Cleaning your frying pan, even if something has burned on

Stuck-on residue softens in warm water, and then you usually don't need to scrape or scour. Clean a pan with stuck-on food in this order:

1. Let the pan cool and wipe out grease and loose crumbs with a paper towel.
2. Pour in a shallow layer of water with a splash of dish soap, or just water if the pan is made of plate steel or bare cast iron.
3. Bring the water to a simmer over low heat; after a few minutes you'll see the edges of the residue start to come away.
4. Loosen the residue with a wooden or plastic spatula, since a knife or metal spatula will scratch a non-stick coating.

If the residue still doesn’t come loose, repeat the soaking instead of scrubbing harder. Then wash the pan as you normally do after each time you cook.

Not everything that looks dirty will come off with a sponge, and sometimes it doesn't need to:

• You don't scrub away the dark or black layer in a plate steel or bare cast iron pan. That's what you cook on: it's the layer you built when seasoning it.
• Rainbow stains on stainless steel, which often appear after cooking pasta, can be left alone: it's a chemical reaction and your pan is no worse for it.
• A coating that stays brown after soaking, or one that an egg sticks to even when the pan looks clean, is often worn out, and scrubbing won't fix it. If pieces of the coating come off during washing or you see bare metal, cleaning is pointless and you should replace the pan.

Based on our article on how long a frying pan lasts decide whether you really need a new pan.

What kind of washing is appropriate for a non-stick coating?

A standard and a ceramic coating get the same washing. Let stuck-on residue soak in hot soapy water until it softens, then wipe it out with the soft side of your sponge. You don't need baking soda for that, and in any case don't rub it over the coating: the granules abrade just like a scouring pad.

Even if a coated pan is dishwasher-safe, our pan expert still recommends hand washing. An egg is more likely to stick to a coating that has frequently been through the dishwasher.

What is allowed for a stainless steel pan without a coating?

Bare stainless steel can be safely cleaned with dish soap; you don't need a trick to avoid soap here. According to our pan expert, stainless steel is also fine in the dishwasher if your pan has the dishwasher symbol. What the machine leaves around the rim you loosen by soaking in hot water and then remove with soapy water. For stubborn deposits you may use cleaning soda or vinegar on bare stainless steel.

How do you wash plate steel without losing the seasoned layer?

Wash plate steel with hot water and a soft brush, and omit dish soap or limit it to a few drops. Skip the dishwasher for plate steel, because it contains the same tablet mentioned above. Then dry the pan on the hob and not only with a tea towel. The heat will also evaporate any moisture the towel misses, helping to prevent rust.

For plate steel, steel wool does have a role: you can sand away rust or a damaged layer with it until you see bare steel again. That way you can start over with a pan that was never properly seasoned. You then build a new layer with re-seasoning a plate steel pan.

Is your cast iron pan enameled?

For an enameled cast iron pan, soapy water and a soft sponge are enough, and you dry it with a tea towel. If your cast iron pan has a ceramic coating, wash it like any coated pan.

A bare cast iron pan is cleaned with hot water and at most a few drops of dish soap, and then you let it dry on the heat. You loosen residue in the rough bottom with the Keij Kamado Gietijzer scrubber - RVS reinigingsketting, which you use on the iron without soap. It does not belong on enamel.

Keij Kamado Gietijzer scrubber - RVS reinigingsketting

If bare cast iron does rust, then cast iron maintenance is your next step.

How do you get the bottom of your frying pan clean again?

A brown or black bottom usually comes from fat splatters that end up on the outside during cooking and burn on there. So include the outside when you wash the pan with your sponge each time, that way such a layer won't build up so quickly.

For a coated pan or one made of stainless steel, let any existing build-up soak first. Set the pan with the bottom into a basin of hot soapy water in the sink. What still sticks afterward you rub away with a soft sponge and a paste of baking soda and water. Our explanation of cleaning the bottom of a pan also covers plate steel and cast iron, and your other pans.

If you need a new pan, choose one that matches how you wash: by hand or in the dishwasher. In all frying pans you'll find pans with and without coatings.