Waffle Iron sticking - desperate!
My wife got up this morning and decided it was Father's Day 'weekend', so she started making her Krusteaz Belgians with strawberries and whipped cream. She awoke me, very upset that 'something had happened' to the waffle iron. It's one of the Belgian irons that is on a stand and flips upside down. Apparently she blew a breaker trying to run the coffee maker and the iron at the same time, and now the iron was clogged with this absolutely gooey/sticky/warm/moist Ghostbusters ooze. I sighed, unplugged the iron to let it cool down a bit, then started cleaning it. Since this was the first waffle, there was also a coating of veg oil... I threw everything at it that wouldn't harm the teflon coating. I thought I got it VERY clean, but each time it dried, there was this light-gray 'film' in several spots, so I would re-wash. Finally satisfied, we let it air dry about 15 mins and plugged it back in. Once up to baking temp, I oiled it and poured the first waffle. When it was ready, I carefully lifted the iron, but it was sticking fairly bad again. Using the ol' fork trick, we got the waffle out fairly intact. It was good. I poured the second waffle. When it was done, I carefully lifted the iron, and this one was REALLY stuck. The fork trick failed, and it came out in about 20 pieces, but edible. We gave up at that point and just ate what we had. She was very sad...
This iron has served us well for about 4 years now, and I've never -ever- experienced a waffle stuck this bad. The iron is in a box, still completely fouled up from the last waffle remnants, waiting for me to form some sort of plan of attack here... Is there any way I can recover this griddle to its non-stick glory...? I've always stayed away from commercial sprays (our last iron was ruined by them), and using just a bit of veg oil for each first waffle has always left this waffle iron truly non-stick for the entire batch. In fact, this iron still looks almost brand new. Suggestions greatly appreciated! Please help save the waffle iron! ; D
- Keith