# Repair scratched surface in baking pan?



## trickyspark (Sep 2, 2010)

I couldn't decide which one of the forums was the most appropriate to post this question, so I apologize if it's the wrong one.

I have a little situation I hope someone can help me with. My wife decided to bake a cake last night, and to remove the cake from the pan she decided a metal fork was what she needed. If this had been my pan I wouldn't care, but this is one I had borrowed from my mother. It was one of the things my mother was left by my great grandmother. The inside of the pan is white, or looks like it was at one time,now it is more off an offwhite color. I was wondering if there is any kind of cooking spray/paint that is available and SAFE to recoat a pan with. I don't know if it's Teflon or what that the coating is made of. I can try and post a picture of it after work if that will help.

Also, I am unsure if it matters, but it is an aluminium pan.


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## gobblygook (Aug 26, 2010)

I have no idea on repair, but I believe it would be best to come clean with your mom and ask her if she wants you to attempt to repair it.  I once had my wedding band resized and the jeweler polished up all pretty and removed the war wounds from it.  I spent 5 years building all those nicks and scratches and was somewhat disappointed that they'd made it all pretty and shiny again.  Fortunately, it's got 6 years of nicks and scratches since then, so it's back to being "broken in".


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## web monkey (Jan 18, 2007)

trickyspark said:


> I couldn't decide which one of the forums was the most appropriate to post this question, so I apologize if it's the wrong one.
> 
> I have a little situation I hope someone can help me with. My wife decided to bake a cake last night, and to remove the cake from the pan she decided a metal fork was what she needed. If this had been my pan I wouldn't care, but this is one I had borrowed from my mother. It was one of the things my mother was left by my great grandmother. The inside of the pan is white, or looks like it was at one time,now it is more off an offwhite color. I was wondering if there is any kind of cooking spray/paint that is available and SAFE to recoat a pan with. I don't know if it's Teflon or what that the coating is made of. I can try and post a picture of it after work if that will help.
> 
> Also, I am unsure if it matters, but it is an aluminium pan.


Teflon doesn't stick to anything, even itself. When the pan is made, the manufacturer cleans and roughs-up the surface, then uses a primer, and the Teflon sticks to the primer.

There is no way to repair damaged Teflon. However I'm guessing that if it belonged to your great-grandmother, it was probably some sort of porcelain (or maybe even paint), not Teflon. However there's no food-safe way to repair that either, so it really doesn't matter.

Buy her a really nice new pan and give back the old one and the new one, along with an apology and maybe take her out to dinner too.

I have a lot of old cookware that came from my grandmother, but aside from getting a little smile sometimes when I think about it, it's just my grandmother's "stuff", it's not my grandmother, and if she had damaged it, she wouldn't have given it a second thought.

Also, be really nice to your wife. Nothing makes "brownie points" like being OK with something when they were expecting "angry".

Terry


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## mikelm (Dec 23, 2000)

If it belonged to your grandmother, it probably isn't Teflon.. They didn't have it back then. Hang it up on your kitchen wall as a (an?) heirloom.

*" Also, be really nice to your wife. Nothing makes "brownie points" like being OK with something when they were expecting "angry"."*

Now, this is a pretty good point. Pay attention. /img/vbsmilies/smilies/biggrin.gif

Mike


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## siduri (Aug 13, 2006)

Just a thought - is it possible that the white on the pan was patina?  That is, the natural discoloration of aluminum, esp in contact with certain substances?  or did it look like paint or coating. I can see a pan might be from a grandmother who could have had teflon pans - my mother did and she was born in 1915. I know adults whose great-grandmothers were born then.

anyway, it wouldn;t likely have been enamel which wouldn;t just scrape off with a fork, it would chip if anything, no?  I doubt that aluminum could even have been enameled, since it;s too soft and enamel is fundamentally glass, and aluminum dents easily and the enamel would just come right off.


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