I burned mac and cheese on my new frugal stainless steel pot and I can't for the love of god get this thing to come clean, please help. It's been soaking for 3 days and still nothing. I tried to scrub it, baking soda, boil soap, nothing works, HELP.
WalMart sells a stainless steel scrubber. Looks almost like its made of steel fibers itself. Anyway, I love my stainless cookware but on occasion I also have burned things on too. This scrubber is fantastic.
this may sound like a strange thing to do but put a bounce dryer sheet in the water and let it soak. it sometimes works on pans.
Dawn makes a spray on product I think it is called Power Disolver. It comes in a blue spray bottle and is sold by the normal dish soaps.
Fill the pot 1/2 full with hot water, add a 1/4 cup dishwasher powder detergent, and simmer on stove for about 1/2 hour. Let cool and then scrape with nylon/plastic spatula to remove worst of burnt food. Then scrub with a scrubby. Do all this wthout emptying the liquid out of the pot. Most or all of the burnt food will come off.
Add about 1/4" of water with some baking soda. Once it boils, turn off the burner and let sit. The baking soda will turn into a paste and when cooled, use something to scrub it off. Comes off easily. If it doesn't all come off, add some more water, boil, cool, scrub off. I like to buy nylon netting and make into a ball and use for scrubbing and cleaning dishes.
Do you ever bake snickerdoodles? If so, then you have a spice tin of cream of tartar in your cupboard. Dissolve several spoonfuls of cream of tartar in an inch or so of very hot water in the burnt pot and let it stand overnight. Don't ask me how, but it will loosen the burnt gunk and you will be able to scrub it clean.
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
How do I clean my stainless steel pot that has burnt on food? I forgot about it on the stove.
How do I remove the stain from a stainless steel fry pan? The burnt on food has been removed, but the stain is still there. An help would be appreciated.
By Roberta
Have you tried a Brillo soap pad? It takes a lot of scrubbing to get that burned surface off. If that doesn't work, take the pan outside and spray it with oven cleaner and let it sit for a while.
Another helpful tip is to let a pan sit with water and a fabric softener sheet in it for at least 10 minutes to soak (if I don't have a sheet, I just use a bit of liquid fabric softener), then wipe away and wash as usual, all burnt-on food residue will come off. You can try this and if there is any burnt-on residue left, try using a Brillo pad like someone suggested.
Try putting water in the pan and bringing it to a boil and then use the soap pad when it cools off enough. If that does not work buy some stainless steel cleaner, which I know works for me.
Try Barkeepers Friend. It is less abrasive than a brillo pad, and removes stains or discolorations on stainless steel. I use a lot of it.
I burned some grease in my pot. How do you get a black burn mark out of a stainless steel pot?
Try Barkeepers Friend.
How do I remove black burnt stains and restore luster/brilliance to interior of a pan? While boiling eggs I forgot and the water boiled out! My aluminum stainless steel pan has black burnt marks and no luster. I left baking soda in pan to many days and still have black burnt stains and no luster to pan. What do I do to restore pan?
By Peggy B.
Boil water in the pan. While the water is boiling, sprinkle in some baking soda. Let it fizz a while, sprinkle in some more. After it stops fizzing, let it boil a few more minutes. Turn off the heat, let the pan cool off and wash with your normal dish detergent and scrubby.
Get some powdered Oxyclean like you add to your laundry! This works well on thermos's too. Here is a link for instructions. I have done this with boiling water in my sink to avoid it foaming over on my stove.
testkitchentuesday.com/
Fill with warm water and add a fabric softener sheet, let soak about three or four hours or overnight. You will be surprised how good this works! Amazing!
If the above tips don't get it back to new, try using a product called Bar Keepers Friend. It's a powder that works wonders for stainless steel and porcelin.
How do I remove burnt cheese from a stainless steel pot?
By Al from Erie, PA
Thank heavens I found this site! This morning, I decided to make oatmeal using my mother's favorite pot; the one that she's had since I was a baby and that she uses for her favorite tea. I had the pot on low and went outside to do some quick chores. Well, I obviously wasn't quick enough. I came back inside and found that the oatmeal had crusted onto the bottom of the pot and left a horrible burnt surface!
I didn't know what to do, so I did a quick web search and this page came up. I had to hurry, my mom was coming back from the corner store located just a few blocks away! I could just imagine the scolding I was to receive. I didn't have vinegar, nor fabric sheets or baking soda. But I did have EZ OFF. So, I sprayed the pot with EZ OFF, and used a spoon to scrape off the crusted burnt stuff. It came off instantly! My mother came home right when I was putting the pot away- freshly washed, shiny like new and perfectly normal once again. Thanks to you all for your wonderful and useful 'tricks', and I appreciate it so much more since you have saved a poor college student from getting barred from the kitchen!
To remove burnt-on food in cookware, try soaking the pan in hot water with a touch of dish soap and a new dryer sheet (like Bounce) added to the water. Sounds weird, but it works for me.
Burnt a brand new high quality stainless steel 3 qt pan - really bummed. Black and crusted on the bottom (steaming veggies on high heat and water boiled away). Tried scrubbing with a Dobie scrub pad and some came off, but not much. So I read about using vinegar in the prior posts on this topic. Boiled a mixture of vinegar and water (mostly vinegar), let it sit for a couple of hours, boiled it again, took it off while it was still hot, poured out most of it, and tried the Dobie scrub pad. I was SHOCKED at how easily it came off and the bottom of pan is sparkling clean with no scratches. Made my day to say the least!
After reading a few of these posts, I have just successfully removed the burnt bits from the bottom of my pan using a combination of malt vinegar and bicarbonate of soda. It made a satisfying hiss when I poured it in. I left it for around 30 mins then thought I would try and clean it. It came off really easily and is now sparkling! I am so relieved as the pan is new. Thanks v much x
I have stainless steel pan that my boyfriend used to toast bread. He burned the bread and then right after poured water into hot pan. The pan now has a copper color to it on bottom, sides, and inside. There is also crusty burned black bread inside that won't come off. The pan is new and I hate that the rest of the set is so nice looking! Any ideas on how to make it shine again? Especially, the outside of it where it totally changed color.
By Jay from San Diego, CA
Try this...place a dry softener sheet and very hot water in the pot and let it sit overnight. It should come right off using the dryer sheet as the scrubber. To lessen the marks on the outside dampen a rag or sponge with hot water and sprinkle baking soda on it and scour. Several applications may be necessary. The baking soda will not scratch the stainless steel and helps to shine it up with regular use.
Go to the store and buy a product called Bar Keeper's Friend. You'll find it with the cleansers at Wal-Mart. I am never without this product. Sprinkle a little into the bottom of the pan, add a little water and let it set for a few minutes. Scrub with a scrubber sponge. The pan will shine like new. This product also works on the bottom of pans to remove burned on food and burn marks. You can use it to clean glass cook tops as well. There are tons of other uses. Bar Keeper's Friend has been around since the 1800s. Your great-grandmother likely used it. Try it. You'll love it. You can visit their website to find out more.
Once a stainless steel saucepan has been burnt, but then thoroughly cleaned, is it then more likely to burn again?
By Val S.
Not in my unfortunately considerable experience, lol! Uhm, you're not talking about a pan burned so badly that it was deformed, right? That might make a difference.
How do I get burned on popcorn out of my pot?
For some burnt on messes you can add water to the pot and put it back on the stove until the water boils a while. Many times it pulls off the burnt materials. Good Luck!
I burnt my best saucepan. I filled it with water and detergent and left for 24 hours. It mostly came off, then I used a stainless steel soap pad which helped, but there are still block spots and discolouration on the bottom of the pan. Can I use the half vinegar and half water mixture to bring it back? And what can I use on the base of the pan as it is discoloured?
By Edwina B
Easy-Off heavy duty oven cleaner might work. Spray it on and let it sit overnight.
This page is about cleaning burnt sugar from a stainless steel pot. When sugar is burned onto a pan, it can be a challenge to remove.
A stubborn substance that can adhere to your pan is cooking oil. This page is about cleaning burnt oil from stainless steel pans.
Oven cleaner, sanding disk, or steel wool are all good ways to clean burn marks from a stainless steel skillet. This is a page about how to remove burn marks from a stainless steel pot.
ThriftyFun is one of the longest running frugal living communities on the Internet. These are archives of older discussions.
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