I used the boiling vinegar on a stainless steel pot that we'd burned apple butter to the bottom and had burnt solidly. As soon as the vinegar boiled I was able to scoot the majority off the bottom with just a flat-tipped wooden spoon! The rest of the little bits were just a little elbow grease and the pot is like new.

On another pot that had scorched from being completely dry on a high burner with some oil, it didn't work too well.

I've had good luck with hint saw on BBC network program "How Clean Is Your House" where the UK "Queen's of Clean" poured just enough cola to cover the bottom of pan, heat to boiling & use dish brush to scrub it out...may need to repeat several times.
Had really good luck with all cleaning tips/hints from that show!

I'm not really sure why you're cleaning up your husband's mess. If he burns the pan, he should be cleaning it.

Barkeepers Friend and blue Scotch-Brite works wonders on all kind of burned on stuff. Takes a bit of elbow grease though.

This really works: Sprinkle Comet liberally on pot and fill 1/4 of pot with water. Bring mixture to a boil and simmer for about 10-20 minutes (keep an eye on it). Blackened burnt on stuff will come off much easier. My mom gave me this little secret.

I cleaned up some garage sale old stainless pots by wet sanding them. Bottoms on both inside and out were heat discolored - blues and blacks. Pretty quick and easy.

I now keep a sheet of fine wed/dry sandpaper in the kitchen,, its easy to clean my burns.

I probably shouldn't tell you my wd-40 range top non stick trick.

wet area
sprinkle on barkeepers friend
wipe with newspaper
wipe with paper towels
some areas really require muscles but has worked everytime for my stainless steel pans

OK, now I have to know:

What is it? "I probably shouldn't tell you my wd-40 range top non stick trick."

You can't provoke me like that, I can't take it.

I did it again. Heating up my tea. I use a large stainless steel pot. Drink the tea all day long. I was a big coffee drinker. Had to switch to black and green tea. Feel great now. You should try it, if you drink coffee. The first time wasn't too bad. Removed it with emery cloth. I'll try the ice and salt since their's was coffee. Anyone have else have an idea to remove the burnt tea stains? I don't think the ammonia will work this one. It's really bad.

My problem is black carbon on pot base

some acid must dissolve this?

but not vinegar

I put a broiler tray in the oven when I did the automatic oven cleaning cycle and it cleaned the pan too.

I usually burn a pot of rice atleast once a month. I always boil a pot of water with bleach added to the water and it cleans the pot like new. Also kills the burnt smell in the kitchen but not too much bleach.

If I have to be honest .. you have to by a new one.

For a burned-black stainless steel pot, fill with water to cover the black stuff, add a glub-glub of fabric softener. Let it set for 1/2 hour. Washes the black out like magic!
Softener sheets didn't work for me.

the answer is simple stop lettin g your mom cook forever

I bury the pot in a well "alive" compost heap(handles out) for about a week. Micro -organisms do the rest. No chemicals, no domestic trouble, as it works just as well for both male and female offenders ! An old friend of mine, who is over 90 got this tip from her grandmother.

After trying several of the methods listed above to clean a burned pot with no success, I remembered that I had some Dawn Power Disolver under my kitchen sink. I sprayed the pot liberally and let it set for about an hour. To my amazement everything then came off with very little elbow grease.

I poured some liquid fabric softener in a burned stainless steel pot and let it soak a couple days and then scrubbed it out..worked like a charm. No elbow grease needed.

I'm forever getting stuff stuck in my crock pot. Any ideas for a glass pot? I also don't have a dishwasher, so that's not an option.

clean burnt pot by dumping in ashtray.
also pull through if you have an ashcatcher. this method works as well.

Cheers! :)

I was cooking rice in my Cuisinart SS pan. The recipe said to put in equal amounts of rice and water. When the water started to boil I was supposed to turn the heat down until all the liquid was absorbed into the rice...(I forgot)!! Needless to say I had a real mess on my hands. I searched the internet for help and found this site...what a lifesaver! First I tried the water and dryer sheet which didn't work at all. Then I tried the ammonia, put the pan in a plastic bag and set it outside for about 1 day. When I brought it inside I could tell it was working. I used a nonscratch scrubber on the end of a wooden spatula and got all but just a little bit. I used a SOS pad to get the rest off.
I am ever so grateful to have found this site.

I was cooking rice in my Cuisinart SS pan. The recipe said to put in equal amounts of rice and water. When the water started to boil I was supposed to turn the heat down until all the liquid was absorbed into the rice...(I forgot)!! Needless to say I had a real mess on my hands. I searched the internet for help and found this site...what a lifesaver! First I tried the water and dryer sheet which didn't work at all. Then I tried the ammonia, put the pan in a plastic bag and set it outside for about 1 day. When I brought it inside I could tell it was working. I used a nonscratch scrubber on the end of a wooden spatula and got all but just a little bit. I used a SOS pad to get the rest off.
I am ever so grateful to have found this site.

I tried the salt, and it worked okay. Then my husband added drain cleaner to the pot and it worked a miracle. It used it twice, and the pot is good as new.

Here's my method; I give it to my live-in Polish MIL, who's 93. An hour of clanking, scraping, scrubbing and swearing (in Polish), and the pot is like new. And now she's upstairs vacuuming. Again.

To follow up on this ancient message thread, which I found through google: I used the Comet method suggested by domesticah, and burned-in rice came right out!

You people are working way too hard at this!
My wife was canning and making jellies this past weekend and she forgot about the small pot that was cooking behind a large kettle that was boiling quart jars. The pot turned mint jelly into hard black coal. A scrubby got out a tiny bit and the rest was solid.
Solution: I put some dishwasher detergent in the pot. A few tablespoons should work. Boil water in another pot and pour it in.
After about a minute, I used a wood spoon - so I would not scratch the pot - and lightly scraped up what the solution loosened which was about 90%. The rest was in the corners so I waited until it cooled and scraped again getting off all but about 1/2 inch. A scrubby took that off in 10 seconds.
I spent about 1 minute scrubbing lightly, 50 seconds with a wood spoon and 10 seconds with a scrubby.
The only way to make it any easier is to get the wife to do it, but, she likes to see me work.

I wonder if mint jelly could be used to clean a up the results of burned pot roast?

I think mint jelly is better used on bread but, I bet the detergent and boiling water would take care of the burnt pot roast.

My mom told me to boil just water in it on the stove. So I put some water in the pan and let it rip for awhile, comes right off!

Certainly enough responses but I always put some powdered dish washing detergent (the old school kind, not the little pods), add the hottest water from my sink and let sit over night. All the burned on junk will lift right off in the AM

@LandWarrior, lol I love it when men call their wife "the wife". Sort of like "the Donald". : )

Hi Everyone. Tonight I burnt a pot so black I thought I would have to toss it. "I didn't"

Here is what I did the pot gleams like new with shine.
Some people say if you scratch stanless steel pots things will stick. That isn't really the reason. Your cooking on higer heat than medium. If you cook on medium things won't stick. Even if new or scratched with an implement. You always have scratches from stirring with metal objects.

Back to cleaning my pot. First I poured boiling water in it and a teaspoon of dish soap and 1/2 cup of vinegar. "Because soda didn't do much earlier for that darn pot." After it soaked a while I then emptied it out and put pure vinegar to coat the bottom that was black. After letting that sit for an hour, I emptied the pot and I took that little plastic square clip off of a loaf of bread. You see them stamped all the time with expirey dates. Take that between thum and index finger and begin to put the flat edge down on the black and begin stroking the pot back and forth with a bit of pressure small strokes are fine. Any little specks of black that didn't come off go over it once again with more pressure a bit more don't break your fingers ok. Once that is done you do the final clean up because your pot is still slightly stained. Oh don't worry you can still do the bottom sides of the pan because they are round and that bread clip will bend into that surface and make cleaning a sinch.

Take SOS pad and wet slightly put it under your sponge because we don't need any steel pieces going into our fingers or hands. Then just begin to lightly rub the remaining stains off. Yeah you have to stand the pot on it's edges to get the inside walls of the pot. Keep rubbing with SOS pads until the pot has a nice sheen again.

10 minutes was the time necessary for me to clean that pot after it had soaked in white vinegar.

There you have it. I couldn't post a picture but I am keeping my pot. It was very simple.. I kid you not. I hope you keep your pots too. This is a trick all people should know if you burned your stainless steel pot. Gee I'm good I should have a mini ifomertial on how to do this. :-0)

Ciao for now.

Dlanor.

Here is the pot and in a second I will show you the clip I used so you guys will know what I am talking about see below this message.

Here is the clip I was talking about that cleaned the hard black stuff off the burnt pot. It comes off like powder. Really a cool fix and as you can see above I don't need to throw away my pot.

Ha ha ha ha.

Happy Belated Halloween.

Dlanor

I've mentioned in a thread elsewhere: some pots like enameled pots without handles made of synthetics and cast iron pots will clean well in an electric oven with an oven clean cycle.

Dlanor, thanks for the tip about using a plastic bread bag clip as a safe scraper. Brilliant!

I had some vegtables that burnt to the bottom of a pot a few days ago. I had already tried pouring in boiling water from a kettle and lots of scrubbing and scraping, and bringing water and dish soap to a boil on the stove for 15 minutes, with more scrubbing and scraping, before searching online and finding this site.

I decided to try the bleach method since many of the suggestions i read worked for some and didn't work for others.

I poured enough undiluted bleach into the pot to cover the burnt bottom. About 10 minutes later the bleach was starting to turn brown. I thought this might be working!

An hour later, I checked on the pot and about 90% of the pot's bottom was completely clean!

Within a few hours the entire bottom was clean and even the bleach had gone from a brown tinge back to clear and clean looking.

Undiluted bleach for a few hours and the pot looks better than it has since we got it. I did absolutely no scrubbing.

I've also heard this works in stainless steel sinks that have that ugly black stain all around the drain. Put the stopper in the drain, pour in some hot water and bleach and let it sit for a few hours ... good as new!

DH let pasta go all the way to dust...(he had also taken out the battery to the smoke detector as it was chirping, grrr i get so mad) This was years ago and memorable.
Now we both set our iphone alarms as our phones are on us if we, especially he, gets so fixated on another project or even heads out the door to run an errand! But wouldn't ya know it, he can't figure out why his alarm went off, lol.

So dangerous. Set alarms, put a smoke detector in you kitchen...

I give it to my live-in Polish MIL, who's 93. An hour of clanking, scraping, scrubbing and swearing (in Polish), and the pot is like new. And now she's upstairs vacuuming. Again.

I burned my wife's new 12" stainless steel fry pan. It was for a new recipe that said to get the pan extremely hot and then pour in 2 TB of oil before adding the strips of beef. I got it too hot so when I added the oil it almost immediately ignited and I did not have the lid. I was holding the flaming pan and yelled for my wife who came and grabbed the lid from the cabinet to cover and snuff the flaming pan. Needless to say, the entire inside of the shiny new Kenmore pan is now black as a chunk of coal. Any help is appreciated. It seems most of the previous problems were from burned food and did not entail the complete inferno of the inside of the pan.

Try suggestions in the original post. Surely something should work and get you out of the dog house!!

Usually it does take some work (elbow grease) to clean burned pans. Success will always be better when the person burning the pan cleans it back to shiny new!

Just another tip, tooth paste is a good cheap abrasive to use with a scouring pad to remove the burn stain, and just generally polish up a steel pot to a brushed finish.

Reading thru these to see if it was worth cleaning the pot my mum just burned the apples for the turnovers she was about to make in has given us a great laugh, thanks everyone, I might just buy new pots as both sizes of mine have broken lid handle surrounds so the steam leaks out.

Use dirt and an SOS pad. It's amazing I couldn't get the last parts of the burnt off the pan then I remembered an old trick. I put the dirt on scrubbed it with an SOS pad came right off. Try it you won't be disappointed.

I love some of these ideas and will definitely keep them in mind but all I ever have do is use my metal frosting spatula with a very thin flexible blade to pop the burned stuff off then scrub with baking soda. If it's a sugary mess simply soaking sometimes dissolves it. Gotta love a situation where procrastination is a good thing!

Putting enamel ware in the oven's clean cycle gives me the heeby jeebies. I once boiled an enameled kettle dry. The enamel melted on to the top of my smooth top range so that's one hint I will not be taking.

I used to represent cookware brands in retails stores. For burned on food on stainless steel - not aluminum - we recommended a few tablespoons of dishwasher detergent in the pan, add a few inches of water, bring to a boil and let simmer for about half an hour. Then let cool. The burned food should wipe of fairly easily.

When I really had a mess in my oven and the racks were overwhelmingly covered in black goo from a boil over baked on, I wrapped them up and took them to the car wash and pressure washed them. I doubt they want people to do this so I did it at the same time as washing my car so I didn't have to feel too guilty and I washed the place off in the bay so it was nice and clean for the next person. Even that didn't cure the whole thing but it got it to manageable and I was able to clean the rest with one of those magic pads. It still has a few spots but I think it may be that the chrome is off or permanently discolored. It's not grime or burned, just marked up a bit from wear.

I have read all the suggestions for cleaning burned pots. I would like to offer you the easiest, fastest & safest way.

To the burned pot , add 3/4 pot of water, then add a good liquid detergent, about 1/4 cup. Let it come to a roaring boil for about 5 minutes, (the time factor will depend on the size of the "wounded pot", the larger the pot the longer the boiling process) then empty & immediately add cool water from sink faucet. Let cool water run into pot until it overflows & cools the pot. Retain the cool water in the pot, let stand for about 2 hours, empty water & use a any scouring pad to ""EASILY REMOVE"" THE BURNED PORTION.

It,s easy & it's fast no waiting days & no "hand breaking" results.

Thank You,

Randy DeFatta

A husband "Pot Burner" who learned this the hard way!

I just submitted to you my way of cleaning a burned pot. I noticed after submitting that the email address read sheilad62 is that a code you use because the email address is=== sheilad@eatel.net

Thanks Randy DeFatta

I know I'm answering this one really late, but I have a huge soup pot that often burns stuff on the bottom depending what I am making. Ex. Chicken Corn Chowder, Spaghetti Sauce, Chicken and dumplings or as we call it Chicken Pot Pie... etc. Anyway, it's a given that making anything thick or heavy usually burns when it has to cook long. I don't get too crazy though over it. When I get everything put away, I rinse out what I can then sprinkle the whole bottom with Cream Of Tartar. I let it sit for about an hour or so. If it's really bad I also put water in the bottom and bring that to a boil. But before I can scrub it, That needs to cool down a bit. It's just a by product from wine making but it's used in many things from cookies to eggs to meringues and bringing stainless steel pots and pans and cookie trays also cake pans back to their original luster without any damage. If you ball up a piece of aluminum foil and use that to remove the burnt on "stuff", it works like a charm! Then rinse away. If it needs any tweaking, use a sponge with some Cream Of Tartar on it and wipe the bottom and sides. Make sure you rinse completely. Your pot, pan, cookie sheets and cake pans are brought back to life with this stuff!

If you have jelly roll pans that need brought back to life, sprinkle the COT over entire surface add water to the top and place in the oven on 375* for 1 hour. Take the pan(s) out and cool down. Use a Scotch Brite sponge to clean the inside and outside of them and you'kk have really shiney pans again. FYI only use this on stainless steel pans. I wouldn't try this with coated ones. I don't think that is meant for those types.