Did I Ruin My Le Creuset Pan?

[amccomb]

I was reducing pomegranate juice in a la creuset pan and forgot about it! Now it's black inside and I can't even chip it out. Is there any way to save my pan? I've been soaking it, but it hasn't made a difference

[Badiane]

Three suggestions...one might work for you.

1) Put water in the pot to whatever level the stuff is burned on...drop in a couple of denture cleaning tablets and let it sit for a couple of hours. That takes the rock hard calcified crap out of my stainless coffee mug, so should work for a pot.

2) Try boiling water and baking soda together...put enough water in to cover, and a healthy handful of soda and let it boil for a while.

3) Coca Cola...if it takes the rust off metal, well, I can't see why it wouldn't eat through that

Good luck!

[jgm]

I had something like that happen one time. So I just kept using the pan and ignoring the black stuff. I figured if I couldn't scour it off, it wouldn't flake off into other food.

Then I scorched some spaghetti sauce in that pan, so I took it off the heat and moved it to a cool burner, and immediately afterward a crisis hit. Long story short, three days later when I finally got back to the pan (I know, I know, eeeeeeeeewwwww) the black stuff came off when I scraped out the spaghetti sauce. So I guess my recommendation is to warm up some tomato sauce in it, put it onto the back of the stove without heat until it gets fuzzy and smelly, and see if that works!

Beats throwing the pan out... but maybe not by much.

edited for clarity...

Edited December 16, 2005 by jgm (log)

[Anna N]

Fill pan with water. Drop in a couple of scoops of dishwasher powder. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Let cool. Works for me.

[Megan Blocker]

Fill pan with water.  Drop in a couple of scoops of dishwasher powder.  Bring to a boil.  Remove from heat.  Let cool.  Works for me.

←

Exactly - boiling water does it every time. Just used it to clean hardened molasses-gingerbread mixture from my stove.

[WolfChef]

Do you happen to have a picture of this burned pan?

Don't chip at it, you might chip the porcelain of the pan.

And finally what were you reducing the pomegranate juice for? Sounds interesting.

[mikeycook]

Did you happen to buy it at Williams Sonoma? They seem to have a policy of replacing damaged cookware. I am not sure why (other than to encourage repeat business). I had the lid crack on my larger Le Creuset and they replaced it without question. I have also known people who were able to return items that had food burned onto them.

[jackal10]

Its mostly caramel, tars and carbon.

They dissolve slowly in boiling water.

Soda is better for fats, which it turns to soaps.

Some will get adsorbed and discolour the lining.

You need to do two things: dissolve the gunk, and bleach the discolouration

Boil water in it with some bleach, or even better a peroxide based cleaner (oxyclens; some denture tablets). Dishwasher tabs are also good as they contains pretty fierce cleaners.

[John S.]

I was reducing pomegranate juice in a la creuset pan and forgot about it!  Now it's black inside and I can't even chip it out.  Is there any way to save my pan?  I've  been soaking it, but it hasn't made a difference

←

I did that using one as the bottom half of a bouble boiler. It was black inside and out. Looked wrecked (All Clad MC2). I eventually scubbed with Barkeeper's Friend (which is the factory-recommended way to clean it) and it came out like new.

Good Luck!

[jsolomon]

My recommendation is to go to a kitchen/bathroom fixture store and ask what they would suggest to clean stained porcelain with. You'll likely hear Bon Ami, or Barkeeper's Friend. Both are pretty good cleaners.

Alternately, a paste of salt, baking soda, and hydrogen peroxide should work somewhat. It's too bad you can't get stronger than 3% hydrogen peroxide without paperwork hoops.

Muriatic acid from the concrete cleaner aisle should also work, but be careful with it. It's strong stuff. You could also use drain cleaner strength sulfuric acid. Some places you can find that, some you can't. Be VERY SUPER ULTRA careful when using that. Rubber gloves, safety goggles--a face shield would be better. It'll spit at you if you add water to it. I'm not shitting you.

Edit to strengthen safety warning.

Edited December 16, 2005 by jsolomon (log)

[Majra]

Don't know if it would work on your le creuset, but when I have burned things in my all-clad pans, I have had good luck using oven cleaner. Take the pan outside, spray liberally with oven cleaner, let sit several hours or overnight, then wipe and wash clean. Always works for me.

[prasantrin]

I don't if this can be done with enamelware, but an acquaintance from Usenet always recommended putting the cookware in a garbage bag with some ammonia. Close tightly, let sit for hours (days?). The crud should dissolve.

WARNING: Do this outside, wear a mask and gloves, etc. etc.

[baconburner]

Hi

You are dealing with carbon which is inert. Most oven cleaners use a form of Sodium Hydroxide to soften it. Most of the new oven cleaners need heat to replace the more caustic chemicals. As your Creuset pan is cast iron use an oven cleaner and just follow the instructions. NEVER NEVER use caustic or Sodium Hydroxide products on Aluminum. It produces a gas called Hydrogen! Ta dah boom

Cheers

Poorsh

I was reducing pomegranate juice in a la creuset pan and forgot about it!  Now it's black inside and I can't even chip it out.  Is there any way to save my pan?  I've  been soaking it, but it hasn't made a difference

←

[fifi]

Somewhere here (can't find it now) andiesenji recommended a product called "Carbon Off" for cleaning a LC type pot that she uses on the grill. I have no idea where to get it. You need to be careful using really caustic chemicals on LC for too long a time. While the enamel is very resistant to acids, caustics will likely etch it after too much time and/or heat.

[k43]

Carbon-Off is available here.

Hydrogen peroxide up to 10% is available from hair salon supply stores.

[Kevin72]

Fill pan with water.  Drop in a couple of scoops of dishwasher powder.  Bring to a boil.  Remove from heat.  Let cool.  Works for me.

←

Exactly - boiling water does it every time. Just used it to clean hardened molasses-gingerbread mixture from my stove.

←

I was about to throw out one of my pans that had some scorched residue on the inside until I fortuitously read this thread. I tried it and poof! it was gone. Thanks!

[persiancook]

I got myself into a virtually identical situation with my LC pan. I made a strong water + baking soda solution, brought it to a boil, then simmered it for a couple of hours. The charred crust gradually came to the surface in layers.

Two rounds of this simmering got all the charring off, and I cleaned anything left over with Bon Ami. The pan did not end up damaged or discolored.

You will hear strange noises as the baking soda boils. Adding a little vinegar to the solution will speed up the process, but you will have to bear with the unpleasant smell in your kitchen.