Will a scratched stainless steel pot affect cheese flavour?

January 2, 2024 8:00 AM

My roommate used the brand new pot I bought to make cheese, and apparently washed it with something very abrasive, because it has tiny little scratches all over it now. Will this give my cheese a metallic flavour?
posted by wheatlets to Food & Drink (21 answers total)

I mean, you're probably a better expert than I am about cheese making, but generally, chefs in kitchens have super banged up steel pots and pans. Unless you are aiming at perfection, I think you'll be fine.

It might be different if it was a scratch in a teflon pan, but if it's just steel, I doubt it would change your outcome.
posted by bbqturtle at 8:10 AM on January 2 [5 favorites]

Can you show us a picture?
posted by Special Agent Dale Cooper at 8:19 AM on January 2

Response by poster: photo
posted by wheatlets at 8:26 AM on January 2

I would be annoyed if my roommate did that to my brand new pot, but I don't think it will affect your cheesemaking. Unfortunate but cosmetic.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 8:32 AM on January 2 [6 favorites]

No, you're fine. This is also called "patina".
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 8:33 AM on January 2 [3 favorites]

It's stainless steel all the way through. So the scratches are cosmetic.
posted by mightshould at 8:33 AM on January 2 [8 favorites]

Response by poster: It's this pot, which claims to have a stainless steel handle/knob/cover/body but an aluminum disc. What the heck is a disc?
posted by wheatlets at 8:42 AM on January 2

The disc is the bottom portion, which contacts with the heating element.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 8:45 AM on January 2 [4 favorites]

The nice thing about stainless is that it's very unlikely to impart any kind of flavor on your food, unlike carbon steel, cast iron, or other metals. BTW, it doesn't patina, exactly, but quickly forms an oxide layer when scratched deep enough. Which is still unlikely to impart a flavor.

It might have an aluminum clad external bottom for heat conduction purposes.
posted by 2N2222 at 8:48 AM on January 2

Often the aluminum is a disc sandwiched in the middle, fully enclosed. The purpose is to more evenly distribute the heat.

But those scratches are still only cosmetic. Annoying, but bound to happen eventually. I'd maybe recommend making *one* comment to not use steel tools in your nice new steel pots and pans, but otherwise chalk it up to a learning experience and move on, that pot will be fine for a hundred years as long as it doesn't get crushed. Also if you don't have wooden and silicone implements to use with the shiny stainless steel, consider getting some.
posted by SaltySalticid at 8:54 AM on January 2 [3 favorites]

It's possible that the scratches are from cleaning, but those scratches are irregular and coarse enough that I'm leaning more towards thinking a metal whisk or other utensil was used for stirring the pot. You can likely mostly or fully restore the finish of your pot with some polishing compound and a buffing wheel or disk (or an awful lot of hand work), working through finer and finer grits until you restore that mirror finish. But for what it's worth, my stainless pots are over 10 years old, full of scratches like this from using whisks, spoons, whatever, and they cook just as well and easily as when they were mirror new.

When soaking just isn't enough, a light scrubbing with Barkeeper's Friend followed by a soapy wash will restore stainless pots and pans to like new, in function, but not appearance. (Gentle reminder to all that chlorine bleach is bad for stainless, so please avoid bleach-containing cleaners like Comet!)
posted by xedrik at 8:56 AM on January 2 [6 favorites]

Your roommate burned something in the pot and tried a fork or metal spatula to loosen it. Tell them to soak first next time, because clearly they later did and everything cleaned up perfectly. And make sure they're not using the same metal utensils on nonstick pots and pans. (Just stirring wouldn't leave marks that bad, that was scraping stuff stuck on. I had a relative who couldn't accept you don't do it on nonstick, she went through two pans per year.)
posted by I claim sanctuary at 9:17 AM on January 2 [4 favorites]

That is from normal use and won't affect the use of the pot in any way. The initial mirror finish is only for going "ooh!!" while it's in the store. Absolutely don't worry about this, and don't worry when you scratch it up more by continuing to cook in it, wash it, store it with other things, etc.
posted by fritley at 10:50 AM on January 2 [9 favorites]

Cookware with a mirror finish like yours will quickly show minor damage and to keep it pristine you would need to refrain from using metal utensils, harsh cleaning agents AND store it so that other pots and pans don't scratch it. I generally prefer brushed finish to avoid all this hassle- but I have found great deals on pots that have imperfections in their mirror finish.

I have all the gear (high grit wet sandpaper & polishing wheels) but I prefer to just use the green heavy duty Scotch Brite scrubbing pads to impart a brushed finish once the mirror finish degradation is noticeable. Your pot brand likely sells this finish as an option - check online for pictures of what it would look like before you start.
posted by zenon at 11:20 AM on January 2 [2 favorites]

I just took a look at a fairly new stainless pan I have. Like yours it's from Ikea and came with a mirror finish. It's been very gently used to date and never been scrubbed with anything beyond a standard gentle sponge. The surface has lots of random fine scratches if you look at it from the right angle. Nth-ing that it's normal and expected, I wouldn't even mention it to your roommate.
posted by trig at 11:59 AM on January 2 [2 favorites]

I agree with I claim sanctuary that these are dings from an implement.

There are stainless implements out there that are softer than the stainless used in pots and will not scratch your pot no matter how hard you use them. Mine were made by Progresso, I think, but the only reliable way to find them is to see whether they will actually scratch your pot by testing them on a external surface of the pot.

My experience is like zenon's in seeing mirror finishes cloud over time no matter how careful you are unless you just don’t use the pot. Very fine grit abrasives (1500-6000) will allow you to almost but not quite reclaim the mirror finish at any point, but they are so much work.
posted by jamjam at 12:04 PM on January 2

Seconding (thirding?) that this simply isn't a finish that will hold up long term on cookware. You could polish these scratches out, but markings on nearly mirror-finish stainless are a result of normal use, not abuse, and you'll just have more to deal with eventually.

I encourage you to Google some images of All-Clad pans; like a lot of high-end cookware, they have a similar mirror finish on their exterior but feature a brushed interior, which is actually possible to maintain. Pots and pans inevitably need to be scrubbed out once in a while!

And, no, these marks won't cause any problems with cheesemaking or any other use. The stainless material itself is not going to interact meaningfully with food and does not depend on a partcular surface finish or texture to be non-reactive.
posted by pullayup at 12:28 PM on January 2 [2 favorites]

what everyone has said already, just adding: bringing water to a low boil will loosen most stubborn food debris

I've done this many times with my stainless pots and cast iron pan, it really saves you from scrubbing. Also, I have yet to find a better scrub pad than this
posted by elkevelvet at 1:42 PM on January 2 [1 favorite]

I have an assortment of nice stainless steel cooking pots and pans, some of which I've had for 20 years. They're as solid as they were when I bought them. Some have an aluminium or copper disc on the bottom to improve heat distribution. They're still reasonably shiny, although they're all covered with fine scratches, mostly on the inside, some of them from inappropriate scraping. One has a dent from when I dropped it, and another has a handle with loose rivets that I really need to address with a hammer. And to me they just look how steel pots should look, like they're tools that have been used. A clean steel pan, even one covered in scratches, won't affect the quality of the food at all. There's a reason why the food industry uses stainless steel for pretty much everything.
posted by pipeski at 2:44 PM on January 2

Also seconding Barkeeper's Friend and a bit of elbow grease for cleaning good pots and pans. Normal use, cleaning, and reuse of cookware will help accumulate a patina of scratches that give your kitchen tools character. Enjoy!
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 2:58 AM on January 3

Euroscrubby is part of my arsenal too, but the first thing I reach for when a stainless steel pot is really crusty is a wok brush.
posted by superelastic at 3:17 AM on January 3 [1 favorite]