Lenten thanks, Day 35:
What could be better than an old friend who doesn’t forget you even after she leaves town? Thanks, Your Godship, for reminding her to call and come over while she’s visiting here.
While all that conversation was going on, a few days ago, at Frugal Scholar’s place and waypoints, about fancy pans and serviceable alternatives, I was crawling around the Net looking for talk on the subject and came across a thread on some forum (which, alas, I’ve now lost track of) in which people were talking about how to clean scorch and burn stains off their expensive cookware.
You know how if you go off and leave a good stainless pan on the burner and forget it long enough to let it burn dry, it will get dark brown flame marks seared into its shiny exterior? Well, I’ve done that to two very nice pieces, a teakettle and that little 8-inch frying pan whose apparent demise I reported during the aforementioned back-and-forth. One commenter described a way of removing those stains, which I thought were permanent.
Said he: Make a thick paste of Barkeeper’s Helper. Rub this into the stains and then leave it to dry. Leave it at least 10 minutes; longer if desired. Then apply some elbow grease.
Hmh. At the very time I was reading this, I’d pressed a beautiful Calphalon teakettle—very expensive, I’m sure—into service as a flower vase, having scorched and scarred it by, yes, going off and forgetting it on the stove. Calphalon had sent it as a replacement for my all-time favorite whistling teakettle, which a) had a lifetime warranty, b) had corroded through under the baleful influence of Arizona’s godawful water, and c) was no longer being made. I really need a whistling kettle, because the minute I wander off and look at a computer, I become utterly mesmerized and lose track of time as well as reality. That’s just what happened to this lovely, formerly shiny pot.
I’d scrubbed and soaked and done everything I could think of to get rid of the scorch, and finally figured the heat had altered the chemistry of the stainless and there was nothing to be done.
This actually is better than it was when I started the experiment with the Barkeeper’s Friend. What you see above is how it looked after the first application of BKF paste. This cleaned a lot of the stain off, leaving the marks visible here, much better than the state of the pot at the git-go.
Well! If once is good, twice must be better. Soooo…
I coated the whole darned thing with BKF worked together with water to form a slurry. Left it in the utility sink, where it sat for several hours until I had to run the clothes washer. Rubbed and scrubbed and polished with a soft Skoy cloth, and lo! Here’s the result:
Lookee there! It took all the stubborn scorch marks off—without a single scratch. The thing looks just like new.
Well. What would it do to the pitted, scorched little frying pan? This I managed to kill by allowing a strong solution of baking soda and water to boil dry and then leaving it to sit over high heat for an unknown length of time—probably about 45 minutes. The pan had the same dark brown scorch marks all over the exterior, and the interior appeared to be pitted. I’d tried cooking something in it, and it worked, so I figured I wouldn’t throw it away…but I was sad. Very sad.
After letting it sit with BKF paste all over it and then scrubbing like crazy, here’s what I got:
Dang! The interior is as smooth as it was before the little disaster! The slightly yellowish pitting apparently was…what? Baking soda burned on? WhatEVER…it’s gone now! That dark spot is a reflection of the camera. The exterior came pretty clean, too:
That mirror-like finish sure wasn’t there when the thing was covered with burnt-on grease and flame-shaped scorch marks! With one more application of BKF paste, that last little marred spot polished up, and now the entire exterior is shiny and bright.
So. With the help of a little water, a handful of Barkeeper’s Friend, a soft cloth, and a lot of scrubbing, a handsome teakettle and a fine frypan with a copper-core bottom are back in service. 🙂
Nice! I could use some BKF (my sink is stainless). Where does one get it? At a kitchen supply store?
That stuff is awesome. We use it on our stainless steel cookware almost every time we wash and it all looks brand new.
You can get it at grocery stores or Target or the like in the cleaning sections. About a year ago, Costco had it at a GREAT price but they haven’t had it since, though I check every time!
I also have not seen it at Costco for a while. You can get it at Target, in the cleaning products aisle at the grocery store, at Home Depot in the janitorial aisle. And at Amazon.com. I’ll add an Amazon link to the post.
I can get BKF at my local grocery store. It is sold in Williams Sonoma stores as well. Also, if you have a scorched non-stick pan, put some bleach in it. It can sometimes “save” it buy loosening the food stuck in the non stick coating.