I have touched on this before with a French White Ramekin and the Percolators that I have found. But at the suggestion of daeira over at Chow, I have decided to hunt down a dirty piece of Corningware and document a more involved cleaning process. I see pieces that have been horribly abused all the time at the Thrift Stores. Of course, since Murphy (
as in Murphy's Law) follows me around everywhere I go, because I was looking for a filthy, overly abused, and never cleaned properly piece of Corningware, I could not find one. (
3 days, 4 Goodwill stores and 3 Salvation Army stores)
This was the best I could do. Though in all honesty, it's has most of the common problems present.
It looks pretty good in the picture, but let's take a closer look..... Baked on grime under both handles.
Cooked on black spots.
Scorched bottom from too high of a flame setting... (
tsk tsk.... Medium heat at the most)
Scratches and resulting stains from previous forays with a steel scrubber or some such horrendously wrong method of past cleaning.
Eeeeeew, and what the heck is THAT?!?!
and THIS?!?!
But before I get into the whole cleaning thing, I want to dispel some of the myths out there on the internet. There are a lot of Questions that have been posed over the years... and most of the answers given are wrong.
1. NEVER EVER EVER use a Steel Scrubber, SOS pad, Brillo or, heaven forbid, actual Steel Wool to remove baked on food from Vintage Corningware. OYE! All these products contain steel, and if you rub down vintage Corningware with steel you will simply leave massive amounts of gray metal deposits on the piece. (
and they are harder to remove than the baked on food)
2. Grey marks on Corningware means that the lead is exposed and you should throw the piece away. WRONG!!! Vintage Corningware is made from Ceramic Glass, not stoneware. It's not some form of "enameled" metal either. Borosilicate glass is fired at and extremely high temperature to force crystals to form. It actually starts out as a pale amber yellow glass and becomes white after the crystals form. While it shares it's firing step with glazed stoneware, the actual construction of the piece is COMPLETELY different. The grey marks are from metal deposits left from using metal utensils during cooking, or from improper cleaning methods. (
i.e. Steel Wool, SOS pads, Brillo and such) Vintage Corningware is harder than the stainless steel and wears these utensils down, thus they leave metal deposits.
3. Unlike the modern AWK (
After World Kitchen) Stoneware, Vintage Corningware may be soaked in the sink to loosen baked on foods. You cannot do this with the Stoneware, because the glaze will crack and craze.
4. Bleach Corningware.... Well, I suppose you can, but unless you are removing coffee stains from inside a pot, I doubt you will be happy with the results. Sure, it will remove some things, but it's smelly work for very little return on time invested.
5. Oven Cleaner...... I see this frequently, reproduced or regurgitated by many. Well, I tried it, back in 2007 on one of my first Wheat pieces (
a W-34-B, 4 quart Dutch Oven with the rim all the way around) that had the black ring underneath where baked on food had built up over Lord knows how long. Aside from the horrendous odor, the burning eyes, the disgusting mess and the need for newspaper, garbage bags, rubber gloves, a gas mask and sending the pets to the neighbors house for 3 days... it's all a lot of bunk. After a 48 hour soak in that poison, absolutely NOTHING came off. Easy-Off my butt. That's all I gotta say 'bout that.
Truth be told, restoring am abused piece of Corningware to it's former glory is a bit of commitment. But it's well worth the effort for several reasons.
1. It's the best thing to come along in cookware since Copper.
2 You are purchasing an American product albeit one manufactured awhile ago, but it's still an American Product.
3. It's Green.... Green by way of the fact that you are re-purposing something what may otherwise end up in the landfill. Green, in that you don't need anything higher than Medium flame, thus saving energy. Green in the fact that it has no poisonous coatings and is naturally non-reactive with food. All that green-ness in a blue and white package. It never ceases to amaze me, this Pyroceram wonder of the "Modern" Age.
But, this 10 inch skillet isn't going to clean itself, so I better get to rehabilitating it so it can continue cooking delicious wholesome meals for another 50 years!
First, I recommend an O-Cel-O sponge... THIS one in particular.
Using the above sponge (
though of a different printed design) wash the whole thing in REALLY hot water and soap.
Surprisingly, just using soap removed the scorch marks off the bottom.
It also removed the goobery looking stuff from the outside as well as the weird reddish stain on the inside.
It still didn't get the grey wear marks off the bottom. nor did it remove the brown stains from the inside.
This is when I go over the whole thing with Weiman Glass Cook top Cleaner. (
and the same type of sponge)
Usually, Weiman and a little elbow grease will remove the wear marks on the bottom of most pieces...
But sometimes, on older pieces, the marks are too much for Weiman. Such is the case on this piece. Weiman got most of it, but there is some deep seated wearing and it didn't completely remove the brown stain/scratching on the inside either. This didn't surprise me too much. I mean, this isn't one of my 20 year old French White Piece, it's a 50 year old Cornflower piece, so it needs some extra attention.
This when I turn to Bar Keeper's Friend.... (
thanks to a suggestion from a reader) I was using Baking Soda before, but Bar Keeper's works SO much better. It's been around since 1882 so it must be doing something right. (
I have not tried Bon Ami, but it is not suppose to scratch either)
Unlike Bon Ami, which is a feldspar/limestone/citric acid polishing cleanser, Barkeeper's friend uses oxalic acid as a cleaning agent, the same acid that is in Rhubarb leaves. So please do not eat Barkeepers Friend. I'm just sayin' Because of the high oxalic acid content, you really should wear gloves, since prolonged contact with your skin can cause peeling and dermatitis. (
ask my thumb - oops) Simply sprinkle liberally, and add a little water to form a paste, then begin scrubbing in a circular motion with the same O-Cell-O sponge. (
think Karate Kid.... Bar Keeper's Friend ON, Bar Keeper's Friend OFF)
If the Barkeepers Friend cannot remove all the "grey" marks left by previous metal utensils, I use Pfaltzgraff Stoneware & Porcelain Cleaner. (
It removes the grey marks, left by eating utensils, from the glaze on their stoneware) My assumption is that this product is similar to what some of the Use and Care instructions referred to as "Delete". This time, it was not necessary as the Barkeeper's Friend seems to have done the trick. Barkeeper's Friend seems to polish out some of the lighter scratching as well, shining up the piece beautifully while it does it's cleaning magic on brown staining and grey marks.
If you still have baked on black bits in the little nooks and crannies, by this time it is usually a little bit on the softer side due to all the scrubbing and water. I usually take a toothpick and run it back and forth over the stains and eventually they kind of melt away and can be washed off.
And there you have it... One refreshed, renewed and revitalized piece of Vintage Corningware, ready for re-purposing for another 50 years of service in my kitchen.
Where is your Corningware??
~~
The main problem with this Rangetopper is that the black coating on the Aluminum is oil that has actually carbonized. The oily coating on the underside has been caked on and cooked on for so long that it has literally become Coal. Thus, no amount of Baking Soda, Hydrogen Peroxide, Barkeepers Friend, Vinegar, Bleach, Oxyclean, Awesome, Simple Green or any sort of Grease remover worked. It's just too far gone for any sort of "grease" remover to work; cause it isn't grease anymore. It's charcoal.
Carbon-Off is used in professional kitchens to remove carbon from the bottoms of pans. But the best part is that it is safe to use on Aluminum. Not on anodized aluminum, and definitely not on a pan with any non-stick coating (it will dissolve it), but it doesn't harm glass either, which is a bonus.
Wear gloves! You don't want this stuff on your hands. Be SURE to work in a well ventilated area, (like outside) and not near any painted surfaces. This is some serious stuff.
The directions say to spray the piece liberally from 8-10 inches away and let it sit for 15 minutes, then wash off with cold water.
Honestly, this did not work for me. I had to reapply and let it sit, and sit and sit.... for about 5 hours. Then I scraped a section with a stick (you can use a Pampered Chef scraper too) to see if it had loosened. A lot of the carbon had been turned into goo, but not all of it.
I went ahead and washed off the loose, gooey carbon by giving it a quick scrub with one of those green scrubby things and some cold water.... (Outside faucet, in a area away from where children & pets will be playing... This stuff will kill a septic tank too, so not inside.) It really DID succeed in removing most of the carbon.
But I applied some more spray and let it sit over night.
Now we are getting somewhere.
Enough of the Carbon had been dissolved so I could finish the piece off with some Barkeepers Friend this morning.....
Voila!!! Shiny clean, just like a brand new penny.
OK, not really like a brand new penny; there are little itty bitty pits in the Aluminum, left from the carbonizing. But I believe those will eventually dissolve over time, with proper usage AND proper cleaning.
Another piece of Corningware saved!! My work here is done. 
