The Pot Spot

A question to be answered.....


No....not what you're thinking. Although I did just hear about a friend's partner who opened a garden supplies store called The Pot Shop. He's being pestered for business cards by teenage boys...
But this is a question referring to my Le Creuset pan, above. What you see is the frying pan, which also acts as a lid, when it's flipped over, for a deeper pot. I love this mini Le Creuset set, which I acquired for the enormous cost of.....a bottle of red wine!
My boss at the time was having a mad clearout of her house after her divorce, and this was one of her wedding presents. She wasn't very interested in cooking, so brought it into work and asked for any takers. I was onto that thing like an Olympic wrestler. I mean, seriously, who could believe that luck! A Le Creuset set, the type I've wanted for years, just dropping into my lap (hmmm....ouch)! I couldn't just take it away for nothing so offered some money. She asked for a bottle of red wine. Everyone was happy.
But this has to do with those grotty black bits in the pan which appear every time I try to cook something in it - particularly if I use it to cook a piece of meat. Those baked-on black things take a huuuuge amount of time and effort to remove, with scrubbing brush, scrubby sponge things, even in desperation soft steel wool (very lightly. That stuff is useless. How often have you had it crumble to pieces in your hands?). Until the next time, when they just return. I'm at the point now where I'm choosing not to use it for anything but a lid for the pot.
So my question is: am I being disturbingly suburban about the need for gleaming pans, or is this black patina something I actually want to encourage? Is that buildup the type of thing Le Creuset pans are supposed to generate, and makes them so good? If it isn't, and it really is just black grot, can anybody suggest a better way of cleaning it that doesn't involve 20 minutes swearing at it under a hot tap?



Speaking of pans, this is a cast-iron griddle pan I bought last week at a kitchenwares store in Sydney Road, Brunswick. It weighs a bloody ton; you could kill somebody by whacking them with this. I shudder to think of the day I drop it on my foot (because I just know it will happen...). And you know the best bit about it.....it cost all of......$6.60!!! Can you believe it?? I thought my eyes had finally given out when I saw the price tag. Surely there was a zero missing. But nope, $6.60. Incredible. I can see the chargrilled lines on meats and vegetables in my future.