Kitchen Fix-it: Don't throw that pan away.

The cure for the seriously scorched pan

I am taking a specialty baking class and last night we were learning to make a caramel sauce.  This is what sugar looks like when it has been heated with water.  It is clear and the sugar is dissolved.

The pan on the left is what color the sugar should turn right before adding tempered cream.  The pan on the right is what sugar looks like when it has gone past the proper temperature (320-340 Fahrenheit).  One minute the pan was a beautiful light caramel color and the next, it was a smoking, seething mess. 

Doesn't this look like it would be hard to clean?  It is over 300 degrees, smoking and flat out dangerous.

I pulled the pan off of the heat immediately but the damage had been done.  I felt terrible that I had ruined a nice stainless steel pan.  My teacher Deb, who is a master baker, said it was no problem.  We set it aside to cool and then she added a splash of bleach and water.  

There were burns on the top edge of the pan and the bottom was a solid mass.  I did not think it would work.  I put it on the burner to boil and went back to work on a new and improved caramel sauce.

Ten minutes later, when I went to check on the pan, it was completely clean.  The burnt sugar had completely dissolved into the water and the rising steam had cleaned the edges and top of the pan.

I poured the tainted water into the sink, cooled down the pot and gave it a light scrub.  The pan looked like new.  I think it even got rid of some other dried on bits.

So the next time you leave a pan unsupervised and it burns, don't throw it away.  Pour a splash of bleach in with some water and bring it to a boil.  You don't need to let it soak overnight or buy special cleaning products to solve the problem.

Here is the Napoleon I made using the non-burnt caramel sauce.