How to mess up a pan

You might give oven cleaner a try. Ventilate the area if you're giving it a go indoors. Good luck!

If it's not teflon coated - soak in water and dish soap then steel wool.....

> I scrubbed the dickens out of it after a good soak, but notta. I'm thinking of maybe some bacon grease to loosen things up. Never knew pop corn could be so evil.
Simmer a soup of automatic dishwasher detergent in it. It may take a few hours but it will get almost anything off. Be sure to run the exhaust fan while you do it.

Bite the bullet and cough up the dinero for a new pan.

ps - Buy yourself a good popcorn popper, too. 😉

If it's a tough pan that isn't Teflon coated, and you have good ventilation in the kitchen, you could run it through your oven's self-cleaning cycle. That will get anything off. But it is sure to discolor the pan, and might warp it.

cast iron cookware

I'm guessing you're not lucky enough for it to have been cast iron.

I've got some fancy-schmancy non-stick cookware and it works great. But I also keep an assortment of good old fashioned iron skillets and kettles around. Gravy ain't gravy unless it's cooked in a iron skillet.

My mother use to put her iron cookware in a 55 gallon drum woodfire every couple of years. After it cools, dust and rinse (pronounced "wrench") and it's brand new.

I take mine to a friend's shop and use an acetylene torch to get it up to around 700 degrees. Oil and residue just flakes off. It really does look good as new.

> If it's a tough pan that isn't Teflon coated, and you have good ventilation in the kitchen, you could run it through your oven's self-cleaning cycle. That will get anything off. But it is sure to discolor the pan, and might warp it.

NOT a good idea

Unless your smoke alarms are working and you have a fire extinguisher at hand

I too am a professional pot burner. 😉

This may help:

http://cleanmyspace.com/clean-food-off-a-burnt-pot-or-pan/

B-)

This stuff works really well and is cheap. It an acid based cleaner/polish. I have done a number on the wifes stainless cookware and this stuff was like magic.

Bar Keepers Friend

Thanks for all the great ideas. I'll probably try the dish soap & baking soda simmer idea first. Then I'll just buy a new one if that doesn't work. To bad too, nice big stainless pot

The Bar Keepers friend is the real deal. I have a friend who owns a restraunt and he put me on it.

cast iron cookware

> I'm guessing you're not lucky enough for it to have been cast iron.

That was my first thought reading this. You can't ruin a cast iron skillet.

cast iron cookware

> You can't ruin a cast iron skillet.

Not even if you cook Yankee Bean Soup in in? 😉

ditto

My wife uses Bar Keeper's Friend on stainless steel pans (not coated); it takes anything right off.

Doesn't the friend own a microwave? I haven't heard of anyone doing popcorn on a stove in about 30 years.;-)

> Doesn't the friend own a microwave? I haven't heard of anyone doing popcorn on a stove in about 30 years.;-)

When you go back to popping it on the stove you rediscover that before the microwave popcorn used to have taste

The secret force behind technology appears to be the intention to make things insipid. The flower without fragrance is its emblem.
-Nicolás Gómez Dávila

or get an air popper.

I like the old ways, though, I brew coffee in a stove top percolator. It takes up less space, uses less coffee and requires no consumables such as filters.

> > Doesn't the friend own a microwave? I haven't heard of anyone doing popcorn on a stove in about 30 years.;-)
>
> When you go back to popping it on the stove you rediscover that before the microwave popcorn used to have taste

I do prefer popcorn that has slightly darkened kernals at the end, and going nuclear with it isn't as effective. But not this bad. Oh well. He's in FL till May and I'm kind of house sitting. I'll go to a hardware store or someplace and get the Bar Keepers Friend stuff.