How to wash a burnt pan made of stainless steel, aluminum, cast iron

Few people managed to live without burning a single pan. Either the porridge will burn, or the milk will boil, or the sugar will turn into an indelible crust. And sometimes the soup starts to “roast”. We will talk further about how to wash a burnt pan, what to use for different types of dishes.

How to clean: sponges, foil, tablets

To wash the burnt pan will have to make physical efforts. It will be necessary to rub – this is the main method of cleaning. All other means are needed to speed up or facilitate the process. But the main thing is precisely the mechanical removal of the burnt. For cleansing we use:

• Kitchen sponges made of foam rubber with different degrees of hardness.
• Metal sponges.

It is better to start with the softest option, if it doesn’t work, go to a harder inventory. Some types of dishes are better not to be rubbed with metal sponges at all. These include polished stainless cookware and non-stick coatings. On them, any scratch is equal to disaster: pots and pans will have to be thrown away.

There is another amazing method. You can clean the burnt with foil crumpled into a ball. Believe it or not, it scrubs better than metal sponges and leaves no scratches.

Another way of non-standard use of conventional means. A dry tablet for the dishwasher can be used instead of a scraper. But it is very caustic, so keep it only with a glove.

Pour a little water into the bottom of the pan (about 1 cm at the bottom), heat over low heat. Remove from the burner and rub the black spot under water with this “scraper”. If you like, add a couple of drops of dishwashing liquid or baking soda.

Traditional methods and “improvised” means for cleaning pans

Burnt pans of any type can be cleaned with baking soda or salt. Just pour 50-100 grams, pour water to cover the burnt 3-5 cm on top and boil for 15 minutes. Then rub.

What to use, salt or soda? Try it one by one. In some cases, baking soda works better, in others, salt. Burnt food (cereal, jam, sugar and other products) is removed. Not immediately and not quickly, but it is cleaned. After the blackness almost stops leaving, boil again with one of the components.

Sometimes it’s easier to clean if you put baking soda on the bottom of the dish. Generously. Then add some water and leave for a few hours. After soaking, burnt food can be easily rubbed off.

Burnt stainless pans can also be cleaned with soda solution, but it will be faster if soda is replaced with Pemolux. Otherwise, everything is the same – add water, boil for 20 minutes.

The peculiarity is that it is necessary to clean immediately after boiling – it goes away easier. And you can not use a metal sponge – there will be scratches. You will have to rub with the hard side of a kitchen sponge made of foam rubber.

Some types of soot can be removed from a stainless pan by pouring vinegar and leaving it for several hours (even overnight or for a day). The same trick will work with intact enamel, but cast iron, aluminum or non-stick coatings are best not tested for durability in this way.

You can use lemon instead of vinegar. Cut it into slices, pour water, boil for about 10 minutes and leave the solution in the bowl. Then rub until the blackness is gone.

Clean burnt pots with kitchen chemicals

For emergency cleaning of burns on pans, you can use kitchen cleaners. For example, for cleaning the grill, oven, glass-ceramic stove. There is only one way – apply, wait, wash, rub. Before cooking in a clean pot for the first time, boil clean water a couple of times.

You can also pour a dishwasher tablet with water and boil. While the pan is warm, even burnt fat and vegetable residues leave well. So that the dishes do not cool down longer, do not rush to pour out the solution. Rub in water. When there is too much lagging residue, pour and rub while warm.

Means not for dishes, but the burnt pan is cleaned

You can also clean burns from dishes with chemistry that does not apply to the kitchen:

• Try AXE Active Stain Removal Powder. Pour on the bottom, add a little water and leave for several hours. Then use a metal sponge or the back of a foam kitchen sponge (if you don’t want scratches).
• Cleansing cream CIF. Just pour it on the burnt residues and wait.
  

• Autochemistry. More precisely – means for washing injectors. But this tool is only for stainless pans.

Some housewives use acid cleaners for washing sanitary ware to clean burnt dishes. They work. And quickly. But how safe it is to use “toilet” products for pots is a question.

You can also use dryer towels. These are pieces of non-woven material impregnated with some means. They are placed in an automatic clothes dryer. Lay such a napkin on the bottom of the pan, pour a little water. Just to cover the bottom. In this form, leave for 8-12 hours, and then rub. It is not clear what kind of substances are contained in the napkin, but the burnt residues go away for one or two.

The video below demonstrates another working “non-kitchen” product – washing gel. It can be diluted with water and boiled for 20 minutes in a saucepan. It was not without a scraper, but even a strong burn was removed.

Safe gentle cleaning with products

Let’s talk about less extreme ways using products. Or rather, the substances they contain. The simplest is to pour Coca-Cola, leave for a while. This drink is said to cleanse everything. It helps to remove burnt milk and milk porridge.

Another option is to pour soda into a saucepan, then pour Coca-Cola and leave for an hour. The effect is both there and there, but the second method is faster. You can also try to clean the burnt from the bottom of the pan with:

• Ground grapefruit mixed with baking soda. Grind a whole grapefruit with a peel (in a blender) and add a few tablespoons of soda to make porridge. Apply it to the bottom and wait about an hour.
• Grated potatoes with soda. Grate the potatoes, mix with soda and apply the gruel to the black spot at the bottom.
  

• Ketchup. Just pour it into the pan, making sure that the burnt places are well covered. We wait for an hour and scrape off the blackness.
• A mixture of soda and ammonia. From these components in a glass or stainless steel bowl, mix the porridge (breathe away from the bowl, as the smell is pungent). Apply, close the lid and wait 30 minutes.

It cannot be said that all these methods work equally effectively. Sometimes they really clean quickly and immediately, sometimes they help soften burnt. But this is not a panacea. But it is unlikely to damage the dishes with their help.

How to bring the dishes in the “original” form

In enameled pans, after removing burnt residues, dark spots remain. If they don’t bother you too much, just use the dishes. After a while, the color will return to normal.

If you want to get rid of browning, try boiling a dishwasher tablet. For white or very light enamel, whiteness works well. But this is not safe. So after the color is restored, boil clean water several times.

After severe overheating, stainless steel may change color in some places. There are no options here. Just use the utensils. It is impossible to remove these spots: some of the alloying substances have evaporated, and this is irreversible.

Pots made of stainless steel, enameled, aluminum, cast iron – what are the differences when cleaning

Stainless steel cookware is good because it is difficult to spoil it. She tolerates any chemicals without consequences. How can it be damaged? Scratch. Based on this, choose cleaning methods. That is, take any means, but do not use hard scrapers and “cleaners” with large abrasive particles.

Polished stainless steel can be scratched even with the hard side of a kitchen sponge. I wash it exclusively with active substances in the form of liquid, gels or sprays. A third of such utensils can only be used with rags or sponges.

Aluminum cookware, on the contrary, actively reacts. It cannot be treated with active acids. But for cleaning, you can use metal sponges and products with abrasives.

Cast iron cookware is now quite rare. If there is, then its walls are usually covered with enamel or non-stick coatings. Means for their cleaning are selected based on the coating.

If there are old cast irons, cauldrons, they can be cleaned by any means and even with hard scrapers. But if there are already caverns in them, it is impossible to “extract” the burnt ones from them. It is often recommended that burnt cast iron cookware be sandblasted. After cleaning, the cauldrons look great, but they get dirty very quickly. The fact is that grains of sand leave micro-scratches in which carbon deposits, fat, and food debris accumulate. There is a way out – to polish to a shine with a rag. But it’s long and boring. Easier to clean without sandblasting. All the same methods described above.

How and with what can enameled pans be cleaned? If there are no enamel chips, then almost everything that we use for the kitchen. Means – any, metal sponges, the hard side of the foam rubber sponges. If there are already large areas without enamel, it is better not to use active acids, otherwise a hole will quickly appear.