I had lost hope with my electric cooking plates. The white circles where completely hidden under a layer of diamond-grade burn residue that no amount of scrubbing with chemicals could even begin to remove. I found this 3€ scrapping tool and it’s amazing !!! Sorry, but I don’t have the before picture, believe me after 6 years of usage, it was bad.
This is the absolute proper tool for this job.
That said, everyone should know the different ways of cleaning the things.
Bar keepers Friend, for the equivalent oxalic acid/ddbsa cleaner in your area will remove dark carbon from most surfaces, especially when used with a magic eraser/melamine sponge
If you have a pot or a pan or something movable that is very burnt on, soaking it in an extremely dangerous solution of potassium hydroxide (lye) well absolutely remove all the organics. You just have to be sure to wear gloves and splash protection because it will blind you in a hot second.
Soaking rusty items in vinegar for a prolonged period of time will remove the rust, but you’ll have to treat it pretty quickly to keep the rusr from coming back.
Literally blind forever?
I knew lye was dangerous but that sounds EXTREMELY dangerous.
AND it reacts with aluminum to create hydrogen!
Yeah that actually is another good point to it if you use it on aluminum it will erode the surface. If my quarter sheet pans get out of control I’ll do it to them a couple of times and sand them back down before I recycle them.
yes, don’t fuck around with corrosive chemicals. Strong acids or bases will destroy tissues with ease, especially if they’re not protected by skin (which also gets dissolved but more slowly)
Treat it with what? An oil to protect the surface?
A super thin layer of food safe oil. Apply it, Buff it back off as much as possible than wash the pan.
If it’s cast iron you can just re-season it.
just re-season it.
One does not “simply re-season.” Tbf it’s a pita.
Is it? I just throw it in the oven on high for a bit. Sometimes if I’m lazy I’ll just oil it and cook on high without seasoning. Just using it seasons it some. Even if the season is incomplete, just being oiled will prevent rust until next time and that seasoning builds up. Some people make a hobby of doing things the “right way” though, who am I to judge?
Idk, I gave away an almost new set of cast iron, but for the Dutch over and skillet. Skillet was preseasoned, used Dutch oven for deep frying/stews/casseroles, so it happened quickly enough. The rest of it wasn’t worth it since it’s heavy enough to be more hindrance and time than I actively used regularly.
Tl;dr mostly was for me
Fair enough! I wish I’d been there, free cast iron is the best cast iron.
Heck yeah! If I’d bought the set from a store or online, instead of a yard/estate sale, it would have been several hundred, minimum.
My most used, first and second favorite cast iron skillets are a no-brand $5 rusty garage sale find. A strip and reseason and these things are the best.
My third favorite is the $50 Lodge we got as a wedding gift.
No it’s not. 5 minutes of active work and 5 hours in the oven.
I’m not convinced about your instructions. Applying a thin layer of oil then buffing it then washing it back off? That doesn’t make any sense. Modern dish soaps are very good at cleaning thin oil films. Why oil it then wash the oil off? Idk like I said.
The amount of oil on the surface that you need to stop rust is on the molecular level.
Do it, don’t do it, whatever suits you, That’s what I do and it works for me.
… yeah surfactants are molecules too… I’m thinking I’ll not, as someone with a proper material science education. No shade, just, you’re definitely not correct, or maybe your house uses bacon grease as dish soap.
I’m no materials scientist, just some guy on the internet who wants to make sure there isn’t a revolutionary idea missed in they throwaway comment.
People have historically used bacon grease to make soap, with lye. It’s also commonly used to seal pans against moisture, without washing them after. Also is a decent chrome polish.
You sound fun lol
I had no idea! Thank you! I keep this to clean my ceramic cast iron sink but had no idea that I could use this on my glass top stove and the burnt bottom of my pans!
I used vinegar to get the rust off of a bunch of (Pogs) Slammers that had gotten wet in my parents basement. It worked reasonably well on most of them.
If we’re not talking about food safe applications crc evaporust is absolutely magical. But it will leave the surface dark which you then would need to buff back off.
Let us reiterate that for the folks in the back: do not use evaporust on anything you consume food from.
Honest question, why?
The material safety data sheet really doesn’t indicate toxicity. It’s not a carcinogen or mutagen (even in California)
The marketing material on their website shows a cast iron pan
Okay, I will admit I might be wrong on that. The ingredients are proprietary, so I guess we have to trust their docs and the MSDS here.
If California thinks it’s safe, it must be safe, they claim everything causes cancer 🤣
thank you based pogchamp
Barkeeper’s Friend is a miracle, but people should know it’s incredibly abrasive and can debride enamelware. I ruined a pan’s outer finish because that didn’t occur to me, using it to get carbonisation off the bottom.
It’s brilliant for raw metal and glass cooktops, though. When I bought my house, the previous owners left a kit for the glass cooktop including the razor tool in your OP. I’m so grateful they did because I wouldn’t have known.
e: can’t spell