Recipe 32 of 100 · The Country Cleans Mix Book
How to Clean a Burnt Pot or Pan Without Scrubbing
Vinegar and Baking Soda
Something boiled dry and the bottom is black? Cover the burn by an inch with water, add 1/2 cup white vinegar and boil 8 to 10 minutes, scraping with a wooden spoon. Move it off the heat and into the sink, then add 2 tablespoons baking soda and let it fizz. Cool, dump, wash. Pot too big for the stove? Pour in boiling water from a kettle and cover it. For stainless or enamel, never cast iron.
What it fixesBlack scorched food welded to the bottom of a stainless steel or enamel pot after something boiled dry.
You need
- Enough water to cover the burnt layer by 1 inch
- 1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
- 2 tablespoons baking soda, added later
- 1 wooden spoon
- Dish soap for the finish wash
Mix it
- There is no premix here. This one is built in the pan in stages, and that order matters.
Use it
- Set the pot on the stove. Pour in enough water to cover the burnt area by an inch, then add the vinegar.
- Bring it to a rolling boil and let it go 8 to 10 minutes. Steam and acid work under the burnt layer and break its grip on the metal.
- While it boils, scrape the bottom with the wooden spoon. You will feel chunks release.
- Take the pot off the heat and set it on a cool burner or a trivet.
- Now sprinkle in the baking soda. It will foam over the top, so do this in the sink. That fizz mechanically pops loose whatever is still clinging.
- Let it cool until you can touch it, dump it out, and wash normally with dish soap and a nylon pad.
- If a shadow remains, repeat once. Two short rounds beat one long one.
Dale's noteThe heat is the active ingredient more than the vinegar. If you have a pot too big for the stove, pour boiling water in from a kettle and cover it. Ten minutes of trapped steam does most of this for free.
Don'tNever add the baking soda while the pot is still on the burner. It will boil over instantly onto a live flame or hot element and you will be cleaning the stove instead of the pot. Also keep this off cast iron and carbon steel entirely, since vinegar strips seasoning and flash rusts bare iron within minutes.
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