Any tips for cleaning caramelized sugar from a sauté pan?

[ESCHUMAN]

Any tips for cleaning caramelized sugar from a sauté pan? It can be done, but I was hoping had found some success with some chemical effort (lemon juice? vinegar? wine? sitting in Comet?) or some other clever technique.

[Rachel Perlow]

Just soak it in water, the sugar should dissolve and then clean as normal.

[Fat Guy]

Is it stainless, or do you have a fragile surface?

[Flossie]

What Rachel said.

[JosephB]

I simply fill the sauce pan with water and bring it to a boil on the stove; the sugar easily dissolves that way, and the sauce pan is eseentially clean.

[Louisa Chu]

It is easy but it does depend on how much sugar you have left in the pan. The safest way to do it is to just heat it - no water - until the sugar melts, pour it out into a heat proof container, then carefully fill it with water, bring the water to a boil, then wash as normal.

If you have too much sugar at the bottom of a pan and then put water in over to boil, you will have a dangerous explosion.

If you have a neglible amount of sugar left, then fill with water, boil, clean.

[Lesley C]

To quicken the process, I used to fill the pots with water and bring them to a boil.

But be careful. I once did this, forgot about the pot, and next thing I knew the flames were up to the ceiling. On top of that I ruined a pretty nice copper pot.

Always remember, sugar burns -- big time!

[ESCHUMAN]

Thanks everyone! As for dissolving with simple water, I let it sit overnight filled with water and it didn't seem to help. We're talking perhaps a ufll quarter-inch of rock-hard crystal. I thought of boiling, but ended up pouring a healthy amount (OK, it was too much!) Comet into the water and THEN letting it sit. The NEXT morning, it had simply dissolved away.

[elyse]

I'd just add water and put it in the sink to soak.

[mb7o]

Is boiling vinegar any good for this?

[elyse]

I don't thing it'll be any better than water. ESCHUMAN, are you talking caramel, or carbon?