Today's Kitchen Tip: How to remove tough burned on food from pans

Baking soda boiling away
baked on mess

I recently purchased a new, more powerful range and yesterday decided to make some rice.  I turned up the heat and walked away.  A few minutes later, all we could smell was burned ride.  When I looked at the pan, I thought it was ruined.  Nothing would scrub the thick, burned rice from my favorite All Clad saucepan. 

When I was about to give up, I remembered that I once heard that if you boil baking soda and water in the pan, it will remove the burned-on gunk.  I didn't think to take a photo of the pan before the baking soda treatment so I can't show you the pan that brought tears to my eyes.

I dumped some baking soda into the pan and filled it with water.  I turned on the heat and put on a timer to remind me to check out my pan every so often.  As you can see from the photo, it boiled way up.  It made me nervous but I let it go.  Worst that can happen is it ruins my pan even more than I did. 



Pan after boiling.  I did a gentle
scrub with BarKeepers Friend

I boiled the pan for 30 minutes in total and dumped out the water.  There was still a little stuff on the pan so I pulled out my trusty BarKeepers Friend to finish the job.  Here's what the pan looks like now.  It took some very light elbow grease but it looks like new.

So don't forget this handy tip next time you burn something.  I'm thinking with Thanksgiving coming up, this tip will come in handy.