discoloration in pan?

[SkyWood Farm]

I have a homedmade arch with a welded 2'x4' pan stainless pan with a simple draw off. Tonight for the first time I tried to boil it down very close to syrup in the pan. Which seemed to go fine- I let the fire go out and emptied the pan. I rinsed it with clear water. The bottom of the pan has a dark golden discoloration to it. I don't think this is considered 'scorched', is it? I am wondering if I should try so scour with something before I refill it tomorrow. Do I need to worry about scratching it? Thanks so much for reading and helping a newbe

[maplekid]

seems like it might have gotten too hot. if its too hot itll ussually turn the ''rainbow'' color as i call it.

[Bucket Head]

It is most likely a build up of sugar sand, or nitre. Just a normal part of syrup making. A scorched pan is when you burn the syrup in there. The remains of that is black ash, "burnt to a crisp" type stuff. DO NOT do that. The nitre will clean up with white vineger or pan cleaning acid. Scrub as hard as you want, you won't harm the stainless. It might not be as shiny after repeated cleanings/scrubbings but thats allright. Clean is more important than shiny.

Steve

[mathprofdk]

Things brings to my mind another question - what if you do scorch the pan? My dad had done this in the past and just said I could clean it off with a wire brush attachment to my drill, which I did. I've even made some syrup since then. Is it safe? I'd hate to throw out the syrup I made, since I only have a couple gallons! It tastes great, if that matters.

~DK

[Brent]

Don't use any tools or scrapers to clean the pan. The scratching will only make it harder to clean forever.

Use acids to clean the sugar sand as far as that will get you. Small, really small fires under it to heat the acid make a huge difference in effectiveness. Then use Easy-off. You've got more or less the same stuff in the pan as you wife gets inside the stove.

If you scorch it real bad, the bottom will become badly deformed, so much so that some places will be too shallow and they will scorch very easily. At that point you start thinking about a new pan.

[SkyWood Farm]

Thanks for the responses- used white vinegar with a little fire with a little scrubbing and it came right off- really appreciate the input