How to turn your yellow silver plated flatware ... silver again!

I can't resist.  One more blog post!  I was just so excited about the results of my experiment, I had to get it out in the open for everyone so they can be just as excited as I!

My mother gave me this beautiful silver plate flatware.  I LOVE it!  When we moved to Cali, I threw my old stainless flatware into the "giveaway" bucket, and broke out my silver plate to use full time.  What I was not willing to negotiate on is the fact that I would put it in the dishwasher.  I don't think hand washing fully cleans silverware, so I've put it in the dishwasher despite Mom's instructions not to.  3 months later, my frequently used silver plate has turned this horrible dark/gold/yellow color.:(

So, I turned to my trusty Google search engine to try and figure out WHAT I can do about it.  Lo and behold, I found a "recipe" that was to my liking.  This advice varied from place to place, but I felt strongly about the mix so I went with it :)

1.  Line a baking dish with aluminum foil.

2.  Bring a pot of water to barely bubbling.

3.  Pour water into dish

4.  Dissolve 1tsp. each of baking soda and salt

5.  Drop silver plate into the water, allowing the pieces to touch each other.

6.  Watch your brown/yellow/gold silverware turn silver again!  Random note; it stinks when this is happening, I suppose due to the chemical reaction taking place.

7.  Remove utensils from the water, rinse, and dry!  You can leave stubborn pieces for up to 5 minutes, but mine pretty much all turned silver again instantly.

A close up of one particularly bad piece:

And, a close up when it's clean again!

SO SIMPLE!  I can't believe ANYONE would actually spend money on silver polish knowing this little trick.  Not to mention the fact that polish is TOXIC!  Salt and baking soda.  Hot water.  Foil lined pan.  DONE!  I'm so excited to have silverware again!  From what I read, it's citric acid and bleach that causes the silver to turn.  I JUST bought a new box of dishwasher detergent, and this one does have the citric acid, but no bleach (my last gel packs did), so I will see how that affects the silver.