“Honey, It’s your night for the dishes…” Hmmm, he’s not taking the bait.
What do you do with a pan like this? I think I could soak it for three weeks and it would never come clean… unless…
It’s baking soda to the rescue…
I sprinkled some into the pan…
And then I scrubbed it… I wish I had a time lapse camera or a video. I was amazed at how quickly the gunk came off…
I rinsed out the pan and sprinkled a little more baking soda to get some little black bits still left.
Ta Dah! That pan shines like the top of the Chrysler Building.
Baking soda cleans just like magic. Well… I did have to scrub.
But not nearly as hard as I thought I would. So it’s the closest thing to magic I’ll ever come to. I never could figure out how to wiggle my nose like Tabitha and have my jobs magically done. (Even though heavens knows I tried about a 1000 times when I was ten and my mom had given me a long list of jobs.)
Baking soda works really well for glass baking dishes as well. A friend of mine had old baked on yellowish-brown stuff on the handles of her Pyrex casserole dishes (from non-stick cooking spray.) We scrubbed them with a little baking soda and it came right off.
I’ve used it on my nonstick pans as well… I just needed to rub a bit of oil into the pan when I was done to re-season it. It works on my Le Creuset (enamel coated cast iron pans) too.
Don’t you just love to find something that is great at cleaning, non-toxic and really inexpensive? I do.
The pan looks marvelously clean!!! I will have to try this tip on my pans that have some cooked on stains that won’t come off.
I’ve had pans that I have let sit FOREVER and scrubbed and scrubbed without success. I’m so excited to try this!
Amazing– thanks! I am actually going to try it right now :)
What a amazing idea! I have some cookie sheets that are getting a baking soda bath this weekend!
What a great tip, I know there are a lot of uses for baking soda, thanks for sharing this one.
I love, love, love baking soda for this! I buy it in the big bag, and use it in so many ways but I think this is my favorite, especially since I hate those steel wool scrubbers. Pans, cookie sheets, glass baking dishes. Doesn’t scratch, and they just sparkle. Works like a charm just about every time.
When I use baking powder for cleaning pans, especially if the food is burnt on, I first put an inch of water in the pan with the baking powder, and turn the heat to medium or medium high. After it has boiled (let it get foamy), I let it cool and then the scrubbing needed is much less.
Brilliant! And it’s so shiny!!
xox
You’ve scratched the entire surface now. Great idea as long as you’re a housewife with crappy Walmart pans which you don’t care about.
Hi Shay, the great thing about using baking soda is that it WON’T scratch your pans. My hard working All Clad pans are now over ten years old and the scratches you see in the photo are from years of use, not from cleaning with baking soda.
@Shay – so you would have used the pan as it was or thrown it away?
I wonder why you don’t just use Barkeeper’s Friend like everyone else…
Brian, I do use Bar Keepers Friend and like it for my stainless steel kitchen sink. But baking soda works just as well on my pans and is cheaper if you buy it in bulk (like at Costco.)
[…] Cleaning a dirty frying pan. […]
I love to add Baking Soda to my laundry to make it smell better and come out cleaner.
[…] Those of you who have read Make it Do for any length of time know how much I love baking soda. A quick look through my cleaning posts and you’ll know I’m a really big fan. What’s not to love about a product that is an ingredient in my favorite chocolate chip cookies AND cleans my dirty pans to a shine? […]