How to Wash Pans With Cream of Tartar and Vinegar
Eliminate burned-on gunk from metal pots and pans as well as ceramic or glass cookware without resorting to dangerous, expensive chemical cleaners. You can even clean crusty spills from your stove’s burner pans with vinegar and cream of tartar.
Process for Use
Cream of tartar is the powdered form of crystals of potassium bitartrate that occur naturally within wine barrels and vats. To scrub and bleach away baked-on food and stains, mix equal parts of cream of tartar using vinegar to make a paste and apply it using a cloth to metal, glass, ceramic or nonstick pans. If the whole bottom of a pan is covered using scorched food remnants, mix 1/2 cup of vinegar and 2 tablespoons of cream of tartar per quart of water, and boil the solution in the pan for at least 10 minutes. Prepare enough solution to completely cover the scorched place. Scrub the pan once the solution has cooled, and repeat if necessary. Increase the boiling time for heavy buildup.
The Way It Works
Both cream of tartar and vinegar are acids which soften and loosen the food particles in the surface of the pan. In a paste, partially dissolved cream of tartar crystals can act as a mild scouring and polishing representative to rate cleaning and to shine the surface. Cream of tartar also has light bleaching properties.