I've burnt a pan really badly making popcorn - help!

[ArtVandelay]

Hello, I've burnt butter and sugar onto the bottom of a ??? saucepan. What will remove the black coating? I've got quite a bit off using astonish but its amazingly tough to remove. What gets black off stainless steel pans?

In future would it be okay to put some baking sheet in the bottom of the pan to stop it sticking or is this a stupid idea? What would stop me destroying a pan every time I want to make popcorn?

Any experiences or tips greatly appreciated as I feel a bit stupid now and I really want to fix my nice pan. Thanks!

Soak it in some bio washing powder overnight, will work a treat with a bit of elbow grease after soaking.

We now do our popcorn in the microwave.

Stick in some dishwasher powder and allow it to soak overnight.

Buy microwave popcorn? Sorry, I have never cooked popcorn in a pan!

soak with bio washing powder, then if theres any remaining, put more water and wash powder in and boil for 10 minutes

You can get a magic sponge, these are quite good at removing stains from pans oddly.

are you popping the corn with the sugar at the same time? i've never heard of that.

You can also try boiling a bit of diluted bleach, or soda crystals.

I did that to my mother's pan when I was about 8 - When i was about 30 she threw it out with the black still stuck to the bottom....

Hope you have more luck

recently DD introduced me to the delights of microwave popcorn - its yummy! just like the cinema style stuff - it would save your pans OP!

hope you have better luck than me with getting the burnt pan clean - i have had to throw 2 pans away due to DH doing this (he likes to boil things dry!)

My boyfriend burned rice to the bottom of my favourite pan - when I say burned, I nipped to the shop for kidney beans and could smell it all the way home (he was oblivious).

It was stainless so wire wool and bio powder. I got the worst of it off, and then soaked. Plain water is a solvent, it'll get anything off if you leave it long enough. I think it took a month! But it was a pricey pan, I couldn't buy another as they don't make them, and it's as good as new now.

Oh the smell of burning popcorn is vile. I once set fire to some in the microwave. I didn't watch it, like you are supposed to and paid the price.

I did see a tip on How clean is your house once re burnt pans

here

OP sounds like you added the butter and sugar before you popped the corn? I'm guessing that's why it got so burnt. We pop ours in a pan with a bit of sunflower oil and then make a caramel sauce with butter and sugar separately over a lower heat and mix it through the popcorn once its all popped and off the heat.

Sorry, not much use with the burnt pan though. I'd second trying bio washing powder as it gets tea stains off metal teapots amazingly.

try BAR KEEPERS FRIEND a powder, it is excellent

Soda crystals and water - leave for a day or so and the burnt black bits should come off really easily (voice of experience )

I did exactly this with a le creuset pot about four years ago. Black bits are still there and we don't use the pot. Will bio powder work also?

I kept a dedicated old pan for that purpose - although once burnt I couldn't remove the black. I tried washing powder, jif, soaking, everything.

We now have a popcorn duck. It air pops the popcorn - much healthier too as no oil required! And no more burnt pans.

Hope you get it clean !

Thanks everyone. Think I'll get a popcorn maker - they aren't expensive.

Pan is looking a bit better this morning after a soak with washing up liquid overnight but I've now started a soak with bio-washing powder. If this doesn't work then I'll go and buy soda crystals. At least when the black comes off the pan is nice and shiney underneath, it hasn't gone funny or discoloured.

I really should stick to what I know and not try to overreach myself trying to create fancy snacks

The black is coming off! Its a miracle!

I soak anything that stands still long enough in bio powder
Works brilliantly on pasta bake dishes

Well done getting it off! I have a nice pan that needs some help. I'll try that bio washing powder then. Wonder what is in it that has this effect?

perfectpins I was also going to say barkeepers friend. That stuff is amazing.

If you can't find that then the powder that you use for cleaning the bathroom. Here in the US it is called Comet. I can't remember what it was called in the UK.