Question about clean up

I bought a couple of All-Clad stainless steel skillets to see how I liked them, and I fell in love. :) The only problem is clean up. I cooked bacon in the 14" skillet last night and it doesn't want to come clean with just soap and water. Any suggestions?

Thanks so much! Have you ordered from this site before?

check your local stores first or look for Bon Ami, it works well too




edit to add, thanks for the reminder, I needed to add BKF to my shoppong list

You can get it at any grocery store, where they sell scouring powder. On the off chance you can't find it, Bon Ami will help. The difference is that BKF is specifically formulated to clean metal and has a mild acid in it that works magic. BA does not. Both have an abrasive that is sufficiently mild as to not cause scratching.

Now, let's talk about pan technique. Did the bacon's remains burn on? Did you clean the pan while it was fresh or did you wait overnight to have a go at it? It is easier to at least rinse the pan clean while it is still warm .... NOT hot - thermal shock of cold water on a hot pan can cause warping. I use a scrub brush with success for this purpose. Like one of these:



Another way to start the process is to leave the pan on the range and, with a low fire below it, add some water. This will do the exact same thing as deglazing to start a sauce. It loosens the bits and dissolves them in the water. Brushing the now-boiling water will help the process along. Then remove from the fire and rinse it.

Whenever you cook something fatty in a **non-teflon** stainless multiply or encapsulated disk pan, you should get the pan hot first. Don't get it red hot, but let it get close to cooking temp. Then add your fatty item (like your bacon). The item will sear faster and is less likely to leave as much residue to stick. This is also true if you're going to be using fat to cook (like butter for eggs). Get the pan hot, then add the fat, then add the eggs (or whatever). They're far less likely to stick badly. This even applies to doing things like sweating onion or garlic in oil.

Heat first. Then cook.

Something else that vexes stainless cookware owners is what I call 'food ghosting'. Certain starchy items tend to leave bluish outlines of themselves in the bottom of the pan. The pan is clean, but that bluish 'ghost' of the food remains. BKF will get rid of it in a heartbeat!

Enjoy your AllClad!

I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't get the pan hot before putting the bacon in, :blush: but I'm new to high-end cookware (great excuse). I'm trying to get rid of the non-stick stuff and wanted to try something nice. I also didn't do anything to the skillet until after dinner.

Also, I've used "Pam" on the baby skillet for scrambled eggs and it makes it difficult to clean. Is "Pam" a no no for these skillets or should I use it and just clean with Bar Keepers Friend.

Another question to make sure I've got this right. If I'm browning garlic does it matter if I put the oil in before the pot is hot or not? It doesn't seem like this would matter in this case since the garlic is unlikely to stick, but I'd like to know the proper technique.

Thanks again for all of your info. :hi: I'm mailing this thread to my hubby who is the real chef in the house.

http://www.tramontina-usa.com/faq_alt.asp

edit to say, nevermind i answered my own question below lol

Will it clean the rainbows too?

And what causes rainbowing in stainless steel pans? Do you know?

If we're talking the same thing, then yes, it cleans it like magic.

As to what causes ghosting? I have no idea at all. :shrug:

How do I remove food imprints (such as from cooking rice) or the blue, yellow or brown stains from the interior or exterior of my stainless steel cookware?
Overheating the cookware will leave food films or will cause blue, yellow or brown stains sometimes considered a "rainbow effect." Large amounts of iron, salt or other minerals found in very hard water may also cause the cookware to stain.
To remove the discoloration, use a quality stainless steel cleaner, such as Bar Keepers Friend®, which is available in the cleaning sections of most grocery, discount and hardware stores.

and......

What has caused my stainless steel cookware to begin pitting or have white spots form on the interior surface?
In nearly all cases, the pitting or white spotting of stainless steel is caused from a reaction to a food substance that was cooked within the pan or stored within the pan for an extended period of time. Extremely acidic foods, such as tomato sauce, or soups or stews with a tomato base, should not be stored within the cookware.
A quality stainless steel cleaner, such as Bar Keepers Friend®, may be used to clean up the spotting and will occasionally minimize the pitting.

http://www.tramontina-usa.com/faq_alt.asp

That's probably it, AzDem! I never connected the two before but now that you say that, it makes sense. That's probably when I see it. Or overheating... hmmmm, something to think about too.

Thanks! I had my Bar Keep's Friend out just last night scrubbing a baking pan. I must be due for a new can, this one is getting pretty dry = not so much granular as good-sized balls spilling out that need a fair amount of water to dissolve. It's great stuff, though.

That hard water/starch thing makes sense for the bluing/rainbowing/ghosting on the inside. But if you get that, you were obviously cooking something with a lot of water in it ....... in which case you probably didn't overheat the pan. Overheating happens when the food inside the pan is capable of attaining a high temp in its own right. That means fats. Water simply cannot, at atmospheric pressure, attain a temperature higher than boiling (212°F or less, depending on altitude). That's way too cool to overheat a pan. The water is a natural thermostat and heat sink.

Now, bluing on the **outside** of a pan can occur even when boiling water if you use too high a flame for the pot (has nothing to do with the pot's contents). Too high a flame for the pot is one that licks up the sides of the pot. That will cause a different type of bluing and one that may well never come off. The pattern of the 'blue' loooks like the source ..... it follows the area where the flame licks the sides of the pot. This (and the more ordinary rainbowing inside a pot) will not affect the performance of the pot ... just the aesthetic.

My stainless steel water pot for making macaroni has a nice blue corona around tis base from this thing. Water never boils fast enough for me. So I follow the Tim Allen school of cooking ..... more power! My macaroni-specific cookware hates me for this.

By the way, all this applies to stainless cookware. Other cookware has other issues, but bluing is not one of them.

but whenever i boil pasta i get the "ghosts" inside

i scrub it out and it's like brand new

our water is as hard as can be and usually i use the drinking water for pasta, but when i forget and use tap water i get the stains everytime

While the pan is hot, pour off the grease and then sop up the rest of the grease with a paper towel or wipe out what you can if it's something like a scrambled egg. Then, while the pan is hot, put in a drop or two of dish soap and then hot water. Let the pan sit for a half hour and you'd be surprised at how much just lifts right out. I just rinse a bit and send it down the drain since it's soapy water. Then pop the pan into the dishwasher. It may not even need to go through the dishwasher.

I've found that a little ignoring, letting it sit and soak, is mostly what my stainless cookware needs to get clean.

Besides not allowing the cleaning to work as fast as it might, adding water to grease that might still be stoo hot is also dangerous.

I always do that, but feel like a dummy for not mentioning it in my post.

Just a little bit of sitting with soapy water helps release it. I often use a plastic spatula for the job. I'm the queen of stuck on scrambled eggs!