Cleaning the bottom of teflon pans

Hi, currently at my restaurant, we use teflon pans. We use them mainly for cooking eggs and omelette toppings. The problem is that the bottom of every single one of them is covered in this black substance that seems nearly impossible to remove. I've tried using grillbricks, the bricks we use to clean our griddles. It works a little, but it consumes about a whole brick per pan, plus it doesn't really clean it all. I assume that there are more people who have this problem than just me. So I have a few questions:
How can I prevent this from happening?
What kind of chemicals are there that can remove this black crust?
Thanks a lot!

By Chefmanny (Chefmanny) on Thursday, March 06, 2003 - 11:45 am: Edit

The outside bottom I'm guessing you mean right?
For the outside bottom there is this stuff called Diablo, Carbon Kleen that's awesome.
If you want the number I'll try to get it for you.

By Mbw (Mbw) on Thursday, March 06, 2003 - 11:47 am: Edit

Crust or goo?

The past few years I have seen a few spray products that are targeted just for your problem. I will guess that you use a griddle fry, or cooking oil and not butter. These oils tend to build up creating a goo that defies almost everything. Your bricks are just getting gummed up right away?

Go to your local (if you have one) restaurant supply store. If you have a Smart & Final go there. You will find the spray real close to the grill bricks. You might also try heating tham and spraying the back with a foaming oven cleaner.

As for the bricks, try a stainless scouring pad. they can be washed when clogged. This will be more practical, but you need to be carefull of scraping the edges of the pan. Yummy teflon.

MBW

By Flattop (Flattop) on Friday, March 07, 2003 - 02:48 am: Edit

Why bother? It's just build up. I have pans that that the restaurant I worked for was going to toss that still have it on the bottom of them 5 years later. It doesn't seem to effect how they cook. It's just ugly looking.

By Mbw (Mbw) on Saturday, March 08, 2003 - 03:09 pm: Edit

Flattop,

And your name is Flattop?? Oh I get it, it is the grill calling the pan black, er or somthin.

It CAN effect how they cook. Ok maybe not enough to mess up a skilled sautee chef, but how they trasnfer, and hold heat WILL change with the buildup of carbon on the bottom of the pan. For me these ugly little pans are the best for line work. Holding pastas just before plating, etc..

I would also guess certain types of pans like copper, AL, steel should all act a bit differently being dirty.

STORY
A line cook gets hired at a breakfast house owned by two very smart, but inexperienced women. Business was getting good, and they were clever enough to know they needed a professional to expand. When they were doing the cooking it was trial by fire. They like many other places had the flat top settings marked on the grill. Much food must have been wasted prior because they placed GREAT importance in a little the mark they had made on the grill.

In comes Ronny! Notices the grill is filthy, and as a gesture of good will starts his job off by the ugly job of cleaning it.

Now with his brand new looking shiny (yes now unseasoned) grill the Saturday rush begins. Quickly noticing the hotspots Ronny tries to adjust the grill, but the owners notice.

"NO! Don't touch that! You MUST use the mark on the grill! NO execptions!"

"But, but, but.."

They wouldn't have ANY back talk, and he was forced to cook all day that way. They made sure of it. At the end of his shift they told him he was fired, couldn't cook, and that he was a fraud calling himself a cook. Bub bye..

By Flattop (Flattop) on Saturday, March 08, 2003 - 06:37 pm: Edit

Heh heh..true enough. I guess it will change the way it heats. Never seemed to matter to me at the time because the egg pans were nearly always hot and didn't go back to the dishwasher until the end of the shift.