Update on burnt pan

16 years ago

Well I am happy to say my stainless steel saucepan looks like new again!

I started with the simplest of your suggestions and worked my way up the ladder.

Simmered water in the pan....did nothing.

Simmered water with baking soda in the pan...again, nothing.

Soaked with small amount of water and Barkeeper's Friend and scrubbed with a scrubbie....saw a slight budging of the burnt sugar.

Simmered with dishwashing detergent...nada.

Four (yes, four) treatments with oven cleaner and every spot of carbon/sugar is gone! YAY! It's shiny again!

I also am taking ogoopogo's advice and using the nuker to make hummer food in the future!

Thank you one and all for the suggestions. It was a fun experiment and I can truthfully say I am happy my pan is back to normal and even more happy that I didn't have to break out the power tools! LOL

Linda

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Comments (13)

jessicavanderhoff
16 years ago
Heavens that sounds like a serious mess. It seems like to dissolve sugar, you have to heat it back up to the temperature it was at when it stuck to your pan. Sugar messes are so horrific, aren't they? Oven cleaner is amazing! It is the only thing that cleans my tub (disclaimer: not recommended unless your tub is old and disgusting and has no coating left, like mine)
claire_de_luna
16 years ago
So glad to hear it!
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cookingrvc
16 years ago
good to know.

s
caliloo
16 years ago
Glad you were able to rescue it. Lesson learned!

Alexa
tammyinwv
16 years ago
Boy do i know how you feel Linda. I am absent minded anyway, but I had strawberry jam on the stove boiling, and my daughter called. She wanted me to make another call for her, and in the mean time, when I looked over all that mess had started bubbling up out of the pan all over my smooth top stove. While I was trying to get this pot off the burner and find a clear spot, it was being cooked onto the burner. It took me an hour just to get the burnt on stuff off the stove. I had to use a razor scrapper, and a soapy scrubby and just kept working at it.
Tammy
lindac
16 years ago
I think I have you all beat...more than a few years ago, I was making cranberry jelly in my newish Le Cruset Dutch oven....and forgot about it. I think it got to the hard crack stage and was well caramelized before I realized it was still cooking....and it popped the enamel off the inside bottom of the pot....
Sob!
caliloo
16 years ago
YEOUCH LindaC! You win!

Alexa
dees_1
16 years ago
FYI....you don't need to boil water/sugar to make hummer food. I've been doing it for years and simply dissolve the sugar in cold tap water. This time of year, I'm changing the food every day. I get about 50 hummers per feeder so I'm doing something right!
Lars
16 years ago
I bought two hummingbird feeders and also bought the red food to go in them, and they ignore them completely. Then a friend at work said I should remove the commercial food and replace it with sugar water. I haven't done that, but I will now that others agree. I have plenty of hummingbirds, but they seem to be content with the flowers in the yards.

At first I thought this was going to be about a bunt pan.

Then when I saw Linda talk about hummer food, I thought she was talking about the automobile. I'm wearing Hummer glasses, made for when you drive a Hummer, which I don't have. I have a short distance prescription put in them and use them for the computer.

To get back on topic, I've been using oven cleaner for years to clean SS pots and pans.

Lars
bri29
16 years ago
Oh Linda, I feel your pain!!! I was making strawberry jam with a friend a few weekends ago and had the same thing happen to my dutch oven! Aack! We'd made one batch successfully and were cooking the second batch when I went over to check on the progress and came up with a streamer of blackened junk off the bottom of the pan. She'd been stirring, but not all the way to the bottom, oops.

I soaked for a day, boiled, scrubbed and pleaded for another day and ended up taking a razor blade to it, very carefully. A couple hours later I was able to get all the sugar off (in about three layers). It was a very happy day for me so I'm so glad you were able to get your favorite pan clean!!!
lindac
16 years ago
It's not the sugar stuck to the pan...I could remove that. It's that the enamel popped off due to the extreme heat....
*sob*
jessyf
16 years ago
Linda (doucanoe), glad you are back to a nice pan. I agree, I use oven cleaner sparingly, but it is fab stuff.
centralcacyclist
16 years ago
I use oven cleaner on the really burned on crud. I've scorched more than one thing in my stainless steel. Sadly I once used oven cleaner on my aluminum air cushioned cookie sheets. Wrong. I line them with parchment now when I bake. Someday I will replace them.