Mac ‘n cheese stained my cooking spoon, I used a simple scientific trick to clean it

A COOKING fan has revealed how she got Mac n’ Cheese stains out of a wooden spoon.

She explained that a simple scientific trick came in handy for tough stains.

Carolyn (@allusernamesrtasks1) shared the cleaning hack in a TikTok video.

“Kraft uses artificial coloring to make their macaroni and cheese look yellow,” she explained.

She explained that the function of the dyes, which were made from proteins, could be broken down.

“It will lose its function and therefore its color,” she added.

Carolyn rattled off a list of ways to break the structure of a protein, including extreme heat, ions, a strong acid or a strong base.

She chose the strong base option because she only had bleach on hand and she didn’t want to risk tasting bleach.

Strong acids didn’t work either, because she didn’t have enough lemon juice to completely remove the stains.

Carolyn chose the extreme heat and ion method and compared the Epsom salt she had on hand to her table salt alternative.

“Epsom salt has magnesium and SO4 and they have a plus 2 charge and a minus 2 charge and the 2 charge is stronger than the 1 charge, so it’s a stronger salt,” she said.

‘Basically what I’m going to do is make a pot of boiling water, put some Epsom salt in it and then just whisk it into the water.

“Hopefully that will destroy or denature the structure of the protein and we’ll get this dye out of this spoon.”

After stirring the water with the spoon for 30 minutes, she was thrilled to see that her hack worked.

Carolyn warned viewers to add “a lot” of salt if they wanted to try her trick.

People thanked her for the clear explanation.

“Please become a teacher,” said one viewer.

“I love that you explained it in a way that I really understood,” said another.

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