Cleaning Up After Eggs: Cooked on Egg, #2

In Cleaning Up After Eggs: Cooked on Egg, #1 we discussed how to prevent cooked on egg mess in your pans. Sometimes prevention doesn't work. If you do have eggy cooked on mess, here are some ways to clean your pans.

The best way to remove cooked on egg is to scrape the egg off as soon as possible. The sooner you get to it the easier it will be to remove the cooked on egg. Don't wait for the pan to cool.

The main way to get cooked on egg off of pans is to scrape it off. The earlier you get to it the easier it will be. If you get to it right away, while the pan is still hot, it just slides off using a wooden spatula. The longer it sits, the harder it will be and the stronger your scraper will need to be. If it sits for more than a couple of hours, you will essentially be chiseling it off.

If the egg is just impossible to get off, you need to soak the pan. This will not remove the egg. It will, however, make it easier to scrape the egg off using the above methods. Sometimes, for Very Cooked On Eggs, you will need to soak, scrape, and repeat a few times to get it all off.

Adding baking soda to the soaking water may help as well.
Adding bleach to the soak works even better but be sure to clean the pan a couple of times after that unless you really like the taste of bleach.
Adding dishwasher soap works very well too. I don't know what's in that stuff but it isn't meant to be handled by hand while it's wet. So, I would be careful about handling the pan until you rinse it out; maybe even wear gloves.

Cleaning Up After Eggs: Cooked on Egg, #1

Some times after cooking eggs (scramble, omelet, and souffle) you end up with an eggy, hard to clean, mess from Cooked on Eggs. It clogs scrubbers and soaking it just makes it gooey without making it any easier to clean off the pan.

This usually results from cooking the eggs at too low of a heat, with too little oil and/or an uncoated pan.

The first step is prevention. Nonstick pans go a long way to preventing the eggy mess. However, even with non-stick pans, I would add a little oil, fat or butter. If you have a regular pan (stainless steel, cast iron, etc.), you should use oil, fat or butter to coat the pan.

Also, cooking hotter and faster gives the egg less time to work its way between the oil and the pan. Constantly, keeping the egg moving in the pan also helps to keep it from gluing itself to the bottom or sides.

In the next post (Cleaning Up After Eggs: Cooked on Egg, #2), we will discuss what to do if prevention fails.