Dear Home Ec 101,
Any suggestions for cleaning a burned pan? It is glass, and I am hesitant
to use steel wool on it. The glass cleaners don’t seem to be helping.
Signed,
Bummed in Burnsville
Heather says:
Always listen to your gut. If you used the steel wool you’d remove the food, but in the process you’d scratch the snot out of the glass. Why yes, that IS the technical term for it. All of those scratches would give food (and bacteria) lots of wonderful places to cling to and hide. So, what to do?
It’s time for our go to, yep, we’re once again plugging Bar Keeper’s Friend. Dampen the burned on mess and sprinkle with BKF. Give it a minute to work, then scrub with a rag. Rinse, repeat. It may take a couple of passes but I’ve not seen BKF beat yet. You can find Bar Keeper’s Friend near other cleaning agents like Comet in many stores (I just found the big can for $1.97 at Walmart). Or you can look for a retailer on their website.
If you feel like experimenting, I have a proposition for you. I’ve run into a tip dryer sheet tip all over the Internet. The tip is to fill the pan with water, add 1/2 a dryer sheet and allow it to soak overnight. We don’t use dryer sheets, so I have not tested this myself. If you do, would you please report to the class with your results?
Good luck!
Got a domestic dilemma? Send it to helpme@home-ec101.com.
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{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Biological laundry detergent is brilliant on this sort of thing – fill the pan with warm water & a scoop of the detergent, stand for a couple of hours (or overnight, if, like me, you’re too lazy to do the dishes after supper) and the burnt gunk usually comes off with minimal scrubbing.
Mel
I’d use vinegar and baking soda and let it sit over-night, good luck!
I’ve often dumped some baking soda in the pan, filled it with water, brought it to boiling, and then let it simmer for…a while. Sorry, it’s not an exact science, but I swear it works! (That is, unless you forget about the simmer soda-water and let it boil down to nothing. Then you’re kinda back where you started. Not that I’ve done that. No sir.)
I always use baking sada too. Fill the pan with boiling water, add soda and stir. Let sit ovenright.
Would Bar Keeper’s Friend work on a burnt on something on my glass stovetop?
Absolutely. I use it on mine several times a week.
The dryer sheet thing works……! I had a pyrex lasagna pan that had an old black burn mark on it from last fall. I tried to scrub it off to absolutely no avail. Left it sitting overnight with a dryer sheet soaking and the next morning I was able to remove the entire stain with very little effort (probably soaked a good 14 hours). I made sure to really rinse, rinse, rinse that pan to get the residue off. And we were using store-brand dryer sheets.
I usually use dish soap (like dawn) and water and boil it on the stove for about 10-15 minutes. There’s typically a little bit of scrubbing but not much more than you would put into a typical dish washing.
My husband burned cheese onto a stainless pain, and Barkeeper’s Friend has not worked for me, even after several passes and letting it sit overnight on two separate nights. I also tried boiling baking soda and water in it and letting THAT sit overnight. I’m going to try the dryer sheet today. If THAT doesn’t work, the pan will have to go in the trash…such a bummer!
Is it an old stainless pan? As in, are there a lot of scratches?
Is Bar Keeper’s Friend really better than Comet? Better than Kroger brand cleanser?
Comet is not recommended for glass, per their website http://www.cometcleanser.com/faqs.htm
We don’t have Kroger’s in my area, so I cannot speak for their store brand cleanser. I do know that BKF is safe for glass.
I’ve had luck using oven cleaner on glass. If that doesn’t get it all, the cleaner of last resort I use for burned on carbon marks is Brasso. Yes, even on glass. Use whatever method to remove the majority of the mess until you are down to the black carbon. You can use a razor blade to carefully scrape glass without damage but it will scratch metal no matter how carefully you scrape. Then get a paper towel and some Brasso and polish hard. It takes out everything but may leave an extra-shiny spot. Don’t worry, after a couple of uses, the shiny spot will go away. Be sure to wash the dish well with dish soap afterwards.
Method I use is to heat pure (and cheap) vinegar just before it starts to boil, put it in your pan, and leave it for several hours. The acid will dissolve everything but the glass, leaving it sparkling clean (lemon juice would also work, but its weaker and it would mean using a lot of lemons, expensive).
I subscribe to your feedburner feed and the last post I received in my reader is from July 7th. Don’t know if the problem is on your end or mine?