Is My Favorite Pot Ruined?

[Addie]

Kill the mold first with straight bleach before you even attempt to clean the pot. There are some good molds (pencillin) and some bad ones. (Katrina and N.O.) So unless you know for sure that the mold is of the pencillin family, why take chances. Molds love to turn into powder and float through the air. (Wear a mask) Is this one pan worth all this labor? Wouldn't you rather be out shopping for a new pan?

[Zereh]

Originally Posted by Addie

Is this one pan worth all this labor? Wouldn't you rather be out shopping for a new pan?

Good stainless steel pans are an investment. I'd be doing everything I could to salvage the pan. It makes no sense to throw out a perfectly good pan and purchase another when some cleaning will fix up the original into a good-as-new state. It would be a waste of money and add unnecessary waste to a landfill. No one is telling him to lick the pan clean. ~.~ Germs and mold will not survive their trip to the bleach spa.

[GLC]

Take care when scraping. No steel wool or 3M type pads. (Some don't worry about scratches. I try to keep the surface perfect to keep it as non-sticking as possible.) A good, long soak will lift most crud. Then, ditto on Barkeeper's Friend. It's non-abrasive and perfect for stainless steel.

Hopefully the surface is okay. An important property of stainless steel is it's ability to self-heal minor surface damage. This self-healing is a reaction between chromium and oxygen, and when foods or other material blocks oxygen from the surface there can be corrosion. For the same reason, do not allow bleach to stand in the pot for a long time. A short exposure to a mild bleach solution will kill whatever is growing.

[bakechef]

Originally Posted by Zereh

Good stainless steel pans are an investment. I'd be doing everything I could to salvage the pan. It makes no sense to throw out a perfectly good pan and purchase another when some cleaning will fix up the original into a good-as-new state. It would be a waste of money and add unnecessary waste to a landfill. No one is telling him to lick the pan clean. ~.~ Germs and mold will not survive their trip to the bleach spa.

I second that, I would do just about anything needed to salvage one of my stainless pans. I shopped and put a lot of time in choosing my pots and pans and I hope to have them for a good long time. I bought them with the hope to have them for years and years!