So how do I clean my egg beater?

April 4, 2013 5:21 AM

I just want to know if anybody has a tip about keeping my hand-cranked rotary egg beater clean.

I generally rinse it right after use, but it still gets a film of grime on the inside surfaces of the blades. It is very hard to manipulate a sponge or brush in there to get the yuk off. Surely some wiser, more experienced cook can give me a clue about how this useful tool is best kept clean!

posted by cellura p to Food & Drink (12 answers total)

I usually fill a bowl with hot soapy water and rotate the blades in it, that does the trick most of the time. If something is especially stuck coarse salt and a damp towel do the trick.
posted by julie_of_the_jungle at 5:30 AM on April 4, 2013 [12 favorites]

Use it in a bowl of warm, soapy water right after cooking. (Not hot, hot will cook the egg on.)

This also works for blenders -- the best way to clean a blender is to put a little water and soap in there and give it a whirl.
posted by Andrhia at 5:30 AM on April 4, 2013 [1 favorite]

I don't have one anymore, but I used to clean my grandma's by just running the egg beater through a bowl of soapy water (and then a bowl of non-soapy water to rinse). Lots of fun when I was a kid!

On preview, we're all on the same page so far. :)
posted by Pandora Kouti at 5:32 AM on April 4, 2013

Just "rinsing" won't do the trick; you need soap to get the fats off the blades before they turn into "grime". I usually wash mine the same way I wash the beaters from my hand mixer: soak it in soapy water for a while, then use a cloth to wipe down the inside and outside of the blades. It's not too hard to pinch each blade between two layers of dishcloth and then run your fingers down the blade to wipe off the clingier grease.
posted by Johnny Assay at 5:32 AM on April 4, 2013

Post soapy-rotation, a bottle brush will help.
posted by MonkeyToes at 5:39 AM on April 4, 2013 [1 favorite]

Stick it in a pot of boiling water with a healthy amount of white vinegar in it.

(FYI, they are easier to scrub with baby bottle brushes.)
posted by DarlingBri at 5:52 AM on April 4, 2013

My tip? I went to a whisk.
posted by Miko at 6:55 AM on April 4, 2013 [2 favorites]

Nthing the bowl of soapy water. If you're really dedicated, you can scrub in the nooks and crannies with a pipe-cleaner. And then you can do crafts with more pipe-cleaners!
posted by windykites at 7:40 AM on April 4, 2013

DarlingBri made a great suggestion. Boiling white vinegar will be a great way to loosen dried-on batter, and has the added benefit of deodorizing your kitchen. Vinegar is one of my favorite cleaning compounds, along with baking soda, hydrogen peroxide, and a bit of bleach when I need it.

A quick google search for homemade cleaners will give you plenty of suggestions, but this page has the most common formulations.
posted by endotoxin at 9:31 AM on April 4, 2013

Response by poster: Thanks for all of the suggestions. I was hoping there was some kind of magic solution that would get it very clean that I just need to blend or buy. It seems like what I need is just more rigor with my soap and water. I'll give vinegar a try, then vigilance.
posted by cellura p at 9:41 AM on April 4, 2013

Ooh, Miko beat me to the punch. Julia Child made the wire whisk popular in the US, supplanting the previously ubiquitous egg beater. That's yet another reason to use one -- be like Julia! Put the beater on a wall as decor.
posted by houseofdanie at 1:31 PM on April 4, 2013

Always clean immediately after use - i mainly use water, tbh - and dry immediately as they rust like hell. I use a balloon whisk, because it's actually usually quicker - hold lightly in hand, allow to flick, and whisk in big bowl held sideways/vertical throwing egg or cream up in air with lazy flick of wrist, allowing beater to swing even further out than you flicked it - it's not a wooden spoon, you want it to jump/bounce - and to bounce off the bowl. Takes about thirty seconds.
posted by maiamaia at 3:53 PM on April 4, 2013