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Honored Contributor
Posts: 9,012
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: Need to remove baked on food --- stainless steel pot. Help Please!

On 1/9/2015 bonnielu said:

Thanks everyone. I will try them one by one.

My set (for those of you who are ""young"" enough to remember is Revereware stainless with a copper bottom. It was my first set almost 50 years ago and it is still going strong except when I burn tomato soup in it.

I don't think anything is made like that was. That is why I am holding on. I do have other sets still stored away someplace that I don't use.

My Mom had one pot of that brand and she used it a lot. (She never had a matching cookware set.) She hated the copper bottom because each time she used it she had to use some type of powder item to polish the copper bottom.

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 7,829
Registered: ‎03-18-2010

Re: Need to remove baked on food --- stainless steel pot. Help Please!

I have used oven cleaner on a stainless steel pan that had baked on stuff. I sprayed it on and let it sit and it came right off.

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
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Respected Contributor
Posts: 2,326
Registered: ‎10-21-2011

Re: Need to remove baked on food --- stainless steel pot. Help Please!

On 1/9/2015 rrpell said:

Try filling the pot with water and putting it back on the burner. Let the simmering water breakdown the burned stuff. This usually works for me.

This with baking soda works great to lift burnt-on food (as someone else posted.) The alkaline baking soda lifts the acidic food crust (assists with a chemical reaction.)

HOWEVER, if the outside or inside of the pot is blued, this will NOT come off, no matter how much you polish. My late husband did this with a stainless pot--left the hardboiled eggs go dry and the pot turned blue-black outside. He didn't understand why he couldn't clean it up. The heat plus oxygen in the air make a chemical reaction that changes the metal and it's permanently "blued." The metal is literally a different chemical on the surface and that stain can not be rubbed off. FYI.

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 5,419
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: Need to remove baked on food --- stainless steel pot. Help Please!

I use a kitchen brush to scrub pots.

Regular Contributor
Posts: 162
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

Re: Need to remove baked on food --- stainless steel pot. Help Please!

Spray it with oven cleaner and let it sit over night. You may have to do it twice.

Trusted Contributor
Posts: 1,470
Registered: ‎01-01-2015

Re: Need to remove baked on food --- stainless steel pot. Help Please!

There are some great tips here, that I didn't know about.

What usually works for me, is just letting the pan soak with baking soda in it. Then I just scrub it with an SOS-type pad and that usually gets it clean after some scrubbing. It may take some time, but that usually does the trick for me.

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 7,170
Registered: ‎03-11-2010

Re: Need to remove baked on food --- stainless steel pot. Help Please!

I used baking soda. Thanks for all the help. The ole pot looks like new. You all helped me SAVE A POT.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 19,779
Registered: ‎09-06-2010

Re: Need to remove baked on food --- stainless steel pot. Help Please!

I don't have a dishwasher, but do keep a box of Cascade dishwasher detergent on hand. I rinse out what every needs to be cleaned thoroughly with very hot water, then put some Cascade in the bottom......then fill it up with very hot water. Let it soak overnight and then clean it out in the morning. Sometimes I need to take a brillo or sos pad to finish the job, but that is very seldom.

Regular Contributor
Posts: 198
Registered: ‎03-17-2010

Re: Need to remove baked on food --- stainless steel pot. Help Please!

I've just filled with water add some salt bring to a boil. After about 15 minutes I turn off the heat and let soak over night.