Conference turris::cooks

    What is Tang?????
    
    Baffled of UK......

    REF (.1)..., TANG is a powered drink which is suppose to resemble
    orange juice. Mixed with cold water, it is designed to resemble the
    look and taste of OJ. It is said that "TANG was even taken to the 
    moon".
    

  I think the grunge in dishwashers is a combination of undissolved
  detergent and calcium buildup from hard water, both of which would be
  removed at least a little by the acid in tang. If so, vinegar might
  work as well or better (and cheaper) if you could stand the smell.

  By the way, if you follow the instructions on either the detergent or
  the dishwasher, you're probably using too much detergent. Even though
  we have hard water, we use 1/3 of the amount called for, and our
  dishes still come out spotless, and with no anti-spotting stuff,
  either. Plus, they never have any of that horrible dishwasher smell
  which really ruins the taste of some food and drinks (wine or liquor
  is a really tough test, as even tiny amounts of residue can be
  detected and ruin the taste). We also have no "grunge" buildup.

    I, for one, am glad to hear about Tang.  My repairmman named something
    else to clean the inside (and Tang).  I can't find the something else
    and thought he was off his rocker for naming Tang.
    
    You get a stained dishwasher if you have certain chemicals in your
    water .. and we sure have that.  It looks disgusting.  
    
    How much did you put in?  I'm on my way to purchase some.
    
    Mary Lou

    You can buy citric acid as a powder in either the spice or canning
    section of many grocery stores.  It's also the main ingredient in
    things like "fruit fresh", the stuff you mix up to dip apples in
    so they don't brown after they're cut.  I would imagine you would
    use a lot less of the "straight stuff", as opposed to the amount of
    Tang.  I'm not sure which would be cheaper, but the citric acid
    takes up less storage space in the kitchen.  (In my kitchen, storage
    space is at a premium, unfortunately).
    
    Citric acid is also used in some canning recipes.  It keeps peaches
    from getting dark.
    
    --Louise

    I've seen in some of the stores here in Massachusetts an item called
    Dishwasher Glisten.....  This is really good stuff.  When I lived
    in Sterling, we had well water that had heavy iron deposits in it
    that would turn our dishwasher a real gross orange color.  I would
    run a cycle with dishwasher glisten and the dishwasher would be
    white again.  It also contains a citric acid and costs about $2.99
    for a package of 2 (2 uses).  This is a lot less expensive than
    Tang or some of the bottles of citric acid spice you can guy in
    the spice section of the grocery store.  
    
    I've been lucky since we moved into our new house that the water
    we have is really clean and doesn't stain our dishwasher.  The last
    place that I saw dishwasher glisten was at Demoulas in the Searstown
    shopping center in Leominster Ma.  Good luck in finding this product
    because it is truly wonderful.....
    
    Sarah
    

    I thought the Tang idea was crazy, too, but it worked for me also -
    just did it again a couple of days ago.  Our dishwasher gets all
    stained inside (high manganese content in the local water) and while it
    doesn't affect its operation of cleaning dishes, it looks pretty yucky.
    I use half a jar of Tang and run the thing through a normal wash cycle.
    Tang isn't very expensive, but it is sort of hard to find sometimes
    (though the new Shaw's has it, so try Shaw's if you can't find the
    stuff), probably because you'd have to be real desparate to actually
    drink it (the sort of stuff I ate when I was a starving student in
    college!).
    
    /Charlotte

  The bottle of Tang that I bought was about eight inches tall and 4 inches
around (don't know the volume offhand).  We filled both detergent holders, and
then added a little extra.

  The bottle was $3.09, and we'll get at least 4 doses out of it.  

--Sharon

    Do you suppose Tang will take the hard water deposits off the toilet
    bowl?  Or does someone have a better idea?
    
    Nancy

  Apparently, my husband's co-worker (who first suggested using Tang) punches
holes in the lid of the Tang jar, and left it upside down in the toilet tank.
Apparently, it did the job, but it also created quite a living community in
there!  (Though removing the jar quickly disbanded it)

--Sharon

    I recently went shopping for a new dishwasher after the old one rusted 
    out.  I was interested in a GE but hesitated because we have a high 
    iron content in our well water and I didn't want to have the plastic 
    interior of the dishwasher quickly turn golden-orange. Several salesmen 
    told me to use either citric acid or Tang in a wash cycle to remove any
    mineral deposits. When I called GE I got the same story.  

Twenty years ago when I was in the U.S. Navy they served a generic
variant of this stuff in the mess. We simply referred to it as
(don't as me why...) 'bug juice'. I was surprised one day to see
the galley cleaning crew using it to scour out the ovens, with
marked success.

Who'd a thunk it?

	/Harry

    My water is very hard, so I have been using Glisten (available at
    Shaws) and it works great. When I mentioned Tang, a co-worker said
    that it works but Amway dishwasher detergent is better because the
    mineral deposits never build up. This sounds too easy. Has anyone
    had experience with this?

RE .17 - I've been using Amway dishwasher detergent in my dishwasher for 3
years now.  The bottom of the dishwasher is kind of yellowish now, and in fact,
thanks to this note, I've been thinking about using Tang to clean it up.  It
isn't really horribly dirty, though.  Our water isn't particularly hard or
iron-filled.

The Amway detergent does do a good job on the dishes, though you have to be
careful not to use too much or you'll get residue.  About a teaspoonful does
it (really!).

							-- Nina
							(who is NOT an
							 Amway distributor)

    Just thought I would liven up the Conference with a bit of Aussie
    hints. I haven't seen Tang around since it was thought to be
    Carcenagenic but then everything is that way now. I use Bicarb of soda
    1/4 the cost and achieve the same result. Then again I dont get the
    stuff called grung or whatever we just get gunk.
    
    
    John