I was camping with my boy scout troop and I decided to make blueberry cobbler. I was making it in an aluminum pot but we cooked it too long and now the blueberries have been burnt into the bottom of the pan. I have destroyed an entire SOS pad and all that did was make it shiny. I need help, any suggestions?
To remove burnt sugar-based products I've filled the pan with a 50/50 water & white vinegar solution, heated it on the stove, removed it to the sink and dumped baking soda into it.
Baking soda and vinegar cause a wonderful chemical reaction that break down and loosen the burnt residue. I usually just leave it there until later in the day, or even overnight. If needed, I do it again.
Take a used fabric softener sheet from your dryer and put it in your pan. Fill the pan with hot water and let it sit for 24 hours. This remedy works for me on all my stuck on burnt on pots and pans. You only need to let your pan sit for this long when you have a really bad problem.
Try the vinegar/baking soda first, but if that didn't work, then it's oven cleaner. Spray some into a sponge and wipe, let stand, pretty much just adapt the directions on the label. Not for an aluminum pan. If it's aluminum, just pitch the thing and buy another pan. My Mom always had thrift-shop pans stacked in newspaper and nestled in a cardboard box, so that she never scoured the pitchy smoke off the outsides. There's nothing terrible about using the pan with some stain in it.
