Kitchen Keeping: How to Clean the Pot After Boiling Sugar

Chewy caramels and caramel sauce, we love. Cleaning the sticky pot shellacked with sugar residue after making those caramels, we love not so much. Here's a trick that will save you some time and save your poor arms a lot of scrubbing!

After you're done with the pot, simply fill it with water until the water covers all of the sugar residue. Then put it back on the stove and let the water simmer while you finish up your candies.

The warm water will gradually melt the sugar from the sides of the pan, leaving it residue-free! The water will also dilute and suspend the sugar, so even if you turn off the heat and save the cleaning for later, the sugar won't re-crystallize onto your pan.

If you used any spoons, thermometers, or other utensils in the process of making your candies, stick those in the pot of water, too. Works like a charm!

(Image: Flickr member ginnerobot licensed under Creative Commons)

Comments (12)

This works for almost everything, not just sugar. Burnt on chicken, etc. water is a great solvent.

My wife and I recently made caramel apples and I just used boiling water from my electric kettle for a quick clean. Same concept, just different ways to dissolving the sugar. Give it 10 minutes and the sugar should either be gone or soft enough that a little elbow grease isn't too tiring.

I also coat the still-hot pan with liquid soap and some hot water from the faucet - this works like a dream.

When I was a teenager I attempted to make divinity candy without a candy thermometer, and the ENTIRE PAN was coated with blackened, burnt sugar, with a rock-hard chunk three inches deep in the bottom . It took forever to clean up, wish I had known this then!

I find that letting my pot soak with just warm water in the sink works beautifully for getting caramel off the sides. My boyfriend didn't believe me, but if you let it soak for a good long while, it just comes right off!

The boiling method is amazing. It will remove pretty much anything from stainless pans.

Clever. I almost always rinse my pans immediately after use, cold water on hot metal helps most messes to lift easily. Doesn't always work for sugar though. I'll have to try this.

cold water on hot metal is bad for the pan. oi! thermal shock causes wobbly and warped pans.

Ditto what ocpeter just said. A little cold water may be okay to, say, deglaze a pan while it's on the stove, but you need to be careful.

Let me tell you this method rocks! I had to clean up a TON of sugary pots, pans and utensils from a summer camp. It was Harry Potter summer camp and we were making "acid pops" (just a cool way for the campers to learn about chem/phys changes and phase change) and I has to clean up after the classes. Ugh. FUN camp to help out at, but the clean up took forever.

If you brush the sides of the pan (just above the syrup) with water while you're boiling the sugar, you won't end up with any residue build up.