The website he works at, Serious Eats, has an article about that in addition to his already mentioned book chapter. www.seriouseats.com/2017/06/basic-starter-kitchen-equipment.html
The reaction is a surface passivation. Essentially, the oxalic acid helps removes free iron and oxides from the surface making the pan more corrosion and oxidation resistant.
is this stuff ok to use on cast iron? I generally don't use soap and I just heat the pan up and then blast it with really hot water so it steams stuff off. It sucks and I've burnt myself before but I don't wanna risk using soap
@@cutter3501 Good news, soap is actually ok! The seasoning isn't just oil, it's oil that's been polymerized, so it'd need something much harsher than dish soap to take it off (Kenji has written about this in some articles on cast iron care)
Cutter unless you want to strip off all the seasoning, definitely not. How do I know? I’ve tried it with bar keepers friend on a pan I wanted to reseason as an experiment.
I’ve reached the point in my kitchen where for every new pan, utensil, appliance that comes into my kitchen a comparable item is thrown out. It’s a rule I use religiously to keep down clutter.
I discovered BKF a few days ago. Every single bit of steel in my kitchen is freaking beautiful now. Also the glass cooktop is smooth and clear as new. Love this stuff. Works for hard water stains on glass too (allegedly)
Bar Keeper's Friend is a must for cleaning stainless steel. Most people who don't understand stainless steel don't realize it is easy to bake on an undesirable coating on the pan. Including just water water marks. If you keep them clean with Bar Keeper's f\Friend they will be so clean that they are almost non-stick. About once a year I even clean the outsides and bottoms. I keep also the coffee pots clean with it as well.
I use it ALL the time. Works like magic. I have a porcelain sink which gets marked very easily and this removes those marks easily. I also use it to remove olive oil residue from supposedly nonstick pans. And of course to shine my stainless steel vessels. Glad to know that this is now Kenji approved
The conjugate base of oxalic acid (aka the version of the compound that’s lost a hydrogen atom, or in this case two hydrogen atoms) is called oxalate. Oxalate acts as something called a chelating agent, which means that it forms some fancy ass bonds with the metal ions on the surface of the pan. This forms the thin barrier that Kenji mentioned, which prevents the metal ions from coming into as much contact with water and oxygen as when they’re naked. Hence, they get some clothing AND rust protection...... CHEMICAL WIZARDRY. Also, oxalic acid is what gives sorrel its wonderful sourness. It’s in spinach, too (and many other greens). Some of the oxalic acid you ingest gets precipitated in your body as calcium oxalate. Your body is usually cool with this and just gets rid of it. But if you eat an ungodly amount of oxalic acid-containing greenery and too much accumulates, your body could get angry at you and reward you with kidney stones. Owww.
Dietary oxalates will also chelate away minerals like iron, making them difficult to absorb. Be careful about combining oxalate rich foods with sources of micronutrients.
Soap and warm water is all you need to clean surfaces with raw chicken on them. Make sure that your wooden cutting board isn't warped or cracked so bacteria can't grow deep inside of it and oil it regularly to keep the surface protected.
If you are really concerned you can also cover you cutting board with a thick layer of salt. Leave it for a while then collect the salt for reuse for cleaning. Bacteria dead, rinse the board and let it dry.
I love that stuff! Use it all the time especially for my pots and pans. They also make a "cookware" version that's also a powder, not sure what the difference is between that and the original but they both do work like magic!
Magic works but you nailed it anyway. There are also some potassium/sodium sufracants which, with the oxalic acid, form soluble Na/K ferrioxalates. The mild abrasive power comes from crushed feldspar.
This video came at the perfect time. I was going to buy some BKF today, but wasn't sure if it worked on burnt on oil. Thanks for the tip, I'll definitely be picking some up.
It is a little more expensive than most cleaners but it is worth using. Source out the polish the Barkeeper's Friend has as well. It saves on how many times you need to deep clean things. Whenever I consulted for a bar or lounge I would cringe when I would see *Comet or some other scouring cleaner behind the bar. But I guess it was ok, because it was hardly used anyway. I think they used it more as an air freshener than a cleaner. Oh the good old days when people socialized freely.
I remember in a previous cooking video you cleaned your pan and forgot what you used. Was gonna comment at some point to ask, but then you upload this. Amazing 🙏
the abrasive in this is what really makes it work. it polishes the surface of the steel removing not only stains but oxidation which is what makes it shiny clean
It's actually not. It's certainly part of it, but ajax won't work like this. Apparently this was developed after finding that cooking rhubarb cleaned the stains. I've also found that cooking scrambled eggs in my pans makes them shiny.
@@tempesttube yes of course the oxalic acid is key to how this works, in combination with the abrasive. my point is that the high abrasive content of this powdered version is what makes it so effective on metal surfaces compared to other products with oxalic acid and less or no abrasive.
@@adrieleje851 Thanks, that seems to work great! It even recognizes when you change the speed in the video settings and automatically adjusts. Very nice!
The active ingredient in Barkeeper's Friend is oxalic acid is a natural compound that's found in some vegetables including rhubarb and spinach - it is what leaves that slightly odd dry feeling in your mouth after eating them. More noticeable in spinach for me but I like spinach. I believe this is reduced in the cooking process. I am not sure cleaning your pots and pans with raw spinach is good idea however. :)
I've converted dozens of people to bar keepers friend. I even use it at work to clean the griddle/flat top instead of the normal high-temp cleaners(which are a ton more expensive too), finish it off with a little lemon juice and you'll never have a more sparkly clean flat top.
my grandmother came to stay with us for a summer and she made us go to half a dozen different grocery stores to find bar keeper's friend. She INSISTED nothing else would do. We found it at a 99 cent store and came home with 5 cans.
I use the liquid form of Bar keep Works just as good. Also works on glass- top stove. I would love to see what cookware makes the cut and why others don't.
Oxalic is what is rhubarb leaves which makes it not preferable for humans to ingest. Great to hear it's the secret magic in Bar Keepers Friend. Especially as a plant person.
Kenji, could you please make a video of how you organize your kitchen and pantry? it would be great to get some tips from you on how to efficiently organize.
The type of pan you want is called “cladded”. A typical pan would be 3 ply - meaning 3 metals cladded together. This would be 1 layer of aluminum samwiched between 2 layers steel on the top and bottom. I personally own all clad pans as they patented this process originally and they will last for decades.
I use BKF and it works but it takes much more effort and time than seen here. When there's a lot of burned on oil (seasoning), I don't get it all in one pass. I scrub for a few minutes, get some of it off, and get some more off next time. Using soap would get none of it off, so the BKF definitely works but it's mildly effective. I'm guessing I'm doing it wrong. Kenji uses 3-4x as much here as I do, and I'm using the "cookware" variant (silver shaker, not gold) which I believe is supposed to be only slightly gentler (just less abrasive and good for more materials). Tomorrow I'll scrub with an extra generous helping. Like a mound. If that doesn't do the trick, I'll try the regular BKF. I certainly have some stainless where I can live with more abrasive scratching if it means cleaner objects.
I was shocked to find after ages of scrubbing with different materials on the crusted over bottom of my Creuset that Easy Off works like MAGIC on enameled cast iron.
can you use the pan after rinsing the barkeepers friend off the pan? Or do you need to then wash off the barkeepers with regular dish soap prior to use?
Someone else called it out, but this is known as “passivation”. Essentially you’re removing free iron and other deposits from the surface and allowing stainless to do what it does naturally. So no coating, just removing flaws. You can also do this with citric or nitric acid, but BK friend works great. I was most of the way shooting a video about this for the homebrew community, but gave up because it seemed boring. Maybe I’ll finish it up.
Diego Silva similar, but takes a lot longer. Search for “citric acid passivstion” and you’ll find some calculators for concentration time and temperature. I should also mention in regards to my above comment that drying pots out and giving them a couple days to “cure” is important to fully passivate the stainless
I found that distilled vinegar when boiled in a pan and using #003 steel wool gets rid of %99 baked in oil including the polymerized oil in your seasoned wok, seasoned cast iron and aluminum oven tray pans. .
When I worked in a restaurant we used to clean the stainless steel grill with lemon juice. Same thing, basically - or should I say acidly? - but citric acid rather than oxalic acid.
I was literally using this today (different brand; same difference) to remove stains from a ss pan and was wondering how it was so effective - and, boom, I see this video a few hours later explaining this (along with some very well-informed comments too). Wished this happened with all my unanswered questions in life 🧐
They sell the powder at some dollar stores near me. Or obviously Walmart, Target or CVS. If you find it get a couple of cans, I’ve seen it sold out a lot recently.
I love the stuff, but I have to wear gloves when I use it because, even though I have short nails, it makes my fingernails peel away. It's the best for cleaning pans, though.
