Oh no – I did it again!
If you believe the principles of feng shui, a south-facing range is a recipe for burned meals. In my case I suspect it has more to do with my habit of leaving the stove in order to “sneak in just one more paragraph” of whatever writing project I was immersed in before the familiar wails of “I’m hungry” forced me into the kitchen.
Regardless of the reason, I’m faced more often than I’d like to be with the prospect of chiseling seared-on black residue from the bottoms of my cooking pots.
I used to dread it when this happened. The black stuff took forever to get off despite every effort with scouring pad and scrubbing powder. Then I discovered baking soda.
I don’t remember if some baking soda article in Countryside or similar magazine tipped me off, or if it was a prayerful act of sheer desperation. One day when I was faced with the residue from a particularly charred batch of refried beans I grabbed the jar of baking powder off the shelf and dumped half of it into the pan. I use baking soda a lot for regular cleaning, so I figured it might help with this.
It didn’t seem to work any better than regular cleanser. Sighing, I set it aside to figure out something else for the meal.
Something distracted me and it wasn’t until a day or so later that I returned grudgingly to the pan. To my surprise, large portions of the burned-on stuff simply flaked right off with a little scrubbing. What was left was relatively easy to remove with a fresh scrubby pad. I figured it must have been the overnight treatment with the baking powder paste.
I found out later that most burned food residue is acidic, so it makes sense that the alkaline baking powder reacts with it and helps weaken its structure. However it works, I was thrilled to have found a solution that didn’t involve toxic chemicals whose names I can’t pronounce.
So tonight, as I study the bubbly pattern left by burned peas in the bottom of my stainless steel saucepot, I merely smile, and reach for the baking powder. And wonder what feng shui would say about moving the computer desk next to the stove.
Anne Michelsen is co-founder of Marathon Renewable Energy, Inc., specializing in solar hot water systems. You can read more of her work at YourGreenLifestyle.blogspot.com
