Hotel Pans

[Troutman10]

I'm using hotel pans for boiling my syrup. Should I clean these pans after each boil or keep using them and clean them after season? Any help is appreciated.

[John c]

It actually depends on the niter build up, but I usually give a good wash with HOT water, if that doesn't work I'll use white vinegar and that always works!

[ckkrotz]

We'll be washing ours this time, since we used snow to fill the pans with after the sap was gone... but had we used clean water we would have just dumped it and used as is... unless of course the burnt on syrup on the edges got too bad... then maybe give that a little scrub. Sometimes last year we added vinegar to the water when the sap was gone in the back pans.

[happy thoughts]

With just 2 boils on a newly built 2 pan wood fired block arch I've cleaned them thoroughly after each use but it sure is doing a number on my kitchen sink especially the sooty stuff on the bottom. As John said you want to watch the niter build up. Niter can cause hot spots and burning. And if there's any burnt sugar build up on the sides, that's going to darken your syrup when your next batch starts to dissolve it.

I'd like to keep at least the insides clean which isn't too hard with some soaking. To John c and others, what are you doing with the bottom of the pans? Are you leaving them blackened? I tried the old scouting trick on my second boil, rubbing the bottoms well with bar soap. That seemed to help but clean up is still very messy. And if the blackened area outside the pans becomes uneven if I just wash the inside, I'm worried about uneven heating and hot spots. Not sure what to do here. I've thought of wrapping the pans in heavy duty foil. Would that work or shouldn't I even bother and just let the bottoms go until the end of the season?

[smokeyamber]

Like the bar soap idea and may try it. I did not clean the bottoms of the hotel pans during the entire season when I boiled with them. Never had a burning issue since I ran it pretty deep ( 2-4 " ). Only time I cleaned them was the front pan because of a bit of niter buildup, white vinegar did the trick on that, just let it set overnight. Burnt stuff on the sides also stayed, and did not affect my tasty smokey syrup. ;) I will likely miss that stuff now that I am going to a flat pan setup. But I won't miss the 21hr boils :lol:

[John c]

With just 2 boils on a newly built 2 pan wood fired block arch I've cleaned them thoroughly after each use but it sure is doing a number on my kitchen sink especially the sooty stuff on the bottom. As John said you want to watch the niter build up. Niter can cause hot spots and burning. And if there's any burnt sugar build up on the sides, that's going to darken your syrup when your next batch starts to dissolve it.

I'd like to keep at least the insides clean which isn't too hard with some soaking. To John c and others, what are you doing with the bottom of the pans? Are you leaving them blackened? I tried the old scouting trick on my second boil, rubbing the bottoms well with bar soap. That seemed to help but clean up is still very messy. And if the blackened area outside the pans becomes uneven if I just wash the inside, I'm worried about uneven heating and hot spots. Not sure what to do here. I've thought of wrapping the pans in heavy duty foil. Would that work or shouldn't I even bother and just let the bottoms go until the end of the season?
I wish I could help you out with your question, but I have never encountered that problem because I cook with natural gas. I would think that white vinegar would take care of the outside of the pan too though!

[ckkrotz]

Last year we did wash the bottoms of the pans between boils, but mostly because they would get soot everywhere if we didn't. We usually rub the (cool) pan in the snow to get as much off as we can, and then just scrub as well as possible. You can also make a mixture of cream of tartar and vinegar and clean it with that. I've not done it with a steam pan, but have cleaned the outside of my camp coffee pot that way and it works well. Still, I think we'll try to avoid washing it very often this year.