Home › Home & Kitchen › Kitchen & Dining › Cookware › Saucepans How to Clean a Burnt Pot Published: July 8, 2026 · Updated: July 8, 2026
Don't scrub — soak instead: cover the burnt bottom with water, add a few spoons of baking soda (or a splash of vinegar), simmer for about ten minutes to loosen the char, then scrape it up with a wooden spoon. What won't budge with a scrubber lifts off on its own after a soak.
Recommended Simmer water with baking soda (or vinegar) in the pot for ten minutes, then scrape the loosened char off — Burnt-on food is carbonized and bonded to the metal, so heat plus a mild alkali or acid loosens it far better than muscle. Fill the pan with enough water to cover the burnt layer, stir in two or three tablespoons of baking soda, bring it to a simmer for about ten minutes, and the char softens and lifts; scrape it away with a wooden spoon or spatula. For a stainless or enamel pot, a splash of white vinegar (or a dishwasher tablet dissolved in the simmering water) works the same way. Really stubborn spots respond to a thick baking-soda paste left to sit, then a non-scratch scrubber — but never use steel wool or harsh abrasives on nonstick or enamel, which they ruin. The scorched outside bottom cleans up with a baking-soda paste too. Skip the instinct to attack a hot dry pan; let the soak do the work.
