After a long sordid tale I won’t share with you, including highlights such as half-cooked oatmeal exploded all over a microwave, puddles on the floor, oatmeal-covered parrots, and various other manifestations of chaos, I have been left with a Kitchen Problem that has me stymied:
I made oatmeal in a pot on the stove. The oatmeal was good. However, while cleaning the enamel pot I noted a tar-like substance cemented onto the bottom of the pot.
How the hell do I get rid of this? I am not having much luck.
My first step would be to put some water in there and boil it for a while. Maybe even put in a drop of soap, but watch it doesn’t boil over or boil dry. That should loosen up whatever it is so you can scrape it off.
I can’t help on the pot-cleaning issue (I was going to suggest the boiling water bit), but I have a great recipe for oatmeal you can use next time! Use your crock-pot. Take 1 cup of steel-cut oatmeal (aka pinhead or irish oats) and 4 cups of water, and maybe a half-cup of milk. Add a handful of dried fruit, if you want. Put it all in your crock-pot and leave it on low overnight (8-9 hours). In the morning, stir it all together (it will look weird and separated) and add whatever cinnamon/brown sugar/maple syrup/etc. you want to. Yum! There will still be some cooked-on bits, but they shouldn’t be burned and should scrape off relatively easily, especially after soaking.
Are you trying to cook an individual serving of oatmeal then? That may be your problem - unless you’re doing instant oatmeal, it’s much easier to avoid burning oatmeal with a nice big thermal mass. Oatmeal keeps very well in the fridge, so I’d suggest larger batches to prevent future parrot/oatmeal catastrophes.
My boyfriend’s dad is a chemistry teacher and showed me his trick. I’ve used it ever since and it works on all of my scorched pots.
Grab a box of baking soda and pour a liberal amount into the burnt pot. Dissolve with water. Boil the water. This may take a little while or more than one try if you’re impatient like me but the scorched carbon comes bubbling up with the soda bubbles.
Oatmeal is good leftover! I did not know this until recently. I now make 2 pots of “on the stove” oatmeal every week, dole it out into individual containers, and then have it for breakfast throughout the week. Yummyummnomnomnom!
Let the pot soak with some dish detergent, then scrape with a plastic scraper or spatula. You don’t want to scratch the enamel with a metal utensil in your efforts. (I use a non-stick pot for this very reason. Good luck!)
I heated water with a bit of dish soap in the pot, then made a paste of baking soda and used it to scrub the burnt stuff. Pot is now clean, I am now happy and contemplating making oatmeal for dinner…
Well… the conure has recently learned how to use spoons (grasp at balance point on handle, dip into food, pull back up, eat food off spoon) but while she can handle a small spoon a large serving spoon is too heavy for her to control… well, oatmeal on the floor, birds in the oatmeal (mmm…yummy!), birds fighting over oatmeal and pushing each other into the mess, oatmeayl bird footprints, discovery of bowl of brown sugar…
but the scorched carbon comes bubbling up with the soda bubbles.