What dissolves burnt foam?

[Cedar Eater]

I'm having a heck of a time cleaning burnt foam from the inside of a steam table pan. Is there something that dissolves it? Vinegar doesn't work and I don't want to use oven cleaner on a food surface.

[John c]

White vinegar and elbow grease along with a scrubber pad has always worked for me.

[saphound]

Hi Cedar,
One of my other hobbies is collecting/restoring old cast iron cookware. Skillets, Dutch ovens and such. I am also a member of WAGS, The Wagner and Griswold Society. I can tell you the recommended way to clean years of burnt on crud from a skillet is soaking it in a lye bath. Comes out clean as a whistle, no damage to the iron, like the use of power tools will leave on a pan and severely de-value it as a collector piece. If one doesn't have a lye bath, then another common method is yes..oven cleaner. Make sure it has sodium hydroxide (lye) in it. Easy Off with the yellow cap is good. Spray the skillet (or steamer pan) down and seal it in a garbage bag so it doesn't dry out and let it soak awhile. The key is scrubbing it good afterwards with hot soapy water and rinse it real good a few times. I would think if it's ok for a skillet, it's ok for a steamer pan. If you have eaten pretzels or real bagels, among other things, you've already eaten more lye than would be left on your pan, which with SS should be none.
I cook with lye cleaned cast iron almost every day. Someone might know of another product that will do it. But if not, oven cleaner would be my choice. Then again, since it's not a valuable piece of history, maybe a drill w/wire brush would work also, I don't know. :cool:

[PerryW]

The steam table pans are notorious for the ring of burnt foam above the liquid level. The problem is that the area of the sides of the pan above the liquid level is exposed to the flames. If you can figure out a different way to support the pans so the only the bottom of the pans are exposed to the fire, then the problem will go away.

[Cedar Eater]

The steam table pans are notorious for the ring of burnt foam above the liquid level. The problem is that the area of the sides of the pan above the liquid level is exposed to the flames. If you can figure out a different way to support the pans so the only the bottom of the pans are exposed to the fire, then the problem will go away.

I'm using this pan outdoors on my gas grill and the wind blows the flames around. I can turn the heat down so that wouldn't happen, but that would defeat the purpose of having the pan on the grill. I'm pretty sure carbon tet would eat right through it, but that stuff's been illegal for a long time. Is there a stronger household acid than vinegar? I guess I could try diluting muriatic acid.

[brass maple]

I am not sure of using it for the pans, but we had read some where that using ammonia works on burnt on stuff. The burner grates on our cook stove had a lot of burnt on black stuff from spill overs and my wife used ammonia mixed with water on them. All she did was wipe them down with mixture then put mixture in a bag along with grates and let them sit over night and the next day the stuff just wiped off. Not sure if it works on burnt on syrup foam but seems like it should.


matt

[Cedar Eater]

I am not sure of using it for the pans, but we had read some where that using ammonia works on burnt on stuff. The burner grates on our cook stove had a lot of burnt on black stuff from spill overs and my wife used ammonia mixed with water on them. All she did was wipe them down with mixture then put mixture in a bag along with grates and let them sit over night and the next day the stuff just wiped off. Not sure if it works on burnt on syrup foam but seems like it should.

matt

I used ammonia straight out of the bottle, which is already mixed with water. It might have worked if I could soak the entire pan overnight, but it only barely worked as scrubbing agent, and I had to use it outside because it was too nasty indoors. Soft Scrub (calcium carbonate) worked better, but it's still too much hard scrubbing. Might have to resort to Easy Off.

[brass maple]

I used ammonia straight out of the bottle, which is already mixed with water. It might have worked if I could soak the entire pan overnight, but it only barely worked as scrubbing agent, and I had to use it outside because it was too nasty indoors. Soft Scrub (calcium carbonate) worked better, but it's still too much hard scrubbing. Might have to resort to Easy Off.
I just checked with my wife she said you don't to submerge it in ammonia just put it in with the pan in a bag and seal it closed for at least 12 hours. She said it worked well. I don't guarantee anything, could be worth a try

[Cedar Eater]

Thanks. I might try that if I can't find something faster. I'll report back if I find something.

[Cedar Eater]

I did a google search and almost every howto said the same thing. Boil water in it for 20 minutes, let it cool, give it a light scrubbing. Some said add vinegar, others said add wash soda. I added vinegar and laid it across two burners on the stove. By the end of the cooling period I could see that most of the stuff that was on the walls had ended up on the floor of the pan. I emptied the water and scrubbed with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and that did the job.