We came across this article entitled How to Clean Pots and Pans You Thought Were Ruined the other day, and found some techniques that look promising.
Here are the ones we like the best:
Use ammonia to remove burnt on great on the bottom of your pans
Burnt on bottom grease is one of the most difficult things to remove, and I’ll admit, this looks simpler (if not more toxic) than our method of boiling a piece in a large pot with baking soda.
Use baking soda and hydrogen peroxide to clean baked on grease on your cookie sheets
Just yesterday I was scrubbing away with a Scotch Brite pad making little progress, so this seems really interesting.
Use a Magic Eraser to clean baked on grease on glass bakeware
I tend to use a Scotch brite pad here as well, which definitely can scratch the glass, so the Magic Eraser method is much better. I can’t help but think that this would work well on the outside of a tea kettle as well, which gets a lot of grease splatter.
While slowly collecting amazing revere ware, ive found used pots/pans/skillets with literally years (possibly decades) of burned on grease, layering into thick carbon deposits. After spending multiple days of scrubbing on just one skillet, trying to get all the carbon off the copper bottom without ruining the copper, i researched the web and found something called “Sokoff”. Its a gelled liquid thats basically aircraft paint remover, but its safe for metals like stainless, copper, and even cast iron, and specifically made for cookware. Remove the bakelite handle, smear it on your pan, and put the pan in a ziploc bag. Give it time to eat the carbon and grease away (day or two), then wash well. Make sure you gear up with gloves (and possibly goggles) and dont breathe the fumes, this stuff WILL burn your skin so be careful.
Interesting. We’ll have to give it a try.
I was reading your various bits on cleaning and came across the following: “Never use steel wool, SOS, or Brillo pads to clean your cookware. They will leave pieces of themselves behind and cause corrosion.”
That’s probably true for the products you listed. Steel wool and the SOS pads are both made with VERY fine strands and they have come apart on me before, plus they rust.
There are a couple other products that are similar though, like the Scotch Brite or the Chore Boy brand stainless steel scrubbing pads. They use a much larger strand in their pads and they don’t tear apart like steel wool products do, plus being stainless they don’t tend to leave corrosive bits, even if you manage to get some bits to come off. I practically SWEAR by these types of scrubbers and they’re just about the ONLY thing I clean with.
They will scratch up a shiny bakelite finish though, so be careful around those parts with them if they’re shiny and snazzy looking still.
Yes, absolutely. Our cleaning guide does call out Scotch-Brite as being safe to use on stainless steel (just not the outside, or it will dull the shine). I haven’t heard of Chore Boy, but it definitely looks interesting as the one I found is made of copper and appears to have more bite, for the harder to get off gunk.
Cream of Tartar works wonders on baked-on grease. For those stubborn stains, or to make fast work of burned-on fat, a small amount of Cream of Tartar on your damp thumb will power through just about anything. I’ve had success removing burned-on plastic from stainless steel using this method. Don’t water it down too much. You want something like toothpaste.
I published my Revere Ware cleaning and restoration tips on eBay on the link here and below: https://community.ebay.com/t5/Home-Garden/Vintage-Revere-Ware-Cleaning-and-Restoration/m-p/27553367