Pots and Pans Can be Tough to Clean
You’ve decided to make a delicious pot of soup or chili. Your family applauds. All is well. Now you’re cleaning up, and you discover a thick layer of sludge at the bottom of your pot. Whoops! We all get distracted as we cook, but cooking shouldn’t mean buying new pots and pans every week. How can you rescue your pots?
Scrubbing a Pot
Your first line of pot rescue is a good pot scrubber. I love pot scrubbers, but they get disgusting when they live on the counter beside the sink. They have things in them – unrecognizable remnants of dinners gone by. My solution? Hang a scrub brush from a hook above the sink. Wash it thoroughly first. It will air and drip dry. If you’re serious about being sanitary, place it in a vinegar solution and then hang it to dry.
Soaking the Pot
If you have time, it’s easy to soak a pot. Place a thin layer of water in the pot overnight with a tiny bit of baking soda. The baking soda will help you scrub the pot the next day. This is good when you have sticky bits like jam that are attached to your pot.
Cleaning the Bottom of the Pot
After you’ve scrubbed, you’ll notice that there will often be blackened bits left over. This calls for serious pot rescue techniques. Don your gas mask and pour some salt and some baking soda into the pot. You don’t need much more than ¼ to ½ a cup of each. Add a thin layer of water over the bottom of the pot.
Now turn the stove on to medium. As the water in the pot begins to boil, take an old scrub brush and thoroughly scrub the bottom of the pot. Reminder: do not leave plastic scrub brushes in a pot of boiling water or you will most certainly need a new pot. You may need to remove the water, salt, and baking soda mixture and replace it with a new mixture if the pot is still dirty. After about 10 minutes of scrubbing, your pot should be shiny again.
