Can I salvage my scorched stockpot?

December 28, 2018 7:34 AM

I made spaghetti sauce with meatballs in my Bodum stainless steel heavy-bottomed stockpot, got distracted, and severely scorched the entire bottom of the inside of the pot (the outside is fine). I’ve been soaking it in hot, soapy water for the last two days and periodically trying to scrub it out—this blackened mess is not budging. It’s a mixture of tomato sauce, meat bits from the meatballs, and Romano cheese. Is there anything I can do to save this pot, or do I need to toss it? (By the way, I was able to save the majority of the meatballs and sauce and it was absolutely delicious!)
posted by bookmammal to Food & Drink (23 answers total)

My wife did just about exactly that and the vinegar + baking soda trick worked.
posted by restless_nomad at 7:37 AM on December 28, 2018 [6 favorites]

Have you tried Barkeeper’s Friend? That’s my heavy artillery for kitchen disasters.
posted by 41swans at 7:38 AM on December 28, 2018 [13 favorites]

If that doesn't work, you may want to try Easy Off oven cleaner or Bar Keeper's friend cleaner.
posted by jraz at 7:39 AM on December 28, 2018

Seconding Barkeeper's Friend, but that's for the final cleaning. To loosen that crust I'd try filling the pot about 1/8 of the way with water and boiling it for an hour or so. Cold water won't release that very well.
posted by JoeZydeco at 7:42 AM on December 28, 2018 [22 favorites]

Best answer: Try throwing a dishwasher tablet with enzymes in it while you soak — in my experience that helps break things up enough to scrape off the worst. You might need to do it more than once. Once you can see the bottom of the pot in places, then hit it with Bar Keeper’s Friend. Good luck!
posted by kittydelsol at 7:43 AM on December 28, 2018 [1 favorite]

Putting soap and water in the pan while it’s still hot has worked wonders for me to remove blackened stuff.
posted by triscuit at 7:44 AM on December 28, 2018

using whatever chemical/soaking ideas above, instead of scrubbing, get a heavy metal kitchen spoon (I used a soup spoon from my everyday cutlery) to scrape that stuff off. Rook some elbowgrease, but it worked.
posted by atomicstone at 7:48 AM on December 28, 2018 [6 favorites]

I've had great success with a variation on the vinegar baking soda solution--dump in a ton of baking soda (cover the bottom in a thick layer) and enough water to fill it over the top of the burnt part. Simmer on the stove and watch it fizz. When it stops fizzing, let the pot cool and scrape off the parts that come off easily. Repeat until it's clean. You might need a couple of boxes of baking soda if it takes several tries, but it takes a lot less elbow grease than scouring.
posted by pangolin party at 7:51 AM on December 28, 2018 [3 favorites]

Yeah, see how it looks after an extended period of high heat and water. Jolie Kerr knows these things. If you have one of those cheap plastic DIY spackle/joint knives, it might help you get through and under the scorch.
posted by holgate at 7:53 AM on December 28, 2018 [1 favorite]

I have had this happen a couple of times and the only solution was to scrape away at it with a butter knife. Once most of it was physically scraped away, then I was able to get the rest of the residue with an abrasive pad and some baking soda.
posted by fancyoats at 8:09 AM on December 28, 2018 [1 favorite]

What I've used successfully in this situation is a product called Powdered Brewery Wash. You let the pot sit overnight, it loosens the gunk, and it can literally be rinsed away with no scrubbing required.
posted by What is E. T. short for? at 8:16 AM on December 28, 2018 [1 favorite]

Pour in a can of coke and set it to simmer on the stove. (You can also do this with vinegar but saying "I cleaned this pan with a can of coke" is funnier.) Watch it to make sure it doesn't boil off because then you'll just be compounding the problem.

Saved a lot of cookware in college this way.
posted by phunniemee at 8:17 AM on December 28, 2018

I have successfully used a bendy palette knife (like for mixing paints) to manually dislodge thick burnt on crusty bits from pot bottoms. Worked a lot better than a butter knife because it was thinner and flexible so it got up underneath things. Once significant pot bottom has been revealed, you can use a paste of baking soda and just enough water to bind it together with a scrubby whatever in circular motions. This won't work well until you can get at the stuff from the sides, thus the previous manual scraping, but a circular motion will kind of get at it from all angles. Instead of applying lots of force, scrub lightly but fast and for a long time. Sometimes, for very greasy burnt on things (which yours might be because of cheese) I have used oil and baking soda, and then followed that up with lots of dish soap.
posted by Mizu at 8:27 AM on December 28, 2018

Before you toss it, I'd try steel wool as a last ditch effort. You're not really supposed to clean stainless steel with steel wool but I've found that it's saved pots and pans in similar situations.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 8:41 AM on December 28, 2018

Deglazing the pan always works best for me in these disasters. Boil up a bunch of water and the blackened-on bits at the bottom will gradually soften and come away with just a little light scraping.
posted by Andrhia at 8:52 AM on December 28, 2018

If it's stainless on the inside, simply spray the interior with a thick layer of oven cleaner, slap on the lid, let it marinate for a day or so, rinse out, reapply as necessary, then finish with Bar Keeper's Friend. This is guaranteed to work.
posted by slkinsey at 9:14 AM on December 28, 2018 [1 favorite]

Dishwasher soap (Cascade, for example) has enzymes in it that will eat away at the organic matter. Soak it in a strong solution for a couple of days and periodically chip away at it.
posted by Stewriffic at 9:30 AM on December 28, 2018

Nthing cooking it out. Doesn't really matter what you use (water, soda, etc.) but it will work. Just cover the gunk with water plus a couple inches and simmer away.
posted by cooker girl at 10:13 AM on December 28, 2018

Oven cleaner, the kind that has warnings all over it because it's made of lye, will absolutely clean it off. If you need to let it soak, cover it so the cleaner doesn't dry out.

Then rinse well, maybe neutralize with vinegar, and wash well.
posted by fritley at 6:16 PM on December 28, 2018

PhoBWanKenobi: "Before you toss it, I'd try steel wool as a last ditch effort. You're not really supposed to clean stainless steel with steel wool but I've found that it's saved pots and pans in similar situations."

Steel wool will embed tiny steel particles in the stainless often causing rust. Use a plastic abrasive pad instead.
posted by Mitheral at 7:37 PM on December 28, 2018

Fizzing denture cleaner tables work really well on various types of cooking scum (and tea stain in coffee cups). I'd try a few of those before anything abrasive.
posted by dws at 8:10 PM on December 28, 2018

Late to this party but I just burned a pot steaming baby food (how is that possible!?!?) and my old standby of boiling some hydrogen peroxide and water and letting to sit worked PERFECTLY.
posted by Mrs. Rattery at 6:44 AM on December 29, 2018

Response by poster: Update—the stockpot is clean!
So many helpful ideas here, but I decided to start with kittydelsol’s suggestion of soaking with a dishwasher tablet. I did this three times and each time got more and more of the scorched layer off with a minimal amount of scrubbing. It’s now pretty much good as new.
Thanks everybody!
posted by bookmammal at 5:19 PM on December 29, 2018 [1 favorite]