how to clean my enameled cast iron pot I burned soup dry in

how to clean my enameled cast iron pot I burned soup dry in - Birch firewood in ukha with aromatic broth and cut fresh herbs in cast iron pot outdoors

A week ago, I left soup simmering in my new Staub cast-iron pot (http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/2507416/) for too long, and all the liquid evaporated and what was left burned on the bottom. I've scrubbed and soaked in hot water overnight for a week but there are still black, charred remains stuck to the bottom (see photo).

My questions:

  1. Based on the photo, can you tell what is on the bottom? Is it burned food, or the enamel, or "seasoning" (I've never seasoned it myself...), or rust, or something else?
  2. How do I clean and restore my precious pot to full health?

my cast iron pot I burned soup dry in



Best Answer

As this is an enameled pot, there is a difference to "standard" cast iron. First, if you really damaged the enamel, you cannot restore it. You can continue using it, but you'll have to deal with rust. From the picture, I cannot tell if that's the case - some spots are rust-colored, but they could be organic residue burnt onto the enamel.

Second, in trying to clean it, you cannot use the typical cast-iron methods for renewing, which are intended to strip the seasoning so you can rebuild it. So no self-cleaning ovens, no lye baths, etc. You have to treat it like stubborn dirt on semi-delicate surface.

The enamel can take some amount of rough physical treatment, but it has easier time withstanding chemical methods. So I'd try soaking it for a few hours with an organic acid, for example liquid citric acid. Alternatively, soak in dissolved dishwasher powder, that's quite aggressive as detergents go (but not a tab since the finisher in it will counteract the detergent). The Americans here are probably going to suggest Barkeeper's friend, I have no personal experience with it.

A short boil after the soaking can sometimes be quite good. You can use your acid solution (it should be on the bottom only, so no danger from spilling over anyway) or fill some clean water. Then let it boil vigorously for a couple of minutes. The water bubbles tend to be effective in dislodging softened pieces of char.

You can scrub after the soaking, it will work better than without the soak. I wouldn't go as far as taking steel wool to enamel, but the plastic net equivalents should be OK. The rough side of a dish sponge is also OK. The use of abrasive cleaners like Cif is somewhat questionable, you might try them in a low concentration if you don't succeed with other methods.

It is possible that you have either naked spots which have rusted over, or that your dirt is so baked-on that it doesn't fall even with quite a bit of elbow grease. I'm not sure how to tell you to recognize the difference if the char happens to be reddish-brown - I guess I would call rust harder and scratchier than char. If you try cleaning it once and don't succeed, it is still worth it to try it with 3-4 more soaking cycles, with maybe 15 to 20 minutes of scrubbing every cycle (if you see some progress being done during that). These types of burn-on are very difficult to clean.




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Quick Answer about "how to clean my enameled cast iron pot I burned soup dry in"

Fill your dutch oven with water and bring it to a boil. Then add a few big spoonfuls of baking soda (add them slowly as the baking soda will bubble up and foam). Let the mixture simmer on the stove as you use a wooden spoon to scrape up the blackened, burnt-on stains.

How do you clean a badly burned enamel pot?

Soak the enamel pot in warm soapy dish water for several hours. Scrub the burnt surface with a soft scrubbing brush. Do not use an abrasive scrubber like copper mesh because they can damage the enamel cooking surface. Rinse the pan and repeat soaking and scrubbing, removing as much burned debris as possible.

How do you clean a pot with burnt on soup?

Start by boiling a mixture of vinegar and water in the pot or pan. This will loosen the burned on food. Carefully remove the pots and pans from heat, dump out the liquid, and add baking soda. When they have cooled enough, scrub pots and pans with more baking soda and a plastic scrubber.

How do you clean a scorched Le Creuset pot?

Add baking soda: Add two tablespoons of baking soda and stir with a wooden spoon. Let it sit: Let the mixture simmer for a few minutes. Scrape: Use a wooden spoon to nudge the burned bits off of the pot.

How do you deep clean enameled cast iron?

First, soak it a little: Make sure the pot has cooled and then fill it with a few squirts of dish soap and hot water. Add two heaping tablespoons on baking soda. Cover and let sit for 15 minutes. Scrape off stuck-on food: Drain about half the water, then use a plastic scraper to dislodge any burnt-on bits.



How To Remove Stains Enamel Dutch Oven Pots Pans




More answers regarding how to clean my enameled cast iron pot I burned soup dry in

Answer 2

You've got some good advice already. I would add, try Barkeeper's friend and scrub the pan with the green abrasive side a scrub sponge (like Vileda).

Answer 3

You can try this, but it's not guaranteed to work.

Get it hot, really, really, really hot.

Dump 2 - 3 cups of long grain rice in it (uncooked) and start tossing it like you would if you were making fried rice (off the flame). You're using the rice as an abrasive here, you can't use a gritty sponge with that much heat :)

Add a cup of hot lemon juice along with a squirt of washing up (dish) soap, and keep tossing it. If it's working, you should start seeing streaks through the burned on fonde. If that's the case, keep tossing.

I can't think of any other way to do it that doesn't stand a chance of ruining the enamel coating. Consider investing in some ceramic coated cast iron for stews and such, which is delightfully easy to clean when unfortunate things happen.

Answer 4

Take a lemon and pour it's juice on the pot, mix detergent in hot water and rub it with sand paper, this might help you cleaning the pot 80 or 90 percent, but as it looks that pot has also rust on it, so washing it for 3-4 times might clean it completely. This technique helped me to clean my frying pan.

Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

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