Due to a plumbing problem in my apartment building, the ceiling light fixture in my bathroom was dripping a suspiciously urine-like substance for a couple of days, and I put a large metal stock pot on the floor to catch the drips and prevent the floor from getting too disgusting.
Now I am wondering: how can I disinfect this pot so thoroughly that I would once again feel comfortable using it to cook food for human consumption? What would you do?
Whether or not you can disinfect it thoroughly enough to feel comfortable is up to you. But you can sanitize it. A thorough wash with hot, soapy water will do it. Or run it through your dishwasher. Or wash it in a bleach solution (one tablespoon of bleach in a gallon of water).
Beyond that, it’s psychological – and the “ewwww” factor may be more than those methods can overcome.
just wanted to say NOT to use bleach if the pot is made of steel or aluminum. I’d be careful with any metal actually and first at least run a search (ie, brass and bleach, etc) on google.
Stainless and the like are OK with bleach. Aluminum cannot handle the high pH, and will pit horribly.
I’d just wash the thing in hot soapy water, and then boil water in it. covered, for an hour or so. Human pathogens tend to like 37°C much better than 100°C.
After a thorough scrubbing, put it in a preheated oven (preferably a gas oven ;))at 350[sup]o[/sup] for 30 minutes, but only if it doesn’t have a plastic handle that might melt. Alternatively fill with water and boil on your gas stove for 30 minutes.
When I was in college I used a pan from the frat kitchen to change my car’s oil. The cook was pretty pissed, and wouldn’t allow the pan to be used again at all, regardless of any effort to clean it. Something about the health code. :rolleyes:
[QUOTE= the “ewwww” factor may be more than those methods can overcome.[/QUOTE]
Yep. A decent cooking pot is not expensive and the mental anguish you will suffer every time you use that pot will justify the purchase of a new one.
If you can’t bear to part with a vessel that still appears to be useful then clean it thoroughly and use it for household chores like mixing paint or plaster. Anything that won’t have to do with food.
Any good cleaning method will do. I’d just chuck it in the dishwasher, personally.
If your typical method is good enough to remove pathogens from meat, for example, it should be adequate for removing anything else icky. We’re not talking about organic solvents, but instead sewage, in your worst case scenario.
I’ve had so many overlaps between pet husbandry and kitchenware that there’s virtually no ick factor for me at all with such things. My first choice is always bleach, but if it’s aluminum or steel boiling or baking does the trick.
Agree with everyone else, boiling some water for a good 20+ minutes will kill pretty much anything that doesn’t live next to a volcanic vent in the ocean. Bleach will also do the trick.
If you’re really paranoid go out and buy some cooking oil and cook that off at 350 degrees or so. Nothing can live through that. (Gonna cost like 8 for the oil though, whereas the water's gonna cost about .05.)
That depends on what alloy the stainless is- typical cookware of "18-8" also known as 304 will degrade in contact with sodium hypochlorite, but that too is dependent on strength of solution and contact time.
I can’t see why this is a problem. cookware by its nature is easy to clean - it’s made of hard durable smooth material that doesn’t absorb stuff. Just wash it out in hot water and you’re good to go.
Having lived in enough leaky old houses, I can point out that ordinary water, when filtered through a ceiling, tends to take on a urine-like appearance from all the dirt that it has filtered through and picked up along the way. If it was just amber colored water, I’d clean the pot as mentioned above and try to convince myself that it was just water + dirt.
If it had a urine-like smell, well, then you’re back to square one.
If you’re looking to sanitize (not sterilize) it, freckafree had it in one.
If you want to sterilize it, none of the above methods will work as written. Bacterial spores can survive up to about 15 minutes at 250F and 15PSI or 1 hour at 340F and ambient pressure. 10% bleach for 1/2 hour will also kill spores, but this is hard on metals, even stainless steel. Since you probably don’t have access to an autoclave, and your pot probably won’t fit into a reasonably sized pressure cooker, your best option is to bake at 350F for an hour.
Personally, I’d just wash it with hot soapy water.
It doesn’t have to be a leaky roof to be only water. It could be a leaking supply pipe. There are any number of plumbing troubles that don’t involve raw sewage. In fact the only way I can think of for urine and related substances to be dripping for a matter of days would be a problem with the waste stack or with the seal on the toilet. Or really disgusting upstairs neighbors that urinate on the floor.
How about hydrogen peroxide? Does that sterilise without pitting?
Personally I’m with the ‘sling it in the dishwasher and fuggeddaboutit’ crowd. If I was feeling exceptionally paranoid I might wipe it with undiluted bleach first, but that’s unlikely.