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After using liquid soy lecithin to stabilize a foam, I find it often leaves a hard to clean, sticky residue on the cooking ware that was in contact with it in undiluted form, which is resistant to soap and needs to be cleaned by hand. Even by hand, it is not so easy to clean as it sticks to your hands as well.

Is there any product/trick to easily clean up the lecithin?

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  • If the surface is metal, I would suggest an oxalic acid based cleaner like Bar Keeper's Friend.
    – SAJ14SAJ
    Commented Mar 2, 2014 at 23:16

2 Answers 2

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This is one of the reasons I hate working with liquid lecithin - it's the most viscous and sticky substance I've ever had in my kitchen (or, frankly, anywhere).

Prevention seems to be the best approach; try not to let the lecithin directly touch any utensils or cooking surface. Grease up your spoons, preferably with something reasonably solid at room temperature like coconut oil, butter, or margarine. That makes the lecithin slide off more easily, and you only need to clean off the grease afterward (i.e. with soap).

The only way I've been able to clean surfaces or utensils coated with the lecithin itself is lots and lots and lots of warm water and paper towels. Warm water is important since lecithin does not dissolve very well in cold water.

Good luck - personally, on the infrequent occasion that I need lecithin these days, I just stick to the granules.

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Even the small amount of soy lecithin in cooking sprays can be a problem once they are baked on. I keep my baking sheets cleaner by using parchment paper whenever I can.

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  • This is a great tip for future prevention, but doesn't really answer the question of what to do when the residue is already on there.
    – Erica
    Commented Jan 11, 2016 at 11:21

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