Ceramic cookware makes our meals taste amazing and cleans up a treat, but even nonstick cookware can pick up burnt spots and stains that won’t come off. A few cooked-on areas can ruin the pan and make it difficult to use and clean. That’s why it’s essential to know how to clean a ceramic pan when you encounter a tough stain or burnt food.
When you have a tried-and-true method for cleaning ceramic non-stick pans, you’ll never need to fear a lousy stain again. This guide provides you with the best way to clean ceramic cookware.
In this article, you’ll get top tips for regular care and cleaning of your ceramic pans, and we also show you how to tackle burnt-on and challenging food stains using household cleaners. You’ll be ready for any cleaning task the world throws at you, and your cookware will look beautiful.
Cleaning Ceramic Non-Stick Pans
Most of the time, your ceramic non-stick pans are in decent shape and don’t require heavy-duty attention. Your cleaning tasks with ceramics are often a simple wipe and rinse, much like you would properly clean a cast iron pan, but you should have a cleaning method or two ready when you discover unsightly stains.
A few simple cleaning options are all you need to keep your ceramic looking clean and available for use whenever you’re ready to cook up that special dish. Check out our excellent tips for ceramic pan care.
How to Clean a Ceramic Pan – Regular Care and Cleaning
This section looks at primary care and cleaning approaches that you should use whenever you work with your cookware. We give you essential tips for treating and storing your ceramic pans that can keep them in like-new condition for years. And, you’ll learn some cleaning tricks that you can use the next time you have a regular cleaning job waiting for you.
Season Your Pans Twice a Year
You probably associate seasoning with cast-iron cookware, but ceramic cookware needs regular seasoning to stay in top condition, too. Without seasoning, the non-stick layer can deteriorate and stop working.
To revitalize it, treat your pans to a twice-annual seasoning. Doing so will add decades of life to your pan and ensures that it remains easy to clean.
Add canola or vegetable oil to the pan’s surface, and use a paper towel to spread it around until there is a thin layer of cooking oil on all cooking surfaces. Don’t use olive oil; even extra virgin olive oil can burn during seasoning and leave residue behind. Place the enamel pan on a burner at medium heat for one or two minutes.
If the container is oven-safe, you can let it sit in the oven at 300°F for about 20 minutes for a more thorough seasoning. After the pan cools, wipe off any oil residue with a paper towel.
Store Your Pans Properly
Ceramic containers work because the layer of non-stick Teflon protects the ceramic coating, which in turn protects the cast iron core of the cookware. However, even a small scratch can throw this situation out of whack. Scratches expose ceramic and metal, which don’t clean nearly as quickly as the non-stick outer layer of the pan.
If you want to keep your cleaning experience easy and quick, take care to store your ceramic cookware correctly. Never store ceramic pans in a stack with other cookware, as the constant contact creates friction and results in scratches.
You shouldn’t even stack ceramic containers on top of each other. Instead, store each pan on a separate hook if possible. If you can’t store pans on hooks, place a cloth between each pan to protect them against scratches.
Let Your Pans Cool Before You Wash Them
The pan’s temperature at the time of cleaning probably isn’t something you pay attention to unless it’s so hot that it hisses when you place it under a water faucet. Always be aware of a ceramic pan’s temperature, though.
Ceramic cookware doesn’t do well when you shock it with sudden temperature shifts, which can damage the nonstick coating or even break the ceramic layer. Always allow your ceramic nonstick pans to come back to room temperature before you clean them after use.
Once the pan is cold, clean it without the worry of damaging it. Along with that, avoid using a high burner under ceramic pans. The pan doesn’t need the high heat to do its job, and repeated exposure to high temperatures above its tolerance causes long-term damage.
Soak Stubborn Stains in Hot Water
If you’re going about your daily cooking and cleaning tasks and encounter a stain that doesn’t immediately wipe away on your ceramic, it’s time for a soak. A hot water soak loosens any baked-on food that a sponge might miss, and it won’t harm the ceramic.
The next time you discover a hard-to-clean spot from the last cooking session, give hot water and a gentle scrubbing a try. Let any stained areas sit under hot water for at least 30 minutes before you try to clean them away.
Never use any scratchy cleaning tools such as nylon scrubbers or steel wool on ceramic, as they can cause deep scratches in the pan surface. If you can’t clean the spot away with a soft sponge after soaking, use a plastic spatula to gently work under the stain until it loosens and clean away.
Hand Wash Your Ceramic with a Sponge
Many ceramic pans claim to be dishwasher safe, but you risk damaging your containers when you put them through a wash cycle. To be sure your pans are clean and safe, always clean enamel cookware by hand whenever possible. Handwashing allows you to control the cleaning and helps to keep your cookware looking gorgeous for years.
To clean your ceramic pans, add a layer of hot water to the pan’s surface along with a squirt of liquid dish soap. Gently scrub with a sponge to clean the pan’s nonstick surface and wipe away any discoloration or stain.
Make sure to clean crevices and narrow areas that might catch food. Allow the cookware to dry completely and then repeat if needed to get it completely clean. You can also clean stainless steel pans in the same way. Dish soap is often all you need for regular pan cleaning.
How to Clean Ceramic Cookware
No matter how much care you take, you’re likely to have to clean a totally burnt pan at some point. Cleaning discolored enamel cookware can seem daunting when you encounter a baked-on mess that seems hopeless. Fortunately, there are effective methods and household cleaners you can use to take care of cleaning disasters on enamel.
Deep Cleaning Ceramic Pans
This section covers cleaning options for tackling messy, burnt ceramic pans. It might seem as if no amount of cleaning will bring those pans back to life, but we’ve got a few tricks ready to deploy. We show you how to use baking soda, vinegar, peroxide, and other cleaners to restore your ceramic frying pans and make them beautiful once more.
Use Hydrogen Peroxide on the Stains
In almost every instance, stains on ceramic cookware are food-based. Even the grossest and most burnt-on, dried-up stains began life as organic material, which makes them ideal for a peroxide cleaning.
Hydrogen peroxide works by breaking down organic elements, making them much easier to clean away. A little peroxide and a few minutes can eat through years of build up and bring a pan back from the grave. It’s also a great way to clean stainless steel.
Add an ounce of peroxide to the pan’s surface, and then add enough water to fill the container. Wait for a half an hour, and then use a toothbrush to gently dislodge and scrub away the cooked-on food.
Rinse the pan. Repeat as needed until the container is clean and ready for action. You can add some peroxide to a spray bottle to spot clean future stains, too.
Get Your Pans Clean with Baking Soda
Baking soda is one of your household’s star cleaners. Use baking soda to clean anything from teeth to bike chains, and it’s sure to do a number on your most challenging enamel cookware, as well as to remove black from aluminum pans.
When you run across a stubborn bit of food that seems permanently attached to your pan, pull out the baking soda and watch the magic.
Cleaning a cookie sheet with baked on grease works the same way. Fill the ceramic pan or cookie sheet with water, and add the baking soda. Put the pan on the stove at medium-low heat, and use the spatula to stir up the mixture.
Let the solution cook for about two minutes, and then turn off the burner. Wait until the water cools, and then drain it and wash the pan in soapy water as usual. The stains should clean right off.
Hit the Pans with Vinegar
Vinegar is a modern marvel and one of our favorite cleaning products. Because it contains acid, vinegar eats away organic material and leaves the enamel untouched.
When you encounter a stain that baking soda can’t budge, give vinegar a call. You’ll be astonished at how effective it can be to clean a ceramic pan with vinegar.
The way to clean a burnt non stick pan is to add the water and vinegar to the pan, and stir it with a spatula. You could even add a drop or two of dish soap if you like. Put the pan over a stove, and let the solution simmer for about five minutes.
Turn off the stove and let the solution cool. Drain the pan and wash it as usual. The vinegar should eat the food right off the enamel and allow you to get the cookware sparkling again.
Clean Your Pans with Baking Soda and Vinegar
If either baking soda or vinegar by itself doesn’t get your pan clean, there’s no need to despair. The two agents are useful by themselves, but they become exponentially more so when you combine them. Baking soda and vinegar complement each other and create a cleaning solution that you can use to take care of the worst enamel cleaning issues.
Add the water, vinegar, and baking soda to the pan and stir with a spatula. Place the container on the stove at low heat, and simmer for five minutes or so. Let the solution cool, and then drain the pan.
Clean it with a sponge and dish soap. The baking soda and vinegar eat into the cooked-on food and break it down, making it a snap to wipe away.
Get Your Pans Clean with an Enzymatic Cleaner
You’ve probably used an enzymatic cleaner such as Shout to get grass and bloodstains out of your clothes. The same cleaning power that eats away at blood and grass stains will also rip through food particles on your pans, leaving them looking like new. If our other cleaners don’t do the trick, try using an enzymatic cleaner.
Fill the bottom of the pan with cold water, and add a few drops of the enzyme and stir the water with a spatula. Let the cleaning mixture sit for at least five minutes.
Drain the pan and clean it as usual. Repeat the enzyme treatment if needed, but avoid cleaning with it regularly, as overuse can damage the pan.
If you still have stains that just don’t seem to want to go away, try cleaning scorched pan with a dryer sheet. Put the dryer sheet in the pan and add hot water. Let it sit overnight and the stains should come out with very little effort the next day.
We hope you had a delightful time checking out our advice for cleaning ceramic non-stick pans. Ceramic pans are an incredible and long-lasting modern convenience, but lack of care can result in stains.
Our guide gives you tips and shows you the best ways to clean ceramic cookware. With our tips, you’ll be ready to take on any cleaning challenge you encounter.
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