"The best way to clean a frying pan that has burned food cemented to the bottom is to let it soak in soapy water for several days and then, when nobody is looking, throw it in the garbage." - Dave Barry
These wise words from kitchen sage Dave Barry were running through my head yesterday as I stared into my favorite pot. I had foolishly left it unattended while boiling milk and potatoes, and the resultant explosion had left starch and dried scorched milk cemented to every visible inch. Unwilling to follow Barry's excellent advice, I soaked, scrubbed, then soaked again, and had some contemplative thoughts on cleaning in the kitchen...
My first thought was philosophical: we love to think about, talk about, plan and cook delicious food. And yet there is always the corresponding cleanup, especially for those of us with small kitchens and no dishwasher other than our own two hands. To the yin of the fragrant meal there is inevitably the yang of the steel wool and dish soap, a give and take of preparation and putting away.
My second thought was much more practical, and it's a question for all of you faithful Friday readers. How do you clean the very worst messes in your kitchen? What motivates you? Are you a leave-it-till-the-morning person? Or do you stay up until 2am until the sink is pristine again? Did your mother or grandmother impart any really great tips for, say, cleaning boiled milk off a saucepan? (My final and resigned strategy was elbow grease and lots of it.)
Bring on the baking soda and the boiling water - got any good cleanup tips to prepare us for the Thanksgiving aftermath?
Call me a freak, I find washing dishes to be somewhat meditative. As long as I'm not in a terrible rush, I stand at the sink, listening to the radio and get all pleased that mess is being eliminated.
That being said, cleaning up after Thanksgiving (which was last month for me) was a bit of a task. I normally like to stay up and finish the cleaning (late night public radio is a great kitchen companion), but I'd had too much wine. The next morning was a disaster. But it did get cleaned, with much time, elbow grease and a bit of baking soda to boot.
i hate washing dishes. just hate hate hate. i swear i learned how to cook so that someone else would be morally obligated to clean instead of me.
that said, when i am designated that particular onerous duty, and when confronted with a particularly thorny mess, i break out ye olde Bar Keepers Friend Powder. someone at Broadway Panhandlers hipped me to it, and it has salvaged many a pan for me over the years.
Faith, that stinks.
When I steamed corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick's Day, I burned the heck out of my stock pot. As I scrubbed harder and harder, I noticed some of the enamel pulling away. For now, I must admit, I cleaned the pot as well as I could and put it in the back of a closet. I didn't have the heart to throw away my first Le Creuset, but I can't get it clean. I am sure stock or pasta made in a pot with any burn at the bottom would taste terrible.
Here's a picture of that mess:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/43511161@N00/123405060/
My grandmother owned a restaurant for 20 years and made huge batches of homemade soup each day and this is her trick for cleaning that black sludge that can happen on the bottom of pots. It really works:
Boil some water in the pot, remove from heat, and drop one of those electrosol tablets (the dishwasher kind) in the water. Let it soak overnight and then wash the pot in the morning. All of the black gunk will have lifted off.
(if its really bad, like my red lentil soup fiasco of last winter, you may have to repeat a couple of times, but it works).
I can't wait to try Carly's fix but I want to know how people clean off all of the grease etc. that gets baked on to the outsides of their Le Creuset pots and in the grooves on the grill pan. I wish I could get mine to really clean up so they would look as nice as they did when I got them. I did put one on my fire escape and sprayed the outside with oven cleaner (not the cooking surface) and while it worked, it seems too toxic a solution.
I use old-fashioned Brillo for the bottoms of pans, but am curious if someone a better way.
Sadly, my dirty dishes usually get washed in the morning. I like coming home from work to a clean sink/kitchen so I can get cooking right away. =)
It is milk and carbs... this one is easy. if it is cast iron... put it in the oven for a cleaning cycle and turn on your fan.. the cleaning cycle will carbonize the food and then you can just scrape it off.
otherwise... the issue is the milk and the easiest way to clean it is to get out your biggest stock pot... but your coated pot in the bigger pot... then cover it with water and bring to a boil. let cool, take out pot and wipe clean, if it does not come clean, repeat.
oh... if you are dealing with breakable items like stoneware, pad the bottom of the watered pan with something so the boiling does not cause it to crack bouncing off the bottom. a damp dishtowl will usually work fine... just don't leave the thing to boil for too long or you'll make burnt dishtowel soup. common sense is the key.
Chris,
I recently read that Le Creuset will take back their pots if the enamel comes off . . . presumably even if it's operator error.
I think it was on Chowhound...
And the pots work just fine with the enamel burnt off.
I have a small Le Creuset frying pan that is completely toasted that I bought for $5 on eBay. I use it when splattering oil burns are inevitable.
It's also handy for my cookware-careless SO, although she always reaches for my most perfect pans. grrrr.
;-)
FOR CLEANING I find deglazing helps - or just simmering water in it for awhile. That, and the baking soda with a non-scratch scrubber. I don't touch Brillo - hate the smell and just about everything I have would be damaged by it.
A couple of years ago at my folks' place we did the big family Thanksgiving, but for reasons completely beyond us we had the whole kitchen immaculate before supper!!! All the dishes were done minus the serving ones and since then on any big meal I am doing I turn into a Nazi about having the kitchen spotless before we eat. That being said if it is a weeknight I am terrible depending on mood I will either do the dishes that night or before I leave for work the next morning, and even then sometimes they don't get done before the next afternoon!!
I find Bar Keepers Friend to be my best when I have a hary cleanig situation.
I use oven cleaner to get burns off of my stainless steel pots. Just spray on (outside and hold your breath while you do it!) and leave overnight. The gunk comes right off. I give it a good scrub with hot soap and water and it's good to go.
i've seen this Grease Bullet product advertised on TV but have never used it myself. my mom used it on a couple of big old roasting pans she uses for ribs and such, and cooked-on grease from 30 years soaked off pretty fast.
Just fill the pot with water and add a little dishwasher detergent (dishwasher, not dishwashing). Let it sit, then scrub.
This is like Carly's method, but you don't need to buy the specific dishwasher tabs.
It will work.
Chris,
You can absolutely return your Le Creuset under the warranty. I've had to do it in the past and it was completely painless. Here's the info, copied from their site:
"To make a claim under this Lifetime Limited Warranty you must mail the cookware, postage prepaid, to the address below. Please enclose your return address and a brief note explaining the defect.
When returning cookware, the owner will need to call, toll-free, 1-877-CREUSET(273-8738) Consumer Services to pre-authorize the return. At that time, a return authorization number will be assigned. Consumer Services will convey to you that number and any other instructions that may be required.
LE CREUSET OF AMERICA, INC
ATTN: CONSUMER SERVICES
114 Bob Gifford Blvd.
Early Branch, SC. 29916 USA"
Hope that helps! I understand the pain of seeing the enamel come off your beloved first piece of Le Creuset. Good luck!
Denture cleaner --- Polident, Efferdent --- works especially well on stains.
On stainless steel, Bartender's Friend (similar to Ajax, it's a powder in a shaker canister) will take care of even the worst messes so that's what i use. Removes all the crud and leaves my posts and pans shiny.
You know... I'm with Lisa. I learned to cook cause I double capital H Hate cleaning.
Of course, my SO doesn't like cleaning either which means I wake up in the morning to a pile of dishes in the sink. :(
I have used straight white vinegar with good results.
Mr. Clean Magic Erasers work really well on the outsides of pots and on the insides of stainless steel cooking pans. They will also get stains and spots off of Pyrex baking dishes. I also use mine sparingly on my white Le Creuset dutch oven (which stains if you look at it funny). Don't use the new two color Magic Eraser -- you want the plain white one. And don't use it on non-stick.
Water softener, it's in detergent/granular form and found along with the laundry detergents in grocery or hardware stores, is guaranteed to work. It's what's in those new grease 'bullet' cleaners (along with fragrances, etc). Just put a couple tablespoons full in the pan, fill with warm or hot water, and let it soak overnight. I've even taken pans other people have given up on and cleaned them using this method. No scrubbing needed - but - you might have to treat an old stain twice to get it completely clean. This method has worked on glass, stainless, aluminum, ceramic, but I don't know about other materials.
As for clean-up, I mix my own cleaning products adding essential oils to scent it (changing the scents by season), and there's nothing like a favorite scent (for me: lavender - or - grapefruit) to make washing dishes more bearable.
Lastly, for big holiday meals, clean as-you-go has always worked best for us.
Rucy
For all things burned to a crisp and black: wd-40. Apply (outside or with many windows open) soak overnight, scrub, repeat as necessary.
yes, i'm one of those people who fills up the sink with hot soapy water before i start cooking (a big pan will also work) and toss things in there as i'm finished with them, cleaning as i go. i find that that will take care of most stuff.
i'm also a fan of barkeeper's friend. also a dryer sheet left soaking in the pot overnite will usually take off whatever's still stuck on.
Faith.
I was scrolling through the entries in this kitchen section looking for one that I thought you might have written. I stopped at the picture of the pan thinking that was probably your work. And there were 21 comments posted to the story, so then I was really hoping it was yours...and it was. You are a great writer, glad you are getting to do that at the site that you love.
And on the subject, now that we are living in someone's basement here in Chicago, we have an even smaller kitchen than yours so it is all washing by hand.
I'll admit it: I throw just about everything in my dishwasher. One or two cycles gets everything off, except for some stains & scorch marks. For those I use Bar Keeper's Friend and my copper scrubbie.
I discovered my allclad mc2 nonstick frypan has stains & scorch marks on the outside, and I have no idea how to get the marks off of the brushed aluminim finish. I am at a loss...
Has anyone tried the le crueset enamel cleanser? I saw it at J&R kitchen store. It's supposed to remove the stains, just wipe on & off, but I am nervous about how toxic any "easy" cleaning solution really is.
--benedita