Baking Soda Vs Pot

Hello,

My name is "Bwings" and I burnt my pot!

I believe we have all done this before, you put rice,pasta,vegetables etc. in a pot of water, you walk away, become distracted and before you know it... you have burnt impressions of your food on your pan. You can scrub and scrub and it still won't come off and can be so incredibly frustrating. If you're anything like me you give up and resort to using this pan for things like boiling eggs until you can replace it.

Given the results from the stove I thought I'd give baking soda a try. You've already seen the before picture, so let's move on.

I ran some water through the pot to moisten it and then added a good helping of baking soda to the damaged goods.

After about 5 minutes of rubbing I had removed a lot of it. But the centre remained stubborn.

 I repeated this behavior twice more before deciding to add vinegar to the mix.

Of course it bubbled and foamed angrily and then I scrubbed just a little more off and then snarled. Baking soda was getting it's butt kicked. I had heard about boiling vinegar and can I just say that vinegar boils fast! After it boiled I added some baking soda and then scrubbed again. Less came off this time than the time before.

Before

After

So it did make a difference but I believe this will be an over time process. I also read about leaving it soaking for several hours in vinegar. I had done this once before with an egg as an experiment as a child. The vinegar ate away the shell of the egg and left me thinking it was the coolest and messiest experiment ever at 8. 

Moral of the story, don't leave minute rice unattended. For tonight Baking Soda vs Burnt Pan is in hiatus while the pot soaks in vinegar for the night.

Until then adieu from your friendly neighborhood hippie mom.

That messy business about cleaning

Hi,

My name is "Bwings" and I love me a clean stove.

But how to clean it without using massive amounts of naughty chemicals? A lot of soaking for the burners perhaps, but what about that little rim where food drips under and sticks, heats up, sticks, heats up rinse repeat. Sure, you could capture every spill before it dries, that's a start. But we're only humans and in day to day life there will be spills.

Standard cleaners are filled with chemicals and in the cases of sprays you're looking at propane and other such propellants. Alternatives to cleaners in most cases consist mostly of variations on Vinegar. In this case though the recommendation is either a green variety of cleaner such as something from Seventh Generation , Melaleuca or Eco-Green. But if you want to do it yourself most advise applying baking soda directly with a damp sponge.

I don't believe in sponges, although I do know they exist, they are germ ridden creatures I chose not to have in my home and certainly not my kitchen. However I do have some clothes and bygones aside I believe it'll be a similar if not the same result. I'm certain my stove won't be offended.

I am a little reluctant to believe baking soda as a lone product will get away that baked on junk. But I am willing to try mostly anything once. So let me present you with my before and after pictures and you be the judge. Be warned though, some of this caked on food has been here from previous tenants. It's anyone's guess as to how long. So it's not pretty. I wiped the entire stove down with soap and water and this is what was left. I could scrub for hours but this particular part never comes off.

After Soap & Water but before baking soda

I only took one before shot as I was pretty skeptical about this method. Now I wish I had taken multiple. Check out the results!!!

I will never go back again. I didn't have to apply any elbow grease like I have to with soap and water. I didn't have to let it soak in smelly fluids that give me headaches. I just put some baking soda on the cloth and rubbed. This was after one application. Never again will I go back.

Can you argue with these results? If you can, try it for yourself! I promise you will be as surprised as I was! Even after seeing this, I'm still surprised. I'll be bouncing around Asmerus when he comes home squealing about my new discovery.

I'm going to go clean out the interior of oven now while the beast slumbers.

That's all from me today, your friendly neighborhood hippie mom.