Every housewife often experiences great disappointment, watching her dishes, which are regularly exposed to temperature effects, that is, pots and pans. The most sad, the most “pancake” pans - cast-iron - begin to look most sad over the years. In terms of their sad appearance, aluminum takes the second place. They are not as “mature” as the old, even grandmothers, but they also tend to grow into unnecessary layers. Most people recognized them as hopeless. People refrain from throwing away “soot” utensils only for reasons that modern utensils, although they have undeniable advantages, are in some ways much worse than the old ones.
Where does the soot come from
Sooner or later, everyone who uses their own cuisine, and does not eat exclusively in restaurants, is faced with the question of how to wash pans from soot. Let's first understand why it appears on the dishes. This “coating” looks like a dark, often black layer on the walls of pans, and sometimes pans. Inside, it is quite dense, but its surface is loose and peels off quite easily. Sludge is formed as a result of burnout of fat remaining on the walls from previous cooking. It grows after each cooking, intensively adding all new, albeit thin, layers of fat deposits that have not been washed after the previous cooking. Six months later, you begin to really seriously think how to wash pans from soot. What is noteworthy, such a disaster threatens not only old, cast-iron or aluminum dishes, but also quite modern ones - ceramic and teflon.
Physical impact method
This is the easiest, but also very laborious way. What is easier - take and clean! How to wash pans from soot? Yes, it’s very accessible - a scraper is taken and a dish is fighting. A metal washcloth is quite suitable. At the same time, craftsmen improve even such a primitive method: they use grinding machines, drills and other electrical appliances. If you are interested in how to wash pans from carbon deposits with the least effort, try to facilitate this process. The easiest way to simplify cleaning is to soak the dishes in hot water, where soap or dishwashing detergent has been added. Many cleaners advise boiling pans before cleaning. There is another option, how to wash aluminum pans from carbon deposits (it is also suitable for cast iron): ordinary coarse grained kitchen salt about a centimeter thick is poured into the vessel, and the container is put on fire for annealing. All excess layers are then much easier to clean off.
Folk Tricks to Help
Since cleaning a pan from soot is far from always easy and simple, craftsmen have come up with a lot of ways to facilitate and speed up the unpleasant process. The people recommend all the same pre-boiling, but with the addition of silicate glue and soda (caustic) to the water. A solution with the use of means for punching clogged sewage of the Mole type is very popular. Although this is for complete extremes! There is a slightly softer way to clean the pan from carbon deposits - to boil in it water mixed with baking soda, vinegar and dishwashing liquid in equal proportions. In most cases, ugly layers separate themselves, you just need to remove particularly “harmful” residues. The bad thing is that you can’t clean the dishes with non-stick coating : the entire surface will be removed along with soot.
For owners of wood stoves
It is not necessary that the stove should be in the house itself, and the one that stands, for example, in the bathhouse will do. We’ll clarify that the pan, washed in this way, can in no way be considered modern - the method is suitable only for cast iron or aluminum. The carbon deposit in the pan is removed very easily if you put it on the hot coals for five minutes. Then a metal brush or a washcloth is taken and everything superfluous is cleaned from the dishes. Those who have used this method claim that the dishes are becoming like new. True, you need to be careful with aluminum: deep scratches in the pan will provide you with regular carbon formation.
Gentle way
Boiling still remains a favorite method. To wash the pan from carbon deposits (and users claim that Teflon will not be damaged in this way), a planar bar of laundry soap (200 g) is dissolved in a large pan in water. Some people think that a detergent will do, but most people recommend soap. Calcined soda is added there. Everything is stirred until dissolved, put on fire, and the affected pan is placed in the container. Boil (on a small flame, so that only a little gurgle) will have a couple of hours. And the main secret, how to clean soot from a pan in this way, is that you then need to wash it under a stream of hot water with a soft rag (sponge). The entire surface must always be wet.
Soft methods are suitable even for “tender” pans
Since it is difficult to wash pans from soot without damaging their integrity, you can first experiment with methods that definitely will not harm your dishes. Start with ordinary vinegar - however, you will not have to buy table, but more concentrated (9%). It is diluted with water in a ratio of 1: 3, poured into some other vessel and slowly boils for several hours. Disadvantage: exfoliated carbon deposits will still have to be brushed off with a stiff brush. Advantages: relatively little time will be spent on this, the layer of fat is removed quite simply, the surface of the vessel is not scratched.
A similar, but more expensive option is to buy activated charcoal tablets in a pharmacy, ceiling them and pour them on the “carbon” parts of pots and pans. About thirty minutes later, all unnecessary strata will be corroded, and they can easily be removed with an ordinary sponge (if you have not yet eaten into metal).
If you trust chemistry
There are, without a doubt, super-modern options on how to clean a pan from soot. The cleaning products that chemical plants provide us have not been canceled. However, there are some - and very significant - limitations that do not allow you to always, everywhere, apply to any type of cookware. So, non-stick options require a reverent attitude, so neither an iron washcloth nor aggressive chemistry will help you if you are going to clean the inner surface. But if you are thinking about how to clean pans from soot from the outside (namely, here it is especially plentiful and difficult to remove), then you take little risk - in this case it does not matter how damaged the coating is - nothing will be fried on it. Here you can use "evil" means. Will go and "Shumavit" made in Israel, and the domestic "Shumanit", and the alternatives offered by Amway. There are no special tips to offer; the only thing that can be recommended is to read the instructions, since all companies have their own compositions and their own considerations on how to use them. For all of them, the common and obligatory is only one thing - to use them only with rubber gloves and wide open windows. Caustic for a surprise!
Way for decisive
And suitable exclusively for "old" dishes! Neither Teflon nor ceramics survive it. But after such processing no plaque will remain. True, it will be necessary to do it somewhere in the yard, not in the room, and you need to get a blowtorch in advance . No objects, liquids, or substances that could ignite should be in the vicinity. The indicated lamp treats contaminated surfaces, after which everything is cleaned with a brush or sponge, and the dishes are then washed in the normal mode.
Teflon also sometimes burns
Such pans rarely cause problems. However, given how carefully they should be handled, and how infrequently these precautions are followed, it is easy to assume that the question of how to wash a Teflon pan from soot arises quite often. Those who have a dishwasher in the household can cope with it without difficulty - the “washing” can be repeated several times, and this will not damage the dishes. But those who do not have such a miracle of technology will have to be confused. A 50 g bottle of silicate glue is mixed with half a glass of any dishwashing detergent, a full glass of soda (you can - food, you can - soda ash) and two to three liters of water. The affected pan is boiled in this mixture for two hours (maybe longer). Alternatively, you can just soak the vessel in the composition for a day - it is quite possible that will be enough. The lagging layer is washed off with warm water.
Big car wash
There is a very cardinal method for completely "stubborn" or not cleaned dishes for a long time. All the same silicate glue, but in the amount of 2 tubes already dissolved in water with a bag of caustic, the bar of laundry soap is crushed there, and all available personal protective equipment are put on the person who does this. At a minimum - gloves, an apron, a rubber hat (even a swimming suit) and a medical bandage (but a respirator is better). In the container where all this will boil and the solution is prepared, the crap utensils are laid, the windows open, the hood (if any) is turned on and everything should boil for an hour or two on a small fire. Pots-pans are removed from the mixture while it is still hot, but washed from the remnants of soot only after cooling.
Better to warn than to “cure”
In any case, if you decide how to clean the pan from soot, then you have poorly watched it before. There was a moment when fat or adhering food debris was not washed away, when the container remained unwashed until tomorrow or was not too thoroughly cleaned. Fundamental actions can be avoided if you just take good care of your dishes well and on time. In the end, if there is no strength, water or courage to wash the pan, you can at least soak it in the water with something soapy until morning. And with modern tools it’s not at all difficult!