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From: reid@Glacier.ARPA (Brian Reid)
Newsgroups: net.cooks
Subject: Re: Out Damn Spot!
Message-ID: <10031@Glacier.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 26-Jul-85 04:20:28 EDT
Article-I.D.: Glacier.10031
Posted: Fri Jul 26 04:20:28 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 28-Jul-85 05:30:37 EDT
References: <5543@tekecs.UUCP>
Reply-To: reid@Glacier.ARPA (Brian Reid)
Distribution: net
Organization: Stanford University, Computer Systems Lab
Lines: 66
Summary: boiling ammonia cleans anything off of anything

In article <5543@tekecs.UUCP> barrys@tekecs.UUCP (Barry Steel) writes:
>How do you get rid of the brown spots (and streaks) that accumulate on pots
>and pans from frying?

Oh, goody. Another "kitchen technology" discussion. I love 'em. 

Yes, I've got a scheme that works so well it will take your breath away.
(Literally--it uses ammonia). But first some rambling background. I grew up
in suburban Washington DC, and some time in the late 1960's the Washington
Post Sunday Magazine did an article on "the 5 most horrible jobs in
Washington". They interviewed a guy who cleaned out septic tanks, and that
kind of thing. One of the people that they interviewed was the man whose job
it was to turn dead animals into skeletons for the Smithsonian. He had 3
techniques for doing this. The first is too disgusting to describe on
net.cooks, the second was to use a laundry chemical named Axion that is no
longer available (it worked too well, I guess), and the third was to use a
vat of boiling (hydrous) ammonia. In the article he was quoted as saying
``enough exposure to hot ammonia will dissolve any protein''.

Well, I thought about it for a while and decided that if hot ammonia would
dissolve any protein, it would certainly dissolve the dirt on my dishes, so
I did some experimentation, and what do you know, it works beautifully.

Take a pressure canner, or some other ultralarge pan that can be capped
fairly tightly. Fill it with as strong a solution of ammonia water as you
can afford. The weaker the solution the longer this will take. If money is
no object, then just fill the large pan with "nonsudsing household ammonia",
right out of the bottle. Otherwise put in as much household ammonia as you
can afford, and fill the rest of the pot with hot water. I have a 30-quart
pressure canner, and a quart of ammonia costs 79 cents--we're talking $20
worth of cleaning solution to go all the way.

Now take the objects that you would like to clean and put them into this
boiling cauldron. Put a lid on the cauldron, bring it to a boil, and then
turn it down to the lowest simmer you can muster. Seal it as tightly as you
can--if you don't have a pressure canner, try covering the top with aluminum
foil before putting the lid on.

If you are using straight household ammonia, a 4-hour simmer will clean
anything off of anything. Dilute solutions take proportionately longer.
Since ammonia is a gas that is just in solution in the water, it boils off
and the strength of the solution gets weaker, so you can't use 8 weeks of
simmering to compensate for using only 1 spoonful of ammonia.

I am at a loss for enough superlatives to say how effective this cleaning
technique is. It will restore any metal or glass cooking utensil to its
virgin factory condition. Sometimes a very small amount of scrubbing with 
a Scotch-brite or Chore Boy will speed the process up by removing large
deposits of scum to let the ammonia get at what is underneath them.

If I am trying to clean something that is too big to fit in my cauldron, I
fill the something  with ammonia solution and then seal it as best I can
with steel wool. 

Ammonia is not the friendliest chemical in the world, and it is a good idea
to leave the windows open in the room where you are doing this, and to use
your fume hood, and that sort of thing. Furthermore, ammonia destroys the
insides of laser printers, so if you have a laser printer at home (which I
do), you have to seal off the laser printer before you begin this madness.

Hot, dangerous, and time-consuming. But Ahhhhhhh, does it ever get pots and
pans clean!!! My wife hates the smell, so I usually save this kind of
cleaning task for times when she is out of town.
-- 
	Brian Reid	decwrl!glacier!reid
	Stanford	reid@SU-Glacier.ARPA