? Cook socks in the RV microwave? Well, some folks “disinfect” their dish towels in the “nuker.” Why not socks?
Patience and care (read this disclaimer)
To cook socks in the microwave requires patience and care. (MAJOR DISCLAIMER) Remember, socks can catch on fire in your microwave. Better to find a Walmart and spend a few bucks on a few pairs of socks than burn down a quarter-million-dollar motorhome. If you cook socks in your microwave, you do so at your own peril. Here’s how we cooked ours.
Putting the socks flat on the turntable and heating them on “high” got them to sizzle. But we soon found that to cook socks in the microwave efficiently requires getting as much sock surface exposed to the air as possible. Our handy, microwave-safe colander made a perfect platform for unfolding the socks and heating them up.
We did proceed with extreme caution. Our cook-socks-in-the-microwave experiment proceeded at 30-second increments on high power. Our microwave is NOT a high-power model, so it took a number of repeats to cook them. Nevertheless, nuked socks get HOT very fast. You might equip yourself with tongs to turn them between heating cycles, lest you burn your fingers. After about a total of five minutes cook time, we noticed a considerable difference in the perceived water content of those foot covers. We DID NOT try to completely dry the socks; we aimed to get most of the moisture out of them.
From there the “al dente Bombas” went back on the rack, to compare with their soaked compatriots. By the next morning, while the majority of the non-nuked socks were still practically dripping, the experimental cook-socks-in-the-microwave pair were ready for wear.
##RVT1115
Salad spinner. Works well. lol
Would an air fryer work?
Just air them out and put them on a second day . . .
What about turning them inside out and spraying with Lysol disinfectant spray? They should be dry overnight and good for one more day of wear.
I have to admit that I would probably have never thought of doing that. It seems we’ve never run completely out of clean socks while on the road where we couldn’t find a laundamat. If we’re out of clean socks we’re likely out of clean underwear and other clothing, too. It would have been a real boon as an infantryman in Vietnam where dry socks were rare. But so were microwaves and electricity. Who knows maybe someday we’ll need to resort to “nukin’ our socks” (but I doubt it).
I wouldn’t have thot about using the microwave. My brain would have slid the socks over the tailpipe for a couple of minutes.
And then you, and everyone around you, would wonder where the exhaust smell is coming from.😝 Take care, Kelly. 😀 –Diane
You could wash a couple pair in the sink with dish soap BEFORE you grab the last clean pair.
That was fun to read. I usually end up wearing the same socks-shorts-& T-shirts for a week or more. I also have enough things to wear to last a month.
I have to add I now travel alone, if I complain, I’ll grab some fresh stuff.