What is that black stuff that builds up on cooking sheets after heavy use? Why is it so difficult to clean? Is it possible to clean it off completely?
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Carbon from burnt food, often bound together with polymerized oil. Polymerized oil is basically dried oil that turns kind of plastic-y. It’s extremely slick and binds to many surfaces easily during the drying process. It can turn dark colors at high heat because it traps burnt carbon, but also can stay pretty transparent if not exposed to high heat. Polymerized oil is the way that cast iron pans become nonstick. It’s also what happens if you end up with splattered oil on or next to your stove, don’t clean it, and have a very hard time removing it 1 year later.
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