Customer Reviews

Le Creuset 12-Ounce Enameled Cast-Iron Cleaner

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I have owned Le Creuset products for years and have heard suggestions for everything from Soft Scrub to salt for cleaning. I recently changed to earth-friendly products and have been using Bon Ami cleanser in my home. It is noted on the can that it's recommended by Chantal, Corning Ware, Farberware among many others for cleaning their cookware so I thought I'd give it a try on the interior of my Le Creuset. Works like magic, rinses clean and does not scratch. Gets that last little bit of "stuff" out that your scrubbie pad can't seem to get off, removes light stains. Best of all, it only costs about $1 for a whole can! Try it on your stainless pots & pans, too. I bought the Le Creuset cleaner recently to see if it would get the brown spots off the underside of my pans but it didn't work & unfortunately nothing seems to. Be careful if you have an electric stove that your stove burners do not damage the bottom of your Le Creuset, mine have - I did not have this problem when I cooked on a gas stove. All in all the Le Creuset cleaner does not work any better than Bon Ami, so I will save my money in the future.

I have a few brown spots on the bottom of my le creuset. I have never been able to get them off. I thought this product would be the magic formula, but it wasn't. If you're thinking about purchasing a le creuset you might think about purchasing the cleaner too to catch any stains as they happen, but once they're set nothing will take them out - not even this cleaner.

This product did not remove month old stain on my Le Creuset Dutch oven. Also, it did not bring back shine to the enamel. It recommends wearing rubber gloves while using this product. The label does not specify that this product is biodegradable. Le Crueset recommends removing stains from enamel by boiling 1 part Tide or Gain and 3 parts water for 10 minutes in the enameled container. Let cool and wash with dish wash soap. Dry the container and then rub with white vinegar to renew shine.

One thing I should have done before using my Le Creuset grill pan is READ the manual! Apparently cast iron can function on a much lower heat than metal pans, so naturally I turned the heat up fairly high to grill some chicken and apparently that is a no, no with cast iron. Due to the pan overheating, my marinade got stuck to the bottom and I thought it would never come off. After letting the pan completely cool, I soaked it in water and reg. dish washing soap for a few hours and most of the marinade came off. But for the rest, nothing seemed to take off the stains but this! I am very glad I purchased this to complete my Le Creuset set. It's something nice to have on hand for those stubborn stains that regular dishwashing soap can't remove.

I love this stuff. it works for staub too. I was having a hard time getting the baked on stuff out of the bottom of my staub pot and I used a little of this and it came right out. it works great for my Le Creuset too. I have been using it right along though. I can't say how it would work on stains many years old.

If I had used this product from the time I first purchased my pans, it probably would have worked well enough for maintenance. Unfortunately I purchased it after my pans became stained and it just doesn't work well enough. I've had much better luck with cheap meat tenderiser mixed with water until it's a medium paste.

I've used my 7 1/4 qt French Oven about once a week over the past 2 yrs, and I put some serious stains on the finish. I was skeptical about this product based on some negative reviews I read here (associated with other marketplace merchants), and the extent of the stains on my pot. But it worked as advertised -- pretty much removed every stain and mark on the finish with just a few wipes of a paper towel.

I got a new Le Creuset for my birthday and promptly started using it. When I made the infamous No-Knead bread by Mark Bittman and Jim Leahy (see NY Times), it left some brown residue on the bottom that regular dish soap and a plastic brush would not remove. This cleaner promptly took care of the stains. The cleaner itself is milky, meaning it is probably a colloid. It smells slightly of bleach and it is slightly gritty. This leads me to believe it is a bleach-based cleaner with a microabrasive. There are probably alternative cleaners that would do the same job, but I was afraid of ruining my new toy. This keeps me in the clear warranty-wise and keeps my new Le Creuset shiny and clean.

Because I spent so much money on the Le Creuset skillet that I had, I wanted to make sure that I took care of it as best as I could. The first few times I cooked I was ok, but then one day got the bottom of the skillet just a little dry with bacon and casued some brown spots. Cleaner in hand, I followed the instructions and voila, the stains were gone.

After some use of the skillet and the cleaner I can give you a few recommendations. Oil your skillet after use. (even though it is enameled) Don't let things dry out in you cast-iron stuff but keep an oil or butter in it all the time as this will keep stuff from staining the pans brown. Don't use alot of heat. (I think that's why a majority of us go through pots and pans so much cause that's the first the we do is turn the heat up WAY TOO HIGH). Take your time cooking. After reading alot of cookbooks from traditional cooks it seems are food isn't as good as it could be cause we want to cook it so fast. This will also let us pay attention to the moisture level in the bottom of our pans and prevent us from browning them.

All-in-all though this stuff isn't a miracle cleaner. It's a good cleaner from the start but like other users, it's not going to take out the worst of stains, or stains that have been set in. Cleans your stuff as soon as possible, dry it off, use the cleaners, dry it off, and oil you pans and they'll last.

My reason for purchase was to see if this would get red of mild stains caused by pot roasts, cassoulets and other preparations involving red wine. I have always washed the dutch ovens by hand, with hot water and mild soap -- never in the dishwasher. The enamel, especially at the bottom, had became a tad browner every time I put it in the oven. I wondered if I could have the pale-cream surface back, and bought this.

Sadly, I have had no success at all with this solution. I don't think that using this cleaner from the get-go would have been brilliant, because it made absolutely no difference to the stains. Maybe Le Creuset enamel gets colored from red wine tannins and they don't advertise it?