I rinse the pastry brush while the butter is still soft

The pastry or pie is already glazed — and on the brush bristles butter or egg yolk still sits. Easy to leave it “for later” on the counter edge: by morning the bristles are stuck, the jar smells of egg, and the hand reaches for another brush. I rinse now, while the fat still gives, and dry it bristles-up or on its side.

I rinse the pastry brush while the butter is still soft. The funnel after oil is another note; the measuring jug after milk its own; the rolling pin after dough another story. Here it’s the brush with natural or silicone bristles: for glazing dough — not a clump in a jar by the hob.

If butter has already dried on the bristles — warm water with a drop of washing-up liquid, soft strokes from the ferrule to the tips, not boiling water on the glue at the band. Egg yolk I wash off straight away so it doesn’t turn grey. I air-dry it, not shut wet in a drawer. I’m not choosing a new brush with a review in this note — it’s about the one that already lives by the tray.

I don’t need a brush whose bristles have stuck into a stiff fan. I need a clean, dry one ready for the next glaze. At yours do you rinse the pastry brush straight away — or already in the morning stuck bristles in the jar?