Today’s weather forecast (Melbourne CBD, 3000): min - 13°C, max - 22°C. 90% chance of no rain

We’re back to the DDT now. Feels good to be home, right?

I’d like to acknowledge and thank @[email protected] for their daily blessings of food, heat, thermo-nuclear radiation, and everything in between. Thanks bacon! 🏆

  • TheWitchofThornburyEnglish
    7·
    19 days ago

    The black stuff is probably burnt on pancake batter or similar which has polymerised. Gonna be tough to get off. OK, Le Creuset puts heat tolerant enamel on as the coating on their pans, so this might work. Enamel is a glass, which doesn’t react to strong alkali or acid but is fragile to impacts and scratching. Once cracked, it’s ruined as cookware as you really don’t want glass shards in your dinner.

    First, fill the pan with water, add a squirt of dishwashing liquid and put the pan on a very gentle simmer for an hour or so. Watch it like a hawk so it doesn’t boil dry - top up with hot water as needed. Then let it cool a bit, tip out most of the water and scrub with a plastic scourer.

    If that doesn’t work to lift the black bits, then its time for the heavy duty stuff:

    1. Mix up a slurry of bicarb or baking soda with dishwashing liquid to make an alkali intense treatment - which degrades the polymerisation chemically - the consistency of wet snot is what you’re looking for. Slather this on the black bits and cover with a layer of cling film. Leave the pan in a warm spot for a day or so, then rinse off. Try scrubbing with a plastic scourer on the now weakened black bits. If some comes off, then repeat process once.

    2. If there’s still some black bits remaining after that, then what remains is resistant to alkali. So try an acid intense treatment such as a vinegar/salt/flour slurry (with cling film) to further degrade the polymerised black bits. The paste recipe is 1/3 cup flour, 1/3 cup salt and enough vinegar to make a slurry. Put this ONLY on the black bits not the whole pan, and lay it on thicc. This too needs to sit on the black bits under cling film for a day or so and then scrubbed. Don’t soak the whole pan in straight vinegar as this will loosen the enamel from the underlying cast iron and cause it to flake off. Barkeepers Friend is an alternative to the paste recipie.

    If none of these work either by themselves or together, then the pan is probably ruined. If the only stuff remaining is in a network of cracks, the pan IS ruined and should be discarded. Le Creuset probably won’t refund if the problem occurred as a result of leaving the pan on the heat after using it, as they advise prompt cleanup in their instructions.

    I know, I know, it sounds like a whole lotta work. Le Creuset is expensive, and very good quality, but does need to be cared for properly and not abused.

    • tombruzzo
      1·
      19 days ago

      I’ll try the bicarb slurry. I have citric acid too, could I do something with that?

      • TheWitchofThornburyEnglish
        1·
        19 days ago

        Barkeepers Friend is citric acid. Try it if the alkali treatment doesn’t work. Don’t mix it with the alkali cos all you’ll get is foam. While foam is nice it doesn’t actually do anything much.

        • TaleyaEnglish
          1·
          19 days ago

          Barkeeps is oxalic - rhubarb acid

          • TheWitchofThornburyEnglish
            1·
            19 days ago

            Says citric on the container in my cupboard. Still, if the concentration is similar should work the same.

      • TheWitchofThornburyEnglish
        2·
        19 days ago

        Ahem, several ruined Le Creuset pans later … I did eventually read the instructions and have had no problems with my favorite risotto pan since. And the lid of it is a fine fine frypan that does 2 eggs beeeyoutifully. Or 1 steak, which as I live alone is just so so nice.

        The fix up info dates from the 80s when I was coming back to human life from a severe substance abuse addiction and took a job as a shearer’s cook during the very last gasp of the gang shearing system. I dealt with a LOT of ‘ruined’ pans and stove tops inherited from previous cooks using the methods above. Limited resources, no budget for replacements, and 18-30 hungry shearers to be fed 6 times a day meant I had to get on top of the available very basic equipment super fast. You haven’t known grief until you’ve tried to clean a wood stove dated 1880 with one leg missing, and which leans over so far the gravy in the roasting pans sets into a pyramid when it gets cold. And 40 deg plus temperatures where the bastards snuck in and filled the kero powered fridge with beer so all the milk got warm enough to curdle. I could tell some stories about food service in that industry that would curl your hair (if not already curly) but I will spare your blushes.

        The upside of that experience was that I finished up after 4 years with the price of a house in inner Melbourne in cash in my back pocket, which has been the foundation of my current prosperity. So not all bad.