Stop, drop, and roll

November 15, 2005 4:25 PM

I left the stove on and went to bed. When I woke up, all the food turned to ash and I'm having trouble clenaing the black stuff off the pot. I've scrubbed it down with a wire meshy thing, and it's gotten most of it, but it's still very black on the bottom. Any tips?
posted by lpctstr; to Home & Garden (36 answers total)

A good soaking of oven cleaner? I use the squeeze bottle type myself so as to minimize blowback...
posted by anthill at 4:28 PM on November 15, 2005

Uh.. based on my own experience, it's done. That's never coming off. Even if you managed to scrape it off, you'll wear away any of the non-stick coating that was originally on the bottom of the pot and each time you use it, it will blacken like it is right now.
posted by purephase at 4:29 PM on November 15, 2005

if it's worth salvaging, i.e. it's non-non-stick, I'd get some Barkeeper's Friend and coarse salt after I let it sit in degreaser for awhile, and scrub away - use equal parts of each to make a thick-ish paste. might take a Brillo. might still be done for in the end.
posted by kcm at 4:32 PM on November 15, 2005

Response by poster: yeah, it's just a non-nonstick regular large pot
posted by lpctstr; at 4:33 PM on November 15, 2005

Best answer: Depends what the pot is made of, but if it's stainless or copper, try lemon juice/ baking soda.

World's least expensive brass polish, and organic to boot.

Most so-called cleaning aids are really just the old stand-bys, repackaged, and incredibly marked-up.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 4:36 PM on November 15, 2005

the French would approve of you continuing to use the uber-cancerriffic fond-a-licious remains still in the pot. adds flavor, don't you know.
posted by kcm at 4:37 PM on November 15, 2005

My Dad recently left a pan on the stove that caught on fire - he swears that some spray cleaner called "Greased Lightning" cleaned it all up - including the carbon deposit on the wall above the fire.
posted by Liosliath at 4:42 PM on November 15, 2005

VIM or Ajax (when it gets dry, add a little water) will do the job but you'll have to put in some knuckle grease.
posted by PurplePorpoise at 4:45 PM on November 15, 2005

There's a lot of tips and methods out there but I'd consider purephase's comments carefully - you can end up investing an hour and $10 in cleaning supplies on this and still not have a decent result. My experience has been that non-stick pans left on high heat for long periods with nothing in them are never the same even if you get them clean.
posted by phearlez at 4:47 PM on November 15, 2005

Trash.
posted by cribcage at 4:49 PM on November 15, 2005

We rescued our pot after a similar incident. Scrub vigorously with everything under the kitchen sink. Soak. Repeat. It sat on our stove with some combination of water and cleaning solution in it for weeks, but eventually all the burned-on stuff was gone.

FYI: This incident happened over ten years ago. It wasn't an expensive pot. And yes, we still use it.
posted by desuetude at 4:51 PM on November 15, 2005

Didn't realize it was "non-stick".

As cribcage and others have noted, that pot is now trash.

I'd replace it with a real metal one that doesn't flake carcinogens into your food each time you use it.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 4:54 PM on November 15, 2005

I thought he said "non-nonstick," and therefore it has a plain metal surface...
posted by Liosliath at 4:59 PM on November 15, 2005

Response by poster: hmm, no. I don't know what a pot that is *not* non-stick is called, so I wrote non-nonstick.

It's stainless steel.

I'll try the lemon juice + baking soda tip first, then the chemicals recommended here. Thanks
posted by lpctstr; at 5:01 PM on November 15, 2005

If you've given up on everything else maybe you could give the ol' Dremel a crack at it?
posted by Opposite George at 5:07 PM on November 15, 2005

just FYI, Barkeeper's Friend is about the least harsh cleaner you can get -- most quality cookware recommends hand-cleaning with it specifically. I'm sure you could formulate it with common household items, but it's ridiculously cheap to buy and handy to have. it's not really 'chemical'.
posted by kcm at 5:07 PM on November 15, 2005

My wife incinerated some rice pudding in a stainless pot the other day. I got the blackened residue all out with a Scotchbrite pad and elbow grease.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 5:08 PM on November 15, 2005

If the only thing you lost was a pot, consider yourself lucky!
posted by knave at 5:12 PM on November 15, 2005

I used ammonia once to clean the stains off a pan. Let it sit in the pan overnight but seal it in a plastic bag so you don't inhale the fumes.
posted by any major dude at 5:16 PM on November 15, 2005

non-stick pans left on high heat for long periods with nothing in them...

...can kill your pet birds.
posted by StickyCarpet at 5:16 PM on November 15, 2005

Oh, so it was non-nonstick. Funny how we have become so inured to our chemicalized environment that it becomes harder to describe the more natural product than the "improved" one.

( I discovered the lemon trick back in my boating days, when I accidentally spilled some lemonade on the compass binnacle, and watched in amazement as all the corrosion washed away) .

Arrrrrrr Billy!
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 5:25 PM on November 15, 2005

And after the cleaning, may i suggest a Smoke Detector (or batteries) just saying it's not the kind of thing you want to sleep through.
posted by blink_left at 5:28 PM on November 15, 2005

If you've got a decently powered stove (say, a 9600 btu gas burner) and a decent venting system, more of the same is what you need. Crank up the heat, re-ash the ash, and scrape it off. I learned that one from my cousin the professional cook.

If you don't have that kind of power, you have to try one of the methods described above. I've had success with a thick baking soda and water solution (similar to what was linked above), and mixed success with a fabric softener sheet in water. But theoretically, plain stainless steel should be able to unbond from almost anything with sufficient heat and friction.

So what, exactly, did you burn?
posted by maudlin at 5:30 PM on November 15, 2005

Response by poster: the lemon juice trick seemed to work pretty well. The black marks seem to be embedded in the pot now so I'm guessing it'll come off over use, or just remain there forever which is fine as well. I'm sure many of the products recommended would work just as well, but I don't have any of it in the apartment.

> So what, exactly, did you burn?
(I'm not sure how to do that italics quoting thing you guys do)
Chili

> And after the cleaning, may i suggest a Smoke Detector (or batteries) just saying it's not the kind of thing you want to sleep through.
Yeah I have working one, but it didn't go off because there wasn't any smoke. just a thick tar smell in the plac.e

thanks for all your responses.
posted by lpctstr; at 5:41 PM on November 15, 2005

Eventually the black marks fade and you'll be left with a rather lovely rainbow-like patina as a souvenir.
posted by desuetude at 5:44 PM on November 15, 2005

On a related note, if you leave teflon (and probably other non-stick) pots on, even for relatively short times, without food in them you can get Teflon flu. I don't know how much has been studied on the long-term effects.
posted by abcde at 6:16 PM on November 15, 2005

does the lemon juice / baking soda thing really work?

i ask because i don't really understand the chemistry of it. lemon juice is mostly acid - baking soda, being sodium bicarbonate, makes a base in water. put them together and you should get a salt and CO2 bubbles, just like vinegar and baking soda, right?

so how does this clean burned food, mostly carbon at this point, off a pan?
posted by sergeant sandwich at 6:22 PM on November 15, 2005

You can use the pre-formatted "B" and "I" HTML tags at the bottom of the reply window, lpctstr;

Highlight the word you want to italicize, and then click on the "I".

This will show you the basic HTML formating in the text box, as well.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 6:27 PM on November 15, 2005

The lemon is an acid which dissolves the crud, sargeant sandwich. The baking soda is merely an abrasive which adds scouring action. You can use these items separately or combined, depending on time/availability and/or convenience.

Go read the labels on the store-bought products in your broom closet. Almost all of them consist of the most basic of cleansing products; used for generations before Madison Avenue got involved. They repackage these common items, trademark them with fancy brand-names, then mark then up 10,000 percent.

Glass cleaners are usually just water-diluted ammonia and dye, as an example. I clean my windows with plain-old newspaper and vinegar, just as my Granny taught me.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 6:39 PM on November 15, 2005

Start simple by just adding some soapy water and boiling it. And let it soak, soak, soak. Look at it this way: given 50 years outside in rain, the gunk would eventually slough off, so it's possible to clean it. All depends on how much patience and elbow grease you have.
posted by zardoz at 7:14 PM on November 15, 2005

Re: Teflon

A place I worked once got a container of Teflon powder (I forget why.) It came with some serious warnings about washing your hands before smoking, do not expose to open flame, do not inhale, etc. Burnt Teflon seems to be very toxic.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 7:29 PM on November 15, 2005

I don't know about using the pot anyway wtih the burn marks, burnt anything gives you cancer (charred food is a small amount; this is some burnt-ass shit). I'm probably being paranoid though.
posted by abcde at 7:37 PM on November 15, 2005

My approach is very simple and guaranteed totally effective: heat the pot for a long period and all the carbon eventually oxidizes and is gone. Don't heat it so hot that the steel warps though, very hot but not too hot! Also, don't do this if there's a plastic handle -- it will make nasty nasty fumes.
posted by anadem at 10:00 PM on November 15, 2005

Smear some tomato sauce on the pot, let dry, then wash. I discovered this cooking marinara. The pot was had more shine afterwards. It is just another acid.
posted by Goofyy at 3:27 AM on November 16, 2005

The last time I did this, I filled the pot half full of water, added a couple tablespoons of baking soda, and then boiled for an hour or so. Cleaned it all off.
posted by faceonmars at 9:38 AM on November 16, 2005

www.howtocleananything.com
posted by Sharcho at 1:55 PM on November 16, 2005