Only 99 Cents! A Simple Tool for Cleaning Pans

Elizabeth Passarella
Elizabeth Passarella
Elizabeth Passarella is the author of the essay collection Good Apple and a contributing editor at Southern Living. A former editor at Real Simple and Vogue, she has spent more than 20 years writing about food, travel, home design, and parenting in outlets including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Parents, Martha Stewart Weddings, Coastal Living, Airbnb, and The Kitchn. Elizabeth grew up in Memphis, Tennessee and now lives with her husband and three children in New York City.
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published Feb 8, 2011
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(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)

A cookbook author once described this little scraper to us as her favorite cleaning tool. We never thought about it again until we recently passed a bin full of them at a home store. It is, in fact, a very effective gadget for cleaning really dirty pots and pans, and the cost? Less than $1.

We’ll occasionally use steel wool for scrubbing a crusty stain, but we find it unpleasant—tough on your hands, hard to reuse, unsightly and smelly when all the bits of food get stuck in it…

This little plastic scraper has a rounded corner for sweeping around a sauté pan and a point for digging into corners. Plus, it won’t damage enamel or nonstick cookware. The handle on this particular one is thick enough to get a good grip.

If you frequently use a butter knife or your fingernail to scratch off baked-on lasagna, this is a very handy tool. It takes up minimal space, and ours was only 99 cents.

Anyone else rely on this tiny tool?

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)

Related: Good Question: How Do I Clean the Stains Off My Le Creuset Dutch Oven?

(Images: Elizabeth Passarella)

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cookware