Stainless steel pans may seem a nightmare to clean, but they’re not as difficult as you may think. You don’t need to buy any special cleaning equipment.
You just need a few items that you probably already have in your cupboard. You can use dish soap, baking soda, and vinegar.
If you have limes or table salt, you can use them too. This article will show you how you can clean your stainless steel pans.
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What You Need To Know Before Cleaning
Before you start cleaning any of your stainless steel pans, you should check the manufacturer’s instructions first.
Sometimes, they’ll have detailed instructions on what you need to do to clean it. But if not, then there are a few things you need to know first.
You should always let them cool down after using them for cooking. If you submerge your pan in any cooler temperatures first, you can warp the metal.
To prevent this, make sure that you leave it for a short while so that the pan is at a normal temperature.
Once you start cleaning it, you should use non-abrasive sponges. Abrasive sponges like Brillo pads and steel wool can permanently damage your pan.
The texture of an abrasive sponge can leave scratches on the finish of stainless steel cooking ware.
Cleaning With Soapy Water
If you want to clean your pan as soon as possible, you just need your dish soap and water. The first thing you should do is scrape away any excess oil or residue from your pan with a spatula or a paper towel.
Depending on how tough this residue is, you may want to fill your pan with some soapy water and make sure it covers the residue. Then just bring it to the boil, and you should be able to scrape away any tougher residue with ease now.
Depending on how much time you have and how urgently you want to clean, you could fill your sink with some hot water.
Add a quarter of a cup of dish soap to the water and leave your pan there overnight. Then, in the morning, you can come back to it.
Now that you’ve removed the residue, you should add some hot water to deglaze it. You can clean a hot pan with hot water, making it easier to clean.
Should there be any food you couldn’t reach before, get a long-handled brush to remove them. If there’s not, you can skip this step and grab a non-abrasive sponge to scrub the pan.
Make sure you scrub the pan in a circular motion and do this continuously on both the interior and exterior of the pan.
Cleaning With Baking Soda
Another great alternative to cleaning a stainless steel pan, especially a burnt one, is to use baking soda. If you want to use baking soda, grab your pan and fill it with enough water to cover the burns.
Then add some spoonfuls of baking soda. Stir this around so that it becomes a paste with the consistency of toothpaste.
Boil and simmer to make sure any water has evaporated, and turn the heat off once it’s done.
Wait for up to twenty minutes to ensure that the pan is cool, and then put it under the sink. Scrub away the burn stains with a non-abrasive sponge, then rinse it off.
As a bonus, if you have any small water spots on your pan, you can get rid of them with baking soda. Just sprinkle a bit of baking soda on a soft sponge and wipe it down.
Using Vinegar With Baking Soda
If you’re trying to remove some stains on your pan, you can add some vinegar to your baking soda mix to make cleaning it more manageable.
When you add water to the pan, make sure that you have enough to cover any stains. Then, add a cup of distilled white vinegar to the mix.
Bring your pan over to boil, and let it do so. Turn off the heat, and add three tablespoons of baking soda.
Make sure that you let it foam and let it cool down slightly. You can let it soak in the pan for up to twenty minutes if you want. Once it’s cooler, bring it back over to the sink and scour the pan with a non-abrasive sponge.
Cleaning With Lime And Salt
To get rid of stains using lime and salt, you only need one line and some table salt. It doesn’t matter what type of table salt you have.
By combining the acid of the lime and the abrasiveness of the salt, you can create a great mixture to clean your pan.
Just grab a quarter of a cup of salt to your pan, and add the juice from your lime. You just need to leave the mixture for up to fifteen minutes and scrub it away with a non-abrasive sponge.
Removing Discoloration
Rainbow hues can happen quite simply by overheating the pan. While some may think this means that a stainless steel pan is permanently ruined, this isn’t the case.
When this happens, all you need to do is grab some distilled white vinegar. Splash the vinegar onto your pan, and wipe it with a soft sponge.
You can use vinegar to get rid of any chalky white spots too. Simply pour a mixture of one part vinegar to three parts water into your pan.
Bring it to a boil, and then once boiled, let it cool. Then grab a non-abrasive sponge and wash it with some soapy water.
Final Thoughts
Cleaning a stainless steel pan is easier than it looks, and with these tips, your pan should look good as new.
While you may think a dishwasher will save you time, using these methods, you can save any damage to your pan by using these methods.
Just always ensure that after cleaning them, you rinse and dry them off before you put them back in the cupboard.
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