Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/06/25/splatter-screens-are-welcome-a-2.html
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Can vouch for this general topic and this particular splatter screen. I wasn’t much of a cook before the pandemic hit, but have been doing a lot more cooking lately–and it only took me one spatter of extremely hot fat on my arm to have me reaching for the Buy Now button on Amazon.
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Splatter screens are awesome. But do any of you have tips on how to clean them? The hot oil polymerizes on there, it doesn’t scrub off with dish soap, and it’s like a sticky resin that collects dust and pet hair. Anyone have a good method?
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Naked bacon!
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Hot water and scrubbing both sides with a soapy sponge and giving it a good solid rinse under running water are all I can do. It seems to work ok for me, but I mostly cook with vegetable fats, animal fats might be more difficult.
They can also be used when you have pasta water that is foaming over. The bubbles can’t go through the screen.
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+1, I have the same screen, and love it - it’s design (with the reinforcing bars) also makes it a strong trivet when needed, and even a strainer in a pinch.
The key I’ve found is always soaking them in superhot water after using them. If you instead use it multiple times without cleaning it becomes much more difficult to clean.
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They’re occasionally used in restaurant kitchens, but fry baskets are quite similar.
High pressure spray and a mild degreaser is the usual order of things.
Otherwise I’d honestly recommend the dishwasher and regularly replacing them. Like non-stick pans they aren’t really a buy it for life kind of thing. They’re either gonna get rusty or get terminal grease and need replacement eventually. So you’re better off not spending too much, and not sweating the rust the dishwasher might cause.
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If these get really bad, a finer-bristle, softer metal scrubber brush can help a lot. Brass is ideal.
Notably, these also are useful as cooling racks and for baking breaded stuff to a better simulation of “fried” than is usually possible with a baking sheet or foil =).
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I am very curious about this re-purposing as a colander. Don’t the noodles just slide right off?
But are you really a cook if the underside of your forearms aren’t covered in burn scars in various stages of healing? Seriously, I sometimes wonder whether people think I’m self-hurting when they see me in short sleeves.
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I suppose if it gets too sticky, you could use oven cleaner
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What about my freedumbs?! I refuse to make my frying pan wear a mask!
/s
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You hold the pot in one hand and the splatterscreen/strainer in the other over the top of the pot as you pour. So the pasta stays in the pot, not dumped out like a colander.
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I bet it would work, but I’m too much of a wuss for oven cleaner. I think I’d just replace the thing before I resorted to that!
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Oh yeah, I guess if all you do is dump the water out.
But I always then rinse the noodles over running water in the colander, which that would make tricky.
Yeah, that’s the nuclear option. I just scrub ours with a soapy sponge
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Unless you’re par cooking and chilling to finish later. All that does is jack up your sauce.
And apparently kill Italian grandmothers.
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I use the same one, it’s a good buy.
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Yep, I do that too. It CAN get a little hard on the wrist, tho, if a lot of pasta. But it’s hardly different from the plastic doohickeys they sell for the exact same purpose.
I keep the cheapest available powdered automatic dishwasher detergent on hand for greased up stuff like that. Fill the sink with enough HOT water to cover screen, dump a generous scoop of the powdered detergent in there, swirl it around some and leave it to soak for a while. This works with baked/burnt on food too.
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