I burnt the inside of a very strong, expensive aluminum pot. It's been in the family for years. I'd say, it's from the (1950's) and, I don't want my mother to find out, about it. My hand hurts from scrapping it so much, with a knife. I left it, for 1 day, soaking with soap, in hot water. It helped, very little. I know someone out there, can help me. Thanks ever so much.
After I posted this tip I googled it to see what else would work and found a ton of hits using the cream of tartar! Here is a website that tells about using it with vinegar to clean casserole dishes and burner pans/rings!
The easiest way to clean it is with either cream of tater or powdered dishwasher soap.
Put water in the pot and add a TBSP of either of these items and bring to hard rolling boil, put the lid on the pot and let it sit overnight. All burned on food should be loosened by morning. If there is anything left just repeat the process!
This works like magic on pots and pans that you might otherwise throw away!
Go and find a flat sided pumice stone either in kitchen department or beauty. Pumice stone will wear everything down to a polished surface, including anything burnt on. You could simmer with water and let sit overnight if you wanted first. No more gouging with a knife. The stone will remove some of that.
If all it has is burnt food on a plain aluminum pan [no coatings], just fill it full of water and simmer it for a couple of hours, and let soak overnight. Then go get a pumice stone, either in beauty/feet area/ or beauty supply or kitchen area. Get one with completely flat side and start softly scrubbing.
Anything that's crusted on actually creates a raised surface and pumice restores everything to same level by scrubbing off anything raised. It will even polish your pot, but the idea is to keep it flat side down so polishing is uniform. You'd be amazed what you can get off with those stones.
You could try putting water in the pan and boil it so the burned on food will loosen up enough to remove easier. I've done this before and was successful.
I have had good luck with powdered Bar Keeper's Friend for all sorts of cookware disasters, aluminum and stainless steel. It's not abrasive if you use a cleaning rag. I let it sit a bit before I scrub if the gunk is really cooked on. A used toothbrush can be very helpful around handle fittings.
I use a fine grain steel wool on my aluminum kitchen sink to remove scratches and such. You could start with fine and then move to a coarser steel wool if it's not effective. Don't kill me though if something happens. I've only done this on my kitchen sink.
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Request: Cleaning Aluminum Cookware
Archived on 11/28/2009
How do you clean burned stuff off of an aluminum pan?
If the pan does not have plastic or wooden handles, or if you can remove the plastic/wood handles, you can put aluminum pans in a self-cleaning oven. It's easy and does an amazing job of cleaning them. I cleaned some WearEver pans that way and they came out like new. (06/29/2009)
The tip about the self-cleaning oven would not be advisable for any pan with non-stick finish, also Wearever pots are quite thick and strong and perhaps can stand the high heat of such treatment
but thinner metal might be damaged this way.
I've read tips that say adding enough liquid laundry softener to cover burns on bottom of pan and letting pan soak several hours makes it easier to clean it. I also read you can use 1 (or maybe 2) softener sheets plus enough plain water to cover the affected area instead of the liquid softener. Good luck. God Bless. (06/30/2009)
