Clean Pan Club

What’s the first thing you do when you want to start running? Buy new running shoes! What’s the first thing when you want to start cooking? Buy new pots and pans!

So a few weeks ago when I started this project, that’s exactly what I did. I ran to Macy’s and bought a new All-Clad stainless steel skillet. It was BEAUTIFUL. All sparkly and heavy-but-not-too-heavy and it heated up Just Right. I have a special place for it on our baker’s rack separate from the other, far inferior pots and pans I’ve collected.

The thing is, since it’s my only really high-quality pan I end up using it a lot. A LOT. And as much as I try to give it the TLC it deserves, I started slacking. I washed it regularly but started to see some oil deposits and rings from the dishwasher. The skillet started to look less sparkly and started heating up Too Much or Too Little. Sure, the pan looked all right, but this is not just an all right pan! It deserves more.

After soliciting the advice of the internet, I ended up using this product called Barkeepers Friend. I found it at in the cleaning aisle of our grocery store, near the oven cleaners. Fun name and even better results!

I wet the pan a bit (not too much, as having excess water actually detracted from the cleaning process) and lightly dusted the less-than-perfect areas with this barkeepers friend product. It looks a bit like Comet in the fact that it’s powdery and creates a kind of scrubby paste. Anyways, I then used a wet rag and scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed. (Sidenote: I’m pretty sure a washcloth of sorts would work even better than the dishtowel I used. But even mine worked well).

Rinse completely and voila! A very strong right bicep and a perfectly sparkly pan. I’m testing it tonight and you’ll learn the cooking results in my next post.

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