How to clean a burnt pan without getting complicated
We promise, we’ve all done it. And the question is not how we did it, but how to recover a burnt pan! Good news, our grandmothers faced the question long before us and found a lot of tricks to recover a seemingly unrecoverable frying pan.
6 Grandma’s tips to save a burnt pan
1. Collect a burnt frying pan with white vinegar
As always, the staple of Grandma’s cleaning tricks is the extremely popular white vinegar . To fix a burnt frying pan, pour white vinegar until it covers the burnt food, then enrich the whole thing with a splash of dish soap. Then, like a nice frying pan, put the frying pan on the fire and let it heat for about 10 minutes, being careful not to allow complete evaporation and a new layer of burnt. Be careful, the smell can sting your nose. Once the time has elapsed, let the heat cool down before rubbing with a wooden spatula to remove the remains. All that’s left to do is wipe it off.
2. Baking soda to save a burnt pan
Another versatile ally of natural cleaning, baking soda, can also help repair a burnt pan when combined with its best friend, white vinegar. And cheaply, please. This time we put the pan in the sink, sprinkle it generously with baking soda and then sprinkle it with white vinegar. Be careful, it foams, hence the sink. Then let it stand for about 15 minutes, time to soften and remove the burnt on the bottom of the pan. And like the previous trick, to finish, we peel off the pieces with a spatula before cleaning them with a sponge.
3. Regenerate a burnt frying pan with citric acid
Citric acid is naturally present in lemons in small amounts, but can also be purchased in highly concentrated powder. Cheap, biodegradable and versatile, it is known for its ability to repair a burnt pan without getting complicated. To achieve this, spread about 2 tablespoons of citric acid on the bottom of the pan, half for a pancake pan… Cover with boiling water and count for about 10 minutes before scraping with a wooden utensil. Once the remains have come off, all that remains is to clean up as if the pan had never been burnt.
4. Ashes to recover a burnt pan
Wood ash can also be used to rescue a burnt pan and if the trick doesn’t work, we can always try the others afterwards. The method? Cover the burnt bottom with wood ash, fill with water and then put everything on the fire. After cooking, count about 5 minutes before trying to loosen the pieces with the wooden spatula and finish with a brush or sponge.
5. Collect a burnt pan with salt
Salt to save a burnt pan? Yes, but slower. To try Grandma’s trick, just sprinkle a good amount of fine salt on the bottom of the pan and then wait a few hours. And again, we then try to remove the burnt pieces with a wooden spatula. If it works, we move on to the classic cleaning with a sponge and dish soap… if not, we try another trick!
6. Dishwasher powder to restore a burnt pan
No vinegar or citric acid at hand? We recover the cleaning powder from the dishwasher, for those who do not use tablets. Poured on the bottom of the pan and then covered with hot water, the powder should dissolve the burn in about an hour, but if not, you can always boil the mixture to increase its effectiveness. The rest we leave to guess: scrape, wash, rinse.