Every once in a while, you may happen to overdo your efforts when cooking and you can end up with a scorched saucepan. Aside from the obviously ruined meal, now you have to also deal with burnt-on grease and waste even more time in the kitchen.
What most people do in this situation is start scrubbing as aggressively as they can to remove the burnt food. While sometimes it works, most of the time it doesn’t. Fortunately, there are easier ways which also don’t require as much elbow grease.
If you:
- Have a brand new pan which you, unfortunately, managed to scorch
- Have tried soaking the burnt pan with water and soap, but got mixed results
- Have tried boiling with dishwashing powder and water, but still got mixed results
Then read along!
A saucepan can be made from a variety of materials such as stainless steel, aluminium and have a non-stick coating. Whether it has a coating or not, these methods can still work.
The boiling saucepan method
- Let it cool.
Let the pan cool down at room temperature. - Scrape.
Scrape off as much of the charcoal as you can with a damp rag. - Soak.
Pour white vinegar into the pan to cover the scorched areas. An alternative to this is baking soda, dishwashing liquid and water. - Boil.
Place the pan on a hot hob and let it boil for about 10 minutes. - Cool.
Allow the pan to cool down and dump the liquid down the sink. - Wipe.
Wipe the burnt bits away with a sponge or brush. A scourer may damage the non-stick coating of the pan, so we don’t recommend it. - Wash.
Wash the pan as you normally would after all the scorch marks have been removed.
24-hour wait method
- Scrape.
Scrape out as much charcoal as possible. - Fill with hot water.
Fill the dirty pan with boiling water, add several tablespoons of baking soda and mix. - Let it sit.
Let the pan sit with this solution overnight or better yet, for about 24 hours. - Wash.
Throw away the solution and wash your pan as normal.
How to clean your kitchen sink afterwards
Needless to say, all the burnt material will leave quite a mess in your sink and sink drain. Should you decide to clean it after the pan, consider these steps:
- Remove any leftover food from the basin.
That goes for dishes as well. Wash them before moving to the next step. - Wash the sink basin.
Use dishwashing soap, warm water and a sponge. Start from the sides, so the grime and filth slips into the drain. - Clean the drain. All you need in this case is hot water. Pour it down the drain, so the food build up loosens and bad smells go away.
Hire professionals
If you think this task and many like it are too time-consuming and tiresome, then why not let ShiningOven help you? The technicians we work with are all trained and very experienced in the field of domestic cleaning. They also bring their own detergents and tools to tackle even the nastiest cleaning job.