Comments on: Cleaning burned pans

Question: Cleaning burned pans

dpcoffin — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 12:50:51 -0800

Best way to clean/restore good-quality copper/stainless sauce pans that have been burned on the stove-top, have heavy, rock-hard encrustations of charcoal-ized food inside and blackened bottoms? Several heavy soaking/scrubbing sessions haven't done it.

By: rxrfrx

rxrfrx — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 12:56:00 -0800

I give up if an SOS pad won't clean a stainless pan.

By: Kirth Gerson

Kirth Gerson — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 12:56:55 -0800

Scotchbrite. Elbow grease. Maybe some citrus solvent.

By: bcwinters

bcwinters — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 12:59:34 -0800

Oven cleaner spray?

By: QIbHom

QIbHom — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 13:06:43 -0800

Simmer dish soap and water for hours. Let cool, go at it with a scrubby. Repeat if you are making progress. If that doesn't work, I retire them to the garage for strange mutant non-food projects.

I have used the oven cleaner spray method, with major rinsing. It works, except that the pans seem to become very prone to burning food and themselves afterwards. I no longer use this method.

By: bonehead

bonehead — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 13:15:09 -0800

Ovencleaner works really well for burnt food residue. Spray the inside, cover and leave overnight. Really baked-on food may take a couple of applications, but will eventually getback to bare shiny metal.

Lye-based oven cleaners are almost magic for cleaning metal. The sprays are much more effective than soaps, and acids, like lemon juice and vinegar, won't touch carbonized food---the chemistry is wrong.

The outsides you spray as well, but a good steel-wool abrasive, as others have said, is probably what you need.

By: CunningLinguist

CunningLinguist — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 13:16:07 -0800

This totally works: simmer a mix of water and dishwasher liquid like Cascade for about 20 mins. It works like a charm.

By: phearlez

phearlez — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 13:16:21 -0800

from http://www.epinions.com/msg/show_~threads/cat_id_~17/id_~1569/forum_id_~181

"Another tip came from a stainless steel cookware sales rep. When food sticks to a stainless steel pan (uncoated) clean the pan as much as possible without using anything caustic like scouring powder or SOS pads and:

- Wipe the inside of the pan dry with a paper towel
- Cover the bottom of the pan with lemon juice (fresh or bottled) and wipe the inside pan wall with lemon juice
- Let the juice soak in for at least thirty minutes or overnight if you really burned something onto the bottom of the pan.
- Wash the pan, the stuck-on food should wipe out with soap and water.

Enough of the lemon juice for now, let's try catsup or ketchup or whatever you call it... the red stuff.

For discolored copper bottom pans or brass, spread a good amount of catsup or ketchup (here I go again) on the dry metal surface, rub gently with a paper towel after a few minutes and then wash with soap and water and dry. Leave the window open when you are getting ready to try this, the chemical reaction can get a bit rough."

other responses here

By: Miko

Miko — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 13:22:21 -0800

Try the lemon juice process above, then follow up the next day (with the lemon juice still in the pan) by liberally sprinking about half a cup of Baking soda on the encrusted stuff. Add 2-3 cups of hot water and bring to a boil. Turn heat down and let simmer for 30 minutes.

This really works to dissolve and loosen the blackened bits, but you still have to go at it with steel wool and elbow grease to dislodge the stubborn parts.

By: stet

stet — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 13:22:40 -0800

Barkeeper's Friend. It wails, is cheap, and is recommended by All-Clad for their stainless pots. I've successfully used it to remove a bunch of melted plastic from my GF's stainless Caphalon frypan as well as all manner of burned-on crap and heat discoloration.

For All-Clad's copper line, they recommend a "brass/copper cleaner."

By: caddis

caddis — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 13:30:04 -0800

I second the dishwasher soap. Wear rubber gloves when using it though - Madge definitely doesn't want you soaking your fingers in it.

By: geeky

geeky — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 13:50:23 -0800

I second Barkeeper's Friend. That stuff works magic.

By: squeak

squeak — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 14:06:06 -0800

Might try using a combination of lemon juice and salt on the copper, if the blackened areas are not too thick the blackening will melt away with a bit of elbow grease.

By: essexjan

essexjan — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 14:57:44 -0800

Throw a handful (or one tablet, or a capful, depending on what type you use) of biological laundry detergent into the pan, add very hot or boiling water, leave it to soak overnight, in a large bowl or sink of water which also contains biological detergent and hot water. Rinse thoroughly in cold water.

The biological detergent should remove the stains from inside and outside the pans.

By: elisabeth r

elisabeth r — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 15:04:24 -0800

I've always cleaned scorched pans by pouring a layer of salt into the (wet) pan, then letting it sit for a while... then using good old-fashioned elbow grease to get the scorch out.

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 15:11:23 -0800

Soak off as much of the crud as you can using the methods above and when you're down to the last layer of blackness get the pan warm, spray with oven cleaner, cover, put OUTSIDE [stuff smells nasty] and wait a day or two. I've rarely had to do the oven cleaner step twice, and never three times.

By: i_am_joe's_spleen

i_am_joe's_spleen — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 15:37:07 -0800

Oven cleaner seconded.

However, I regard it as a last resort.

I find scrubbing with baking soda works very well in all but the most desperate cases.

By: plexiwatt

plexiwatt — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 16:08:39 -0800

Someone tell me if I'm doing anything bad to my pans, but this is what I do: put the dirty pan on a high stove until it's hot enough to sear a steak. Then, pour in the juice of one lemon mixed with a teaspoon of salt. It should steam, like, a lot. Then, I use a wooden spoon to scrub the black bits out of the hot ass pan filled with lemon juice. When sparkleness is achieved, pan goes in super hot water in the sink and gets a washing.

By: plexiwatt

plexiwatt — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 16:09:06 -0800

^^ Oh, and stainless pans only.

By: weapons-grade pandemonium

weapons-grade pandemonium — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 16:18:50 -0800

Vinegar and salt works like magic on copper.
No scrubbing--just wipe.

By: sanko

sanko — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 16:26:11 -0800

A paste of lemon juice and cream of tartar will work extremely well. A bit expensive, but it works.

By: randomstriker

randomstriker — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 16:27:38 -0800

I prefer a mechanical alternative to the chemical approaches suggested so far. For a couple of bucks, buy one of those rotating brushes with plastic bristles that you can attach to your electric drill. Vrooom!

By: briank

briank — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 17:49:07 -0800

Lemon juice and salt is the traditional way to clean copper, but any mild acid will suffice.

I use Barkeeper's Friend on my stainless All-Clad, but I don't know if it would get real tough crud off.

Sometimes discretion is the better part of valor. You may not get your pan clean.

By: rob511

rob511 — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 18:21:04 -0800

plexiwatt, don't keep us waiting any longer: We want a recipe for your citron-noir glace.

By: nakedcodemonkey

nakedcodemonkey — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 19:24:55 -0800

Ant hill.

By: Orb

Orb — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 00:59:01 -0800

I recently went through this myself. I started with baking soda and enough water to cover the grimy bits and simmered it for about an hour, then let it sit overnight. Next day, a lot of the stuff could be gotten off just with a little scrubbing. I tried repeating the baking soda/water again, that night, but it didn't seem to do any good on the REALLY thick and crusty areas. The next day I sprayed it lightly with Easy-Off Fume Free, let it sit for an hour (and if you put it outside, don't put it in the sun, it dries too fast and nothing gets accomplished - I learned that on the second one I worked on). After an hour, the crud almost completely wiped off with a paper towel, and the few spots left easily came clean with normal hand washing.