Cleaning Used Cookware..

I bought a used pan from the thrift store (1.99 to be exact ). From reading the back, it looks like it had non stick coating. Any recommendations on how to clean this thing? I'll probably throw it in the dishwasher and do a clean cycle on it.

Sandblaster???

J/k

Some soap and hot water, like how you'd clean any other pot or pan?

Nail it to a tree & break out the pressure washer.

Edit - Or if you're lazy like me just tie it to the front of your car and hit the automatic car wash.

Acid? Lasers? Flamethrower?

What is it we are trying to remove?

I was always curious what kinds of diseases one could pick up from various types of thrift store stuff.

I know you could get athletes foot from shoes, or lice/scabies/bed bugs from clothing.

Even using a community grill, for example.

I had a dog once. She was mostly Pit Bull, and major Doggie OCD. You could put a dish or a pot/pan down on the floor of the kitchen and she would lay there and lick on it until even the fumes were gone. When she was done, you could not tell it from one that just came out of the dish washer.

About 10 years ago, I had a sewer backup in my basement. There were turds floating around.

A couple sets of dishes were amongst the casualties.

Take a plate out of your cupboard and E36 M3 on it. How many times are you going to wash it, before you'll eat off it again? Have all your neighbors E36 M3 on it. How many times are you going to wash it? Eeww

In reply to RealMiniParker:

Run them though the dishwasher a few times with the sanitize function engaged, berkeley it, good enough. If you eat at restaurants statistics dictate that the plates and silverware you eat with have been handled by hundreds, perhaps thousands, of nasty customers who took a E36 M3 there, didn't wash their hands, and then ate with the same plate and fork. I just try not to think about it, hasn't killed me yet.

I would clean it normally then sanitize with bleach. You worry too much, go eat some dirt.

Heat up some butter or oil in it and then clean it like you made food in it?

Anything that can survive the heat of cooking isn't going to be fazed by anything else you can do to clean it. Likewise, heating it up will definitely kill off anything that might be there. (Don't heat a Teflon lined pot/pan that doesn't have something in it unless you want to ruin the lining)

I'm confused. Do you need to clean built up burnt junk off a coated pan, or do you need to clean imaginary cooties off a gently used pan?

First situation, throw it away. Second, wash it and start cooking.

Knurled wrote: Heat up some butter or oil in it and then clean it like you made food in it? Anything that can survive the heat of cooking isn't going to be fazed by anything else you can do to clean it. Likewise, heating it up will definitely kill off anything that might be there. (Don't heat a Teflon lined pot/pan that doesn't have something in it unless you want to ruin the lining)

To me, I'd not buy a used non-stick pan of any type. I know how crappy mine are when I am forced to stop using them- to the point that I should just sandblast the coating off, and polish it to a great finish.

Which means the best used cooking materials are metal of some type. And the easy button to that is scotchbrite. Take some material off, and you will be ok.

RealMiniParker wrote: About 10 years ago, I had a sewer backup in my basement. There were turds floating around. A couple sets of dishes were amongst the casualties. Take a plate out of your cupboard and E36 M3 on it. How many times are you going to wash it, before you'll eat off it again? Have all your neighbors E36 M3 on it. How many times are you going to wash it? Eeww

Reminds me of this ..

A dish is a very different material than a toothbrush. Wash the dish carefully, use. Toss the toothbrush.