Stupid me was reading this board and I let my pasta burn. Using Comet cleanser and scrubbing the living daylights out of the thing (it has no coating), I’ve managed to get most, but not all of the crud out. Any ideas on how I can get the rest off short of sandblasting?
I don’t know how effective any of these methods will be, so wait until an expert can confirm or denounce the efficacy of any of them:
Method 1:
Mix a thin paste of baking soda, salt, and water and apply to the affected spots. Let it soak for several minutes, then scrub with a scouring pad. My mom occasionally used this method (alas, I was just a callow youth, and less interested in how well it worked than I was in how well it foamed up when you dripped some vinegar into it when mom wasn’t looking – which wasn’t often).
Method 2:
fill the pot with water. Bring it to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Theoretically (or is it hypothetically? I’m guessing) the crud will eventually dissolve, or at least soften to the point you can attack it with a scouring pad.
Method 3:
Borrow a drill sander from a friend and remove the crud along with some of the metal (be certain to re-season the pot afterwards).
Method 4:
- Obtain a license to handle explosives.
- Blast the crud out of it.
Method 5:
- Obtain a pot of similar size and construction to the original.
- Lift the cruddy pot high enough to slide the clean pot under it.
- Take the dirty pot and turn it in to a recycling center.
Hope some of the above advice helps.
~~Baloo
Baloo’s wonderful, isn’t he? I was going to suggest Method 2, but I’ve also used Method 5. If nothing else works, soak it in hot water for several days, changing the water occasionally, and then attack it with an SOS pad, which I find often works wonders. I’ve been tempted to use Methods 3 and 4, usually after roasting a turkey.
A few years ago I finally got a set of pot and pans to which nothing sticks. The kids burned their mac and cheese to a blackened mess? No problem. Just turn it upside down over the garbage, and it comes completely out. I should do commercials.
then you could always try the uni student method of getting a pan clean…
Dice it in the bin, go to “cheap as chips” or some other discount store, buy whole set of pans for less than the cost of an expensive cleaner!! 
this usually works for me. Either that or wait until your mum comes to visit, and leave it conveniently placed in full view on the stove!
I’ve had some success with a variation on Baloo’s method #2. Squirt in some dishwashing liquid, add water, and then bring to a boil. Let it boil for about 20 minutes. Keep an eye on it; the suds will want to boil over.
Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature. A lot of the crud will have floated off; the rest will be much easier to scour out.
If a simple overnight soaking is not sufficient, I also “cook” some soapy water. I have no residue on any of our pans.
(Coca Cola® left to sit overnight also works. Do NOT do this on a coated pan unless you are willing to risk losing some of the coating.)
[teacher voice]
And if Coca-Cola does that to a saucepan, just imagine what it does to your stomach lining!
[/teacher voice]
I’m a bit more fun. 1. put it in the fireplace with a fire & that works well 2. buy a new pan, they are cheap 3. sandpaper
Youdidn’t say if its got teflon on it, so don’t try some of those if it does.
Bartenders Helper.
Great stuff. They sell it in most grocery stores by Comet and Ajax cleanser in the cleans supplies section. The only drawback with it is that it says just to rinse well after use, but it doesn’t come off all that easy. It is best to lightly wash the pot afterwards with soap.
This stuff is great. Follow the instructions. I use it to clean burned stuff out of my steel pots, to clean my copper bottom pans and for really seared on jobs, I use a steel scrubber with it.
I use only steel pots and pans, but other friends of mine using aluminum say it works very well on their stuff and it’s cheap too.
ALL of the above answers are wrong.
The method I use (as a veteran pot carbonifier) is so obvious that I continue to be astounded at how few other people it’s occurred to.
There is a readily available product on the market that has been specifically designed to dissolved burnt-to-carbon food residue from food surfaces. It’s called–get this–oven cleaner.
When you burn a pan to this extent, and you scrub all the anthracite off leaving only the layer of diamond that impervious to all scrubbing technology, spray it with Easy Off and leave it in–wait for it–your oven overnight. In the morning it will be as warm butter before the power of your pad.
Simmer tomato sauce, ketchup or whatever tomato product you have handy in the pan. Let stand over night, even. Acids in the tomato work their wonders.
Coke works pretty good too. (BTW, I would think that Diet Coke works even better because of the higher level of citric acid. But I’ve never tried.)
I’ve had success with just plain white vinegar. Soak for five minutes, then scrub. Of course, what works may depend on what was burned, but I’ve never really studied it. Someone should.
OK.
Brief summary of (serious) listed methods:
Baloo1: Paste of baking soda, salt, and water.
Baloo2: Boil water.
Lola1: Soak in hot water several days, attack with SOS.
Guy1: Boil water and detergent.
Tomndebb1: Coca-Cola overnight.
Jetassisted: Bartender’s Helper.
Lissener: Oven cleaner.
Rmariamp: Cook tomatoes in.
Saltire: White vinegar.
Empirical results so far: I brought water to a boil. After boiling the bejeezus out of it, I reduced it to a simmer. Nothing much seemed to be happening, so I added detergent. It boiled over quite prettily, and I boiled it for about 15 minutes. Then I attacked it with a scouring pad. Results: negligible.
Baloo2 and Guy1 are thus dispensed with. Next test: Baloo1 (baking soda and salt). Science progresses!
matt:
Feel free to leave my method (oven cleaner) for last. It’s the only one that works, so if you use it first you won’t be able to test the others.
I saw the ultimate cleaning lady on Oprah a few weeks ago. She said put a sheet of fabric softener in the pot. Add water and let it soak overnight. The example she showed sure seemed to work!!
I sometimes get good results by dowsing the offending pan carbon with lemon juice, and letting it sit for a couple of hours, then scrubbing it with Barkeeper’s Friend. Boiling some water w/ lemon juice in it may help as well.
lissener is the only one who’s got it right. Be sure to heat the pan by running hot water in it for several minutes then drying it before spraying in the oven cleaner.
PS: It’s the phosphoric acid in Coca Cola that does all the work.
Oven cleaner works great on steel or iron pans. It will badly etch aluminum and destroy hard anodizing. Don’t know what it would do to copper.
Skip all that stuff. Make something like baked apples in it & give it to a neighbor. Youll get it back sparkling clean.
Thanks–didn’t think to mention this, but yes: I pitted an aluminum pan with oven cleaner once. Since then, I’ve dabbed oven cleaner carefully on the carbon and wiped it off the aluminum with better results.