I tried barkeeper's friend on stainless steel pan but it didn't remove any stains

[foodnoobie]

My stainless steel pan has brown discoloration at the bottom and discoloration on the inside as well. I didn't know how to properly clean it when i first got it, so when i let the pan cool off completely after cooking, it had a lot of oil stuck everywhere which wouldn't come off. I heard a lot of good things about BKF so i bought it.
I live in the netherlands, and i could only buy it from amazon for $25 for 1 can of 340 grams of powdered Bar Keeper's friend. Pretty expensive.

Anyways i followed the instructions, i put some powder and water and turn it into a paste, i let it soak for 1 minute. And i scrub it off with the soft side of my sponge. Nothing.
Not even the slighest bit of stains were removed. It did literally nothing.

So my question is: Did i receive an authentic product from Amazon? Did someone else simply fill the can with white powder and return it to Amazon?
I noticed that there isn't even a lid on the can. It just has a bunch of holes, covered by a ''peel me'' sticker. Which is pretty abysmal design. Because the sticker will become less sticky, and then you have an open can of BKF. Not sure if it's supposed to be like this?

I'm pretty disappointed because i thought this would help me clean my stainless steel pan. Not sure what my other options are now, since i thought this would be the go to method for tough jobs.

 

[nhb22]

Might be helpful to see a picture or two. Barkeeper is not that strong.

 

[Simon082]

I just use whetstone powder usually 1k. You did rub the paste in didn't you like you are polishing?.

 

[foodnoobie]

Might be helpful to see a picture or two. Barkeeper is not that strong.

I added them. My aplogies for the gross condition they're in. The brown stains never left when i tried making a burger in it and let the pan completely cool down before cleaning.

The black burnt stuff in the middle is from a recipe that involved a honey soy sauce for tuna. Not knowing the sauce would instantly burn as soon as i put the marinated fish in my hot pan.

I tried the barkeepers friend on the bottom first. But it didn't remove any stains.
I only let it soak for 1 minute as per instructions, and used a soft side of a sponge to clean it. So no abrasive scrubbing.

I just use whetstone powder usually 1k. You did rub the paste in didn't you like you are polishing?.

I used the soft side of the sponge to mix water with the powder and coat the pan completely on all sides. Then let it sit for a minute. then tried to clean it with the soft sponge. But nothing happened.

 

[cooktocut]

Is there any harm that can be done by simply using a scouring pad on the bottom of a pan? Asking as much for myself, since I have a giant stock pot that had some stubborn stains recently. Hit it with some hot water and elbow grease, everything came out fine. I guess you’re scratching the surface and removing material, but surely it’s such a small amount that it doesn’t matter?

 

[jakuda]

for that level of cooked-on oil, i need to use a green or blue scrubby and elbow grease with the bar keepers friend.

 

[nhb22]

I have the same pan. Hard to say how to deal with the bottom. Inside of the pan though, it is not hard. It seems to me you have done high heat searing. This happens to me every time I sear scallops. There might be better options, but here is what I find to be the easiest and most effective way to clean the pan.

1. Find a pair of really thick oven mitts that you don’t care about

2. Heat the pan up

3. Use dry paper towel or the scotch pad below (for faster results) to rub the stain off while wearing thick oven mitts. You need to be careful to not burn yourself. Do it at your own risk.



The black burn bits you also have there can be dealt with by boiling white vinegar if the method above for oil stain doesn’t help with the burn bits.

 

[stringer]

You need a stainless steel scrubber. That's baked on, fully polymerized and carbonized grease.

 

[Chopper88]

That's way too much for BKF and a soft sponge to handle. You need a scouring pad or abrasive sponge for that, and it will still take quite some effort.

 

[stringer]

No reason it shouldn't look like this

 

[nhb22]

No reason it shouldn't look like this

View attachment 313866

@foodnoobie you can also do this with a hot pan with oven mitts if you are comfortable with it. It will be faster than paper towel or sponge. Without heat, a lot of elbow grease is required in my experience. With heat, 2 minutes. Just make sure to protect yourself from the hot pan…

 

[aporigine]

Better living through chemistry! Strong alkali will make quick work of such stains. In US you can buy pure lye to open drains. Liquid drain opener is usually hydroxide-based, and we also have aerosol oven cleaners that are alkali.

Apply a layer, wait an hour, remove with steel wool. It should come right off to bare metal. If starting with solid sodium hydroxide, make a strong solution of about 50% in a glass container.
Reapply to thicker or blacker leftovers. Some plastic wrap will slow the neutralization of the alkali by carbon dioxide in the air.

Wear rubber gloves!

Warning: do not apply alkali to aluminum! A vigorous reaction ensues. Ask me how I know …

 

[foodnoobie]

Thank you for the replies everyone! I tried it again outside this time, and just put a lot of BKF on it, let it soak for longer and most of it came off. So the product was authentic.

I'd say 95% is clean. The bottom was surprisingly easy once i put a thick paste on it. But the inside had these little groves on the edges which was really tough to clean. But i'm happy with the results.

I will also keep everyone else's advice in mind if i need a tougher cleaning job, as well as getting my hands on the blue scout pads. Thank you! I really appreciate everyone's knowledge.

@foodnoobie you can also do this with a hot pan with oven mitts if you are comfortable with it. It will be faster than paper towel or sponge. Without heat, a lot of elbow grease is required in my experience. With heat, 2 minutes. Just make sure to protect yourself from the hot pan…

Just heat only, or heat with barkeepers friend? I will try it next. I'll also try to buy the scour pads you showed me. Thank you!

 

[MarcelNL]

yep, yet do NOT EVER start making your own NaOH solution if you do not know how to...buy it!
Watch out a lot of drain unblocker (ontstopper) nowadays only is Sodium Carbonate and not the NaOH you want but they sell a ridiculously overpriced ovencleaner that basically is NaOH in a foam can in every supermarket.

The green scotch brite can be bought almost everywhere.

 

[Towerguy]

for that level of cooked-on oil, i need to use a green or blue scrubby and elbow grease with the bar keepers friend.

Or a steel wool pad such as SOS.

 

[nhb22]

Thank you for the replies everyone! I tried it again outside this time, and just put a lot of BKF on it, let it soak for longer and most of it came off. So the product was authentic.

I'd say 95% is clean. The bottom was surprisingly easy once i put a thick paste on it. But the inside had these little groves on the edges which was really tough to clean. But i'm happy with the results.

I will also keep everyone else's advice in mind if i need a tougher cleaning job, as well as getting my hands on the blue scout pads. Thank you! I really appreciate everyone's knowledge.


Just heat only, or heat with barkeepers friend? I will try it next. I'll also try to buy the scour pads you showed me. Thank you!

Just heat. After that, the more abrasive the pad you use, the quicker you can clean. I use the blue pad because it doesn’t leave scratches. If you don’t care about scratches, you can use the green 3M pad or the steel wool scrubber @stringer suggested above for even quicker results.

 

[aporigine]

yep, yet do NOT EVER start making your own NaOH solution if you do not know how to...buy it!

Heh, that’s the fun part! There is something of an exotherm.

Watch out a lot of drain unblocker (ontstopper) nowadays only is Sodium Carbonate and not the NaOH you want but they sell a ridiculously overpriced ovencleaner that basically is NaOH in a foam can in every supermarket. …

Carbonate drain opener?! Oh dear. That’s like trying to run a Diesel on vinaigrette.

 

[MarcelNL]

yeah , utterly USELESS....

the exotherm part is fun, when you expect it....and know what it can do...I made my own deepwater bombs with pieces of pure sodium and that sort of crap in my school period, the environment is still recovering.

 

[gentiscid]

BKF won't polish it as the seasoning is polymerized and bonded to steel. The Easy-Off yellow cap can strip the whole seasoning and leave only bare metal.

 

[MarcelNL]

BKF won't polish it as the seasoning is polymerized and bonded to steel. The Easy-Off yellow cap can strip the whole seasoning and leave only bare metal.

he is living in the netherlands, may products named here are more difficult to find. What'll work is a melamine sponge (wonderspons) with some oven cleaner, wearing gloves and goggles! Or some scotchbrite, red or green both work.

 

[JASinIL2006]

If a stainless steel pad won't remove it, I go straight to oven cleaner.

 

[gentiscid]

There is similar products.

He should look for oven cleaner spray cans. They contain lye (sodium hydroxide).

he is living in the netherlands, may products named here are more difficult to find. What'll work is a melamine sponge (wonderspons) with some oven cleaner, wearing gloves and goggles! Or some scotchbrite, red or green both work.

 

[MarcelNL]

There is similar products.

He should look for oven cleaner spray cans. They contain lye (sodium hydroxide).

which basically is what I wrote ;-)

 

[simona]

My stainless steel pan has brown discoloration at the bottom and discoloration on the inside as well. I didn't know how to properly clean it when i first got it, so when i let the pan cool off completely after cooking, it had a lot of oil stuck everywhere which wouldn't come off. I heard a lot of good things about BKF so i bought it.
I live in the netherlands, and i could only buy it from amazon for $25 for 1 can of 340 grams of powdered Bar Keeper's friend. Pretty expensive.

Anyways i followed the instructions, i put some powder and water and turn it into a paste, i let it soak for 1 minute. And i scrub it off with the soft side of my sponge. Nothing.
Not even the slighest bit of stains were removed. It did literally nothing.

So my question is: Did i receive an authentic product from Amazon? Did someone else simply fill the can with white powder and return it to Amazon?
I noticed that there isn't even a lid on the can. It just has a bunch of holes, covered by a ''peel me'' sticker. Which is pretty abysmal design. Because the sticker will become less sticky, and then you have an open can of BKF. Not sure if it's supposed to be like this?

I'm pretty disappointed because i thought this would help me clean my stainless steel pan. Not sure what my other options are now, since i thought this would be the go to method for tough jobs.

Some call it a stain, others call it patina....

Wire wool.

 

[Jovidah]

Just soak in vinegar or lemon.
Or soak with a soda solution, that works too.
Or as others mentioned just spray with oven cleaner... but that's nasty stuff so you need gloves and decent ventilation to work with that. So far I never needed that to get a pan clean.

If you're struggling with polymerized sticky oil residue, stop using junk oil.

Demeyere also sells a cleaning product under their own brandname that's surprisingly cheap. There's also product from brands like HG that work quite well.

American products are not ideal simply because even when you can find them you'll be paying ridiculous prices for them.

 

[mengwong]

Without heat, a lot of elbow grease is required

Power tools to the rescue!
https://www.amazon.com/BRUSH-Cordless-Cleaning-Detailed-Polishing/dp/B09R1YHZKQ

 

[Delat]

Any downside to just using sandpaper, or are those stainless steel scrubbers faster?

 

[mengwong]

Once you start with the sandpaper you’re committed to a full progression, with deburring at each grit.

 

[Jovidah]

Any downside to just using sandpaper, or are those stainless steel scrubbers faster?

The stainless layer on a clad pan is actually very thin. So that'd truly be a last resort. It's also not necessary. I never had a stainless pan I couldn't get proper clean with a milder approach.

 

[stringer]

Any downside to just using sandpaper, or are those stainless steel scrubbers faster?

The stainless scrubbers and green scotch brite are harder than what you want to abrade but roughly the same hardness as the stainless steel cooking surface (or harder than aluminum). They work through scouring/burnishing/polishing the surface and abrading away whatever is stuck. I prefer this to using harsh chemicals or extreme heat which can damage or shorten the lifespan of the pan or introduce chemical contaminants to food. I do not use oven cleaner for anything, even cleaning ovens. And I will say that I haven't used a scrubber like that in a pro setting in years. They are massively frowned upon in Massachusetts in commercial settings because the bits of wire can break off and get in food and be a choking / digestive tract hazard. I do use them at home carefully. So at work I just use scotchbrites which is probably sending quadrillion bits of microplastics down the drain. You gotta pick your poison.