I'd been bought an anodised wok as a birthday present a couple of years back, but recently, when using a honey/mustard marinade, I managed to burn some of the excess marinade, and now can't seem to get the wok clean, not even when putting it through the dishwasher (it is dishwasher safe). What can I do to clean it off that won't affect the anodised coating?
6 Answers
We love to using Baking Soda and water to gently clean cookware. A little bit of hot water seems to work best.
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This is my standby - perfect for anything greasy or sticky, and a mild abrasive for others. I'll resort to Ajax for seriously cooked-on scum, but Ajax on coated metal might be a bad idea.– Shog9Jul 22, 2010 at 0:48
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In cookeries that use woks, they immediately put water into the wok (from a faucet built right into the stove area) and boil it, using a bamboo whisk to clean up the junk. Possibly some type of oil or one of those new orange based cleaning solvents (have heard of something called goo gone) would work. Wouldn't suggest oven cleaner, as I think most of those contain lye, which dissolves aluminum. Anything abrasive will also take off the very thin layer of anodization. Good luck.
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Actually, it's a question of how abrasive -- don't take a steel brush to it, but you should be able to get away with a plastic scouring pad, as the anodization process hardens the surface so it can take extra abuse.– JoeJul 29, 2010 at 19:55
To get the marinade off I would fill the wok with water until all of the offending marinade is covered, then I would boil the water in the wok. This will probably be enough to get the marinade off, or at least loosen it so you can wash it off.
In general though hard anodised cookware should be cleanable with a scourer and a bit of elbow grease.
I never underestimate the power of a good, long soak (1-3 days) in some hot, soapy water. It seems to work it's magic slowly, enhanced by a good scrub along the way. I'd hesitate to use ajax, although baking soda is a nice abrasive.
You can use Comet or similar as well as 3M plastic scrubbing pads (aka meany greenies).
I'd also suggest 3M's Dobie sponges, available just about everywhere kitchen supplies are sold. They've got a good plastic coating that's safe on non-stick and anodized cookware, but tough enough to remove stubborn burned bits. My parents have been using them for years on their pans, and I've been using them for a shorter number of years on my own.