How to Clean a Piping Bag

Squeeze any remaining contents from your bag, saving them for later if appropriate. Uncouple the tip from your reusable piping bag and set it aside, then turn your bag completely inside out. Remove your coupler's inner ring and set that aside with the tip.

Run the bag under the hottest water your tap can manage short of scalding your hands, to dissolve and rinse away fat-based icings, whipped cream or fatty mousses. For choux paste or other flour-based batters, rinse under cold water instead.

Put the bag in the freezer for 15 to 20 minutes instead of rinsing under hot water. This hardens the icing or batter, which cracks and falls off readily if you then beat the bag against the sides of your sink. With the bulk of the icing removed, you can proceed to hand-wash your bag.

Wash the bag thoroughly with hot, clean water and conventional dish soap. If your bag is the heavy-duty canvas type, scrub the canvas thoroughly with a stiff brush, both inside and out. Canvas bags are permeable, and fat will lodge in crevices of the fabric's mesh.

Clip the piping bag to the upper rack of your dishwasher, using a clothespin, and run it through a high-temperature wash cycle with your next load of dishes. The high-temperature cycle is hot enough to effectively sterilize the bag. If you don't have a dishwasher, put the bag in a clean pot or heatproof mixing bowl, and cover it with boiling water for at least 30 seconds before draining.

Spray the bag with sanitizing solution. If you have access to a food-grade sanitizer through your workplace, or can wheedle it periodically from a restaurant or bakery in your area, you can use sanitizer rather than running them through your dishwasher or soaking them in boiling water. This prolongs the life of nylon and plastic-lined fabric bags.

Hang the bag to air-dry thoroughly. Some have a loop at the wide end for this purpose, or you can attach a clothespin or stationery clip to the lip of the bag and hang it from a hook. Alternatively, stand the bag upright in your dish drainer overnight to dry.

Wash your tips and couplers by hand, using a brush to extract any food debris from the coupler's threads. A conical brush can be useful for scouring the inside of your piping tips. Hand-dry the tips with a clean paper towel, then let them air-dry for an hour or two so any residual moisture can evaporate. Otherwise, your tips could become rusty on the inside once they're put away in storage.

Put the bag away when fully dry. Heavy canvas bags take the longest to dry, up to a full 24 hours depending on your climate. Plastic-lined and nylon bags may require as little as an hour or two. Never put a bag away until it's thoroughly dry, or it could be susceptible to mold.