| If you are camping or roughing it outdoors and doing outdoor cooking, here is a way to clean your pots and pans you've used for frying without soap; Fill the pan with water and add a handful of wood ashes. Then put the pan on the fire to simmer. The grease in the fry pan will combine with the lye in the wood ashes to make a natural soap. The simmering action should clean the pan. If you need to scrub, after the water cools a bit you can use a handful of course grass or leaves to perform the job if you don't have a scouring pad handy. KP, from WA, entered 1999-12-14 | 