How To Clean A Burned Saucepan

A little culinary jujitsu

We have all found ourselves cleaning up at the end of a meal with a sense of deep and serious dread. You look over at the saucepan that you dutifully left to soak and wonder, should I just throw that thing away and get a new one?

Don't pitch it!

All is not lost that disaster of a saucepan can still be saved. Indeed, cleanup is going to be a lot easier than you might think. How do you attack the suede like remnants of a burned white sauce? How do you remove the red-brown crusty glaze of a overcooked marinara? You certainly don't develop tennis elbow trying to scrub them out.

There is a way to clean that burned out saucepan that requires more patience than effort.

1. Fill the pan 1/2 to 3/4 of the way full with water.

2. Place the saucepan on the range top and bring to a boil, then let simmer on low for about thirty minutes. (In the case of the glass saucepan, with the same amount of water place it in the microwave for five minutes.)

3. Take the pan over to the sink and poor the water down the sink. Don't worry about pouring it down the drain; the hot water is good for melting any food or greasy buildup.

4. Grab one of those green scrub pads and begin removing the residue left in the pan. The remains of the sauce should fall right off of the sides and the bottom of the pan.

5. It there is any difficulty at all removing the grime repeat the process.

Things to keep in mind

There are a number of different types of stainless pans that use either aluminum or copper discs on their bottoms to help heat conduction. These can often darken in color when compared to the stainless steel tops. I generally like this darkening and think of it as enhancing the character of the saucepan. If you prefer to keep it shiny you can use a product like Brasso that will remove the oxidation and bring back the shine.

Unfortunately if you burn Teflon coated pans you will want to throw them out. The act of burning the Teflon will cause the coating to become unstable. The unstable coating will not only flake it may also leach some chemicals so that it cannot be recommended that you use it again.

Hard anodized pans can most likely be cleaned in the method mentioned above. Indeed it is preferable to using an abrasive cleaner. With anodized pans you will want to make sure you have not exceeded the manufactures temperature recommendations.

More information on saucepans