Remove Burnt-On Grease From Your Cookie Sheets
Cooked-On Gunk, Black Gook, Caked-On Grease, Burnt-On Gunky Goop
Whether you are a gourmet cook, a rank and file beginner or somewhere in the middle, chances are you’ll be faced with a really unattractive cookie sheet at some point in your cooking life. Although there are many ways to clean a pan (and some people advise against cleaning them at all), this method has been successfully used for several years by a group of women from Brazoria County, Texas who put their heads together in an internet chat room and came up with the original idea.
Materials You Will Need:
- Cookie sheet or sheets
- Kitchen gloves – optional
- Newspaper or utility towel to protect your work surface
- Hand dishwashing liquid
- Soap-filled steel wool pads
- Fine grit sandpaper
- Wooden block – optional
Prepare the Area and Soak the Pan
Spread newspapers, oilcloth, a utility towel or something else to protect your work surface, especially if you are working on your kitchen counter. This gets messy. If you want to protect your hands, use kitchen gloves. First, wash your cookie sheet as usual with hand dishwashing soap. Do not rinse the soap off, but drain any excess water. Then scrub gently with a steel wool soap pad such as Brillo® or S.O.S.®, allowing plenty of soap to be spread around and mix with the regular dishwashing soap.
Let this double-soapy mixture soak on the cookie sheet for ten minutes or so. While it is soaking, make several sandpaper pads, either by wrapping fine grit sandpaper around a small wooden block or just folding it over in a size that fits your hand nicely. You’ll need at least three or four of these for an average-sized cookie sheet.
Getting Your Cookie Sheet Clean
Start at one end of your sheet and work quickly. When your sandpaper gets too wet and soggy you’ll need to turn it over, re-fold it, and eventually toss it and get another one. You should be able to tell if the sandpaper is still working by the feel of the grit as you place pressure on the surface. Go over the whole cookie sheet once, rinse to see what you’ve accomplished, and repeat if necessary.
Depending on the condition of your sheet, you might consider using a medium-grit sandpaper (test an area on the bottom to make sure it won’t make deep scratches). If your cookie sheet hasn’t been thoroughly cleaned in a long time, there will be gook, gunk or grease in the corners and along the edges as well as in the middle. Decide whether you want to tackle those areas or just be satisfied with a clean baking area. Either way, after a thorough rinsing, your sheet should be ready for a fresh batch of cookies.
Burnt-On Grease on Cookie Sheet
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