salvaging a burned pan

[Stickypaw]

I'm new to Maple Trader and assume this discussion has happened here before, but I couldn't find it...

So, I burned my 18"x48" flat pan pretty good yesterday and there's a new 5" warp to show for it near the draw off valve. I will reverse the pan but the other end has an old 1-2" warp in it, near the other draw off valve.

Is it possible to still make syrup in a pan with a warp like that? Any tips on how to deal with it? Any tips on how to fix such a warp or can it even be fixed?

Last question would be tips for scrubbing out the black scorched stuff.

Feeling like an idiot. I appreciate any feedback and sorry if this has all been gone over before.

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

Cleaning the pan...lots of elbow grease. Others on here have lots of suggestions. Boil on the pan. There have been thousands of gallons of syrup made using warped pans. You might have to run a bit deeper but it should not really affect the performance.

[H. Walker]

Find an old "tin banger"! There is a way of pulling the warp/pucker out of steel by reversing how it got there. You have to heat the warp up, then cool it back down with wet rags on the side you want the warp to go. Essentially you are shrinking one surface of the steel while the other side is malleable.

I've never tried it but that is kind of how my High School shop teacher expained it 30 some years ago!

[Stickypaw]

Cleaning the pan...lots of elbow grease. Others on here have lots of suggestions. Boil on the pan. There have been thousands of gallons of syrup made using warped pans. You might have to run a bit deeper but it should not really affect the performance.

Thanks TTF. It cleaned up nice, but the bottom is bumpy now. Any thoughts on whether or not to keep the sweet sap that was in the pan? I ran it through a prefilter and have it sitting in a 5 gallon bucket. Not sure if I should use it. It seems to taste ok, but looks really dark. Thanks again for your help.

[PerryW]

I wouldn't pour the syrup back in your pan. I would dump it or fininsh it separately to avoid contaminating more syrup.

[TF Maple]

It sounds like you got your pan clean but I tried milkstone remover this year and it worked great with no scrubbing. The tank I'm boiling in has a round bottom so we get some scorching on the sides at the bottom and it wouldn't completely scrape off with steel wool. Used milkstone removing following the instructions on the gallon jug, left it sit overnight and could just rinse the crud out with water.

[Gravel]

Whenever I have burned the pan I filter the syrup when I drain the pan, clean up the pan and put it rite back in, makes a little darker syrup than normal but has never affected the taste, and there is always someone that request dark syrup!