So I have a 6qt stainless steel saute pan that I may or may not have fucked.
With the plan of "preheating" it, so it would be ready after putting the baby to bed, I put it on the stove with a drizzle of olive oil on med/low heat.
30 minutes later I come downstairs and the pan (which had a lid on thank god) was full of smoke, completely scorched carbon, and some gooey polymerized oil all over the lid and around the scorched portion.
I've done two rounds of oven cleaner that sat for 20-30 minutes, which made mincemeat of the gooey oil, but didn't even touch the carbon.
I'm currently leaving it overnight with more oven cleaner, but if that fails, what are my next steps? Maybe something more abrasive to just mechanically remove it?
Thanks in advance, my wife is very displeased about one of our kitchen mainstays being on the bench right before Thanksgiving.
It's now our cleanest pan!
After the overnight oven cleaner, which did jack shit to the carbon, I tried simmering 50/50 vinegar and water. It was utterly ineffective at anything besides gassing out the grind floor of my house and trapping my infant and asthmatic wife in the primary bedroom.
While it was simmering, though, I scraped it a bit with a spatula, which was very slightly effective, but scratched the pan. After seeing my success with the spatula, I used a razor blade, which went through the carbon like butter.
For the next hour I used a couple green scrubbies and a fuckton of elbow grease to scour out the discolored area where the carbon was, followed by maybe 30 minutes with a magic eraser to somewhat polish the newly scoured pan.
0/10 would not recommend
Haha I will take your word for it and not try it at home, but will feel a bit more comfortable in general knowing how to fix it if it happens! Thanks and glad it's been restored to its glory!