How do you get burnt stuff off a pot? Our guide outlines how to clean a burnt pot easily with effective and environmentally friendly home remedies.
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Instead of scrubbing burnt pots and pans in a tiring and tedious manner or even throwing them away, you can almost always get the cookware clean in no time with simple home remedies.
How to clean a burnt pot
Here you will find the best home remedies, even for stubborn cases, and learn how to best use them to clean a burnt pot – as well as them being environmentally friendly and effective ways.
Let the burnt saucepan soak
In lighter cases, it is often sufficient to cover the bottom of the pot with water and let it stand for a few hours. A splash of soft soap or detergent will also help to loosen greasy incrustations. If you want to go faster or if the gentle soaking method is not enough, the following home remedies will help.
Clean the burnt pot with baking soda
Soda dissolves greasy incrustations and has a slightly abrasive effect, which is why it can be used, for example, in homemade scouring powder. Soda or baking powder , which mainly consists of baking soda , is also helpful for burnt pots . This is how burnt-in pots can be cleaned with baking soda:
- Pour one liter of hot water into the dirty saucepan and add a tablespoon of baking soda.
- Let the mixture work for about 15 minutes.
- Pour off the liquid, remove the remains with a sponge or cloth and rinse the pan as usual.
- Repeat if necessary and use a brush if you need to.
Clean a burnt saucepan with soda
Soda is the home remedy of choice for particularly stubborn incrustations . Because it reacts more strongly than the somewhat milder baking soda. Time required: 30 minutes. The best way to clean a burnt pot with soda is as follows:
- Make soda solution: Stir one to two teaspoons of washing soda into 500 milliliters of tap water and pour the solution into the dirty pot.
- Let the soda solution take effect
- Heat the mixture over medium heat and let it simmer for 30 to 60 minutes over minimal heat.
- Then turn off the stove. If the dirt is particularly stubborn, leave it to stand overnight.
- Remove incrustations: Loosen the incrustations with a sponge or a brush and then rinse the pot as usual.
Clean the burnt saucepan with vinegar
The versatile home remedy vinegar is a useful helper in the kitchen and can even make burned pots shine again. This is how it goes:
- Add three parts of water to the saucepan so that all burnt crusts are covered.
- Add a one part portion of vinegar.
- Bring the vinegar-water mixture to the boil, switch off the stove and let the mixture work for at least 15 minutes.
- Empty the liquid and remove the loosened residue with a brush or kitchen sponge.
Tip: A homemade kitchen sponge made of parcel string is not only completely plastic-free, but also works much more effectively than many conventional sponges when it is heavily soiled.
Clean the burnt saucepan with citric acid
As a natural descaler and effective cleaning agent, citric acid can be useful in the household in a variety of ways. It also helps to remove the incrustations from burned pots. Proceed as follows:
- Add a tablespoon of crystalline citric acid and a cup of water to the saucepan.
- For larger pots or pans, increase the quantities accordingly.
- Bring the mixture to a boil and simmer for about five minutes.
- Remove the pan from the stove and empty out the citric acid solution.
- The loosened dirt can now be removed more easily and the pot can be rinsed as usual.
Tip: Oxalic acid, which occurs naturally in various leafy vegetables such as spinach and Swiss chard, but also in other plant-based foods, also helps to dissolve burnt things in pots and pans. For example, rhubarb leaves can still be used meaningfully . To do this, they are put in a burnt pot together with water and briefly boiled. The escaping oxalic acid loosens the dirt so that it can then be brushed off more easily.
How to make scouring abrasive powder
Everything you need to make your own scouring powder is very likely in your pantry. If an ingredient is missing, you can find it in every grocery store or drugstore. You need:
- Bicarbonate Soda
- Citric acid (usually found in the baking section of the supermarket
- Food starch
- To get the right mixing ratio of the ingredients, you only need to mix a standard pack of baking soda (50 grams) with a tablespoon of citric acid and a teaspoon of cornstarch (as a trickle aid). Your biodegradable abrasive is ready to use.
Possible uses
The scouring powder is suitable cleaning a burnt pot and also great for removing greasy and calcareous dirt from almost all surfaces and objects in the bathroom and kitchen. You can either sprinkle it directly on the dirty areas and moisten a little, or spread the powder on a damp sponge or cleaning cloth.
In order to develop the full cleaning effect, the mixture should start to foam slightly. In the case of dried-in or chalky stains, it is advisable to let the agent work for a while before you start working on the surface manually. Basically, you should only use the abrasive on a surface that is resistant to citric acid. It is not suitable for calcareous surfaces such as marble and granite or other acid-sensitive materials. If you are unsure, a test in an inconspicuous place is recommended.
Storage
If you don’t want to mix up the scouring powder for every cleaning action, you can of course also make a larger amount as a supply. However, you should make sure that the packaging is dry and airtight, for example in a clip-on glass. Citric acid tends to bind airborne fluids, which can lead to clumping. You can keep smaller amounts in a container to sprinkle.
I made a spreader aid out of a jar with screw caps, with which the powder is spread directly from the jar onto the dirty areas. All you have to do is make a few holes in the lid. The easiest way to do this is to screw the lid onto the jar and carefully push a nail through the surface of the lid several times using a hammer or other tool.
If you don’t have a jar on hand, you can also use stainless steel or glass (similar to these ) shakers . Provided that it is stored in a dry place, the scouring powder can actually be kept indefinitely.
Scouring powder and vinegar all-purpose cleaner = scouring milk
The abrasive is even more effective if you use it together with our homemade all-purpose cleaner made from citrus peel and vinegar . With light soiling, you can first sprinkle the powder on and then spray it with the cleaner. For stubborn stains and limescale, first spray the corresponding areas with the vinegar cleaner and then apply the abrasive.
Both products adhere better to uneven surfaces. In order to achieve an optimal dirt-loosening effect, the mixture should foam up intensively and act like commercial products for a while before you start cleaning. With this combination, stains, streaks and incrustations no longer stand a chance. aking soda , citric acid, and vinegar are some of the simple home remedies that you can use to get a grip on almost any household problem. By the way, you can also use waste products such as coffee grounds or wood ash as an abrasive.