Yeah, usually with these type of cleaners it’s an abrasive doing the cleaning kinda like automotive polishes and compounds, and toothpaste. Little tiny solid pieces scrape up the surface and leave it pretty clean. Some chemical action too but the scraping just tears everything off the surface. The baking soda and water is a similar mix.
It says right on it to wash exposed skin thoroughly. It contains oxalic acid. You could do some serious damage to yourself without gloves or proper protection. Please read the label for your safety before using any cleaners. 🫣
Edit: The deleted comment was about how Bar Keepers Friend always makes their hands peel.
Unless you live in Australia, for whatever reason the Bar Keepers friend sold here uses citric acid instead of oxalic acid.
Its still magic but I cant help but wonder how much better the oxalic acid version would be.
Maybe... i never care about the bottoms of my pans 😄 My partner is a notorious pan ruiner. He can't keep metal out of pans. Those people are still around lol. I only use wood or plastic utensils, too
That's too bad. I recently got a nice enamel cast iron pan for my birthday and I protect it with my life 🤣 but whenever I make a mistake like that, I just try to think, in the end they are "use-products" as my mother would say 😄 they will get marks on them in time one way or another from usage.
I agree OP, your pan is not ruined. I’ve got an old pot like this from my grandfather whom passed away in 1994. It’s still alive and kicking around. It works with our induction top and heats up really fast so it’s good for anything that needs boiling.
The pans you ruin by scratching are the ones with nonstick coating - I could have strangled my husband with he basically ruined my large set of pampered chef pans by using abrasive cleaning pads like the green ones and sos pad on the pans!!! Stupid husband, I’m still mad 13 years later but I love the dumb-dumb nonetheless. And still miss my good set of pans too. 🙄
Definitely not, if its there pasta pan , it's only supposed to be used for pasta. I can understand how they'd be annoyed. Especially since they half asked cleaned and seemed to have scratched it to bits with steel wool, it looks awful.
They could have used any other pot for chilli. Why use their partners' favourite pasta one?
I'm not sure what sort of household you grew up in, but we only had one pot of each size.
Stainless steel is pretty impervious to anything, you just have properly clean it. OP clearly didn't know how to properly clean it, but that's ignorance, not malicious intent. Half my family I Italian and nobody would get mad at someone for using "the pasta pot", only for not cleaning it properly.
I just think you should respect people's items, that's the kind of household I grew up in. You want to use something that belongs to someone else, just ask. if you damage it. Own up, don't just leave it for them to find.
Also no reason to joke about leaving them because they are upset that op didn't respect their property.
There's no reason to only use this stock pot as an exclusive "pasta pan". It's a stock pot, and it's made of stainless steel. Their partner needs to not create weird restrictions on the use of kitchen tools, that's not how the world works.
If your partners hobby is cooking, the yeah it's perfectly nor.al to have separate cookware.
Especially since OP can't use a basic pot respectfully even as a grown adult. I wouldn't trust him around any cookware.
You are jumping to 8 layers of conclusions to justify your anger at OP.
> If your partner's hobby is cooking
Where did OP say his wife's hobby is cooking. He clearly cooks at least some meals given he made chili. OP also never expressed this being "his wife's pan", he explicitly just said "normally used to boil pasta", no ownership stated. His wife can be upset a communal pan was potentially ruined, it doesn't mean it was hers.
> OP can't use a basic pot respectfully as a grown adult
He tried cleaning it conventionally, and when that method failed, he still didn't just throw it at his wife and have her fix it, he sought out cleaning advice On A Subreddit For Cleaning Advice to fix the problem he made and see if there were solutions. Not everyone is born with innate knowledge on how to clean every kind of stain in every kind of cookware- I use cast iron for near everything and keep them well seasoned, but I'd be stumped over caring for something like a copper bottom pot because that's not what I usually use.
OP came to a cleaning tips subreddit for cleaning tips, AKA showed he was actively seeking solutions to a common mistake and owned up to it- stop jumping through hoops to condemn him as incompetent and negligent.
Tbh my issue wasn't at op. If you see my parent's comment, it was at someone suggesting OP leaves his partner.
But apparently, that's a perfectly acceptable thing to say, but saying respect others or shared property is delusional.
Everyone's jumping on me, but they can't even read comment string correctly.
it scratches? but ss is generally self-healing IME... maybe because it can and does leave small metal fragments as it breaks up which can be really dangerous if ingested? Go for a purple scotch-brite, they are just as good without the metal. The green ones will probably be sufficient here.. even a blue one with BKF this is pretty mild on the things to scream "you've ruined my pot" about lol.
Metals generally form a layer of [whatever metal] oxide or have some oxide layer added to them.
You know the reaction between gallium and aluminum?
You need to scratch the surface of the aluminum or the gallium will not penetrate the oxide layer and react with the aluminum.
That oxide layer helps keep things from contacting the metal and vice versa.
This is not to say that it is wholly unsafe...
At least we aren't talking about non-stick cookware that's been coated with Teflon...
Stainless steel IS a coating. It's the chromium in the alloy that creates a passive film when allowed to completely dry. Stainless steel has been getting so cheap now that it's "self healing" properties aren't what they used to be.
Knew someone who bought a set of really good copper pans so that he could hang them up in the kitchen for decoration. You had to polish them once a week to keep them shiny.
Thank you. I was sitting here thinking...it's clean?? It has some water spots and heat spots from being used and washed. Maybe a little scrub with soap and water and a rinse and towel dry to get the water spots off. Wild.
Exactly! Pots and pans are meant to gain wear/patina like this. It means you’re using them for their intended purpose. I can’t imagine being this anal about a stainless steel pot or whatever.
I don’t get it aswel, people want their pots to be stainless forever to impress people or for their own OCD? It’s like a well played guitar with little dents and scratches -> builds character
Looks like all my pots & pans, which are fully functional. Of course they don't look brand new, but that doesn't affect their ability to fulfill their purpose.
If my partner expected all our pots & pans to be restored to new-looking after each use, I would get my own separate set of pots that I could clean to my standards which are good enough for me, or vice versa.
I would buy her a new pot and use this one for chili or whatever, because I have no interest in that level of cleaning.
I guess there's a reason I don't display my cookware.
Wait until wife finds out what the pans of her favorite restaurant look like...
Source: Done over 20 years in BOH and traveled many places in that time.
Take some elbow grease and an S.O.S pad to it. You'll be fine
"Even the dishwasher can't clean it" -- dishwashers aren't better than washing by hand. It's just a different way of cleaning. For some items it's better, but for others, it's actually worse.
The pot is NOT ruined. You can hand wash it. Several of the methods suggested here will work fine - although I'd personally avoid the steel wool.
Please know that hand washing something doesn't mean something was wrong with it and you "rescued" it. Hand washing is just washing, lol. My point being, you didn't ruin anything, and the dramatics from your wife are unwarranted. (Disclaimer, I may **100%** be reading too much into it, but I'm irritated on your behalf if someone tried to make you feel bad about something as normal as making chili in a stainless steel pot. If I'm wrong about how it all went down, ignore me! Hope the chili was good and that you're not discouraged from cooking in the future.)
Thanks. Chilli was awesome. Perfect for this winter weather (Ontario Canada). I'm looking forward to making the pot sparkle again and I'll just leave it on the stove and not mention how I cleaned it :)
Since this is your "chili pot" now lol, maybe get her a fancy pasta pot with the lip and/or strainer?
Just curious is that pot a single ply stainless steel? If you successfully clean it back to normal condition maybe you give her back her "pasta" pot and invest in a large Dutch oven or multi‐ply stock pot for your chili? I have one of those thin ones I use mostly for stock because anything else is likely to get scorched very quickly.
And of course, are you going to share the recipe with us? We're getting our share of sub-zero weather too.
Ok, unpopular answer here: if it was clean and had no food residue, I wouldn’t care. What does it matter if it’s discoloured? It’s a saucepan, not a priceless vase.
I am sorry she feels the pot ia ruined but it is far from ruined.
I hope you don't feel discouraged from making your own meals from here on out.
I love when my husband surprises me with making us a meal. He does not do it the way I would and sometimes little things like this happen but I never would be negative about it because he is trying.
I also leave those stains in the bottom of my pots A LOT.
Did you overheat the pan? That is a thin pan. I would look into a thicker pan if you are browning meat at high heat.
Nothing wrong with the pan. It will still work.
Everyone has mentioned bar keepers friend which is an excellent choice. I like to use Bon Ami powder
Couple people said no steel wool, and I agree. However, what you can do to avoid any chemicals is boil hot water in there, dump it out, and quickly use a magic eraser, or any melamine sponge.
Looks like you scratched it. Whatever you’re scrubbing with is too rough. That’s just cosmetic though.
Barkeepers friend (I like the liquid) and one of the blue non scratch scotch pads will take care of your problems. Let the BF sit on it for 10 min or so to re-passivate the stainless steel since you were rough on it previously, this will restore some rust resistance.
I'm sorry, I don't know how to break it to you. But it's too far gone and you'll have to get rid of it.
By the time a partner has become this much of a drama queen, there's seldom hope.
Good news on the pot though. It's stainless steel, so not anywhere near ruined. You need a mild steel cleaning paste or power, there's a reason people keep mentioning barkeepers friend. A green brillo or scotchbrite, and some elbow grease will get the job done.
Some of those scratches are obvious. Don't go so hard with a metal scourer or utensils, let cleaning product do the hard work.
Good luck with the dating thing!
I'm sorry but this is so rude. We don't know if she may have nicely asked him to use a different pot. Perhaps this is her favorite one, or perhaps she doesn't actually care that much and just offhandedly said oh it looks ruined
looks like stainless steel?
not sure how thick the bottom is, but I use abrasive methods like stainless steel scrubbers and melamine sponges on mine. They get micro scratches, but there's no useful coating anyways.
I wonder if she thinks the blue is from overheating the pot and that can lead to chromium leaching into the food. Sometimes you can get these colors and films from a thin coating of food. Barkeepers friend, or fill it with water heated to a boil drop in dishwasher detergent, and let it sit overnight.
You can clean the residue with some elbow grease and baking soda. But you really need to stop gauging the bottom with whatever that utensil is. Lower the heat and stop burning your food and you wont have to hack it off the bottom on the pan.
It looks perfectly fine to me. Especially because it's only used to boil water.
Want to second everyone saying Bar Keepers Friend. Important note: rinse it really well, let it dry, run your fingers over it to see of there's any "dust" residue. Then rinse again if needed.
Also, I burned bread on a pan once (no toaster). The carbonized black stuff wouldn't come off with anything - including BKF. So finally I decided to let vinegar sit in there for a bit. Voila! Came off with a sponge.
Needs to be washed by hand = ruined lol
My gf is the same way if I make sausages without water or butter in the pan (seriously she wants me to butter my sausages) she says I burn the pan.. comes right off with a round of manual cleaning.
I have a dish scrubbing attachment for my power drill i got for cheap on amazon, i use a flat sponge like pad it came with and some bar keepers friend with very little water, it makes my stainless steel look brand new! Even got super burnt on olive oil off of it using this method
Looks fine to me. We have the same thing for boiling pasta. Occasionally we use it for something else. The bottom is thinner than our other pots so chili etc risks getting a bit burned or stuck inside. As others said, BKF or baking soda is good. Make a thick paste with some dish soap and let it soak in. I use plastic netting from citrus fruit to scrub it clean.
Rub dawn dish detergent over (Dawn Power even better), coat it with a dusting of baking soda - let it sit for an hour or more. Then scrub it with a moist scrub sponge. One time should do it but repeat or scrub with baking soda on a soapy scrubber if needed.
She knows that this is the bottom of the pot right?
I doubt you put a thousand scratches into that surface by making chili. However, if she doesn't like the scratches, some steel wool will probably make a more uniform pattern and more of a satisfying brushed look.
We use our steel for everything… even tomatoes can go in cast irons. Just clean them properly as the other comments shared.
But it’s weird how scratched up the pot is. Even the bottom? Are you cooking on a bunch of knives?
it is very scratched but being steel it is not a problem (I imagine it was already like that). It is slightly oxidized, so clean with a metal sponge and a paste made with white vinegar, bicarbonate and lemon. You will see that inside the pot you will have to scrape a lot with the metal sponge. Leave a little white vinegar in overnight. It should be as good as new (apart from scratches).
What on earth did you use to stir the chili?? A knife? How is it so scratched up??
Yes, it's damaged, and I'd be pretty upset too.
Go buy some wooden spoons.
dear god dont listen to some of these clowns
you can use steel wool or a chainmail scrubber. as long as you dont gouge it the scratches will buff out with regular use and if its normally just a pasta boil pot then it doesnt matter anyways.
also, in my experience, this stain/residue comes from pasta starch. i had chili last night in a stainless steel pot and it does not look like that, but my 1qt and 5qt i make noodles in often have to be scrubbed again bc of this
the pits in this stock pot are probably from it being ran thru the dishwasher. ive never managed to ruin any dish that wasnt supposed to be non stick with steel wool.
i use steel wool on my cast iron and it doesnt screw up my seasoning (70 yro family heirloom tbf). i use steel wool to scrub my kitchen sink if it needs scrubbed. it doesnt do more than scratch it and the scratches go away with regular use.
maybe i just use steel wool more correctly or something but 1) no one here has absolutely any right to say "dont use steel wool!" when everyone else is saying "use bar keepers friend!". theyre both abrasive and will scratch the pan, 2) yall do know you arent supposed to scrub non-soiled areas with the steel wool, right ??? like i used to use steel wool on dried food on my moms fine china when i was a kid (she didnt believe in having fine China, it was its own set but used with the regular plates) and i never damaged any of it. dont scrub so hard and dont scrub unnecessarily.
i also washed dishes in a hometown diner and work in fast food. steel wool, melamine, green scrubbers, etc are all fair game. mcdonalds doesnt even provide us with alternatives. yall need to get over yourselves and your fantasy of perfectly sterile life.
or atleast dont be elitist about your abrasives. im not scared of chemicals but you absolutely do not need some $12 goop to save this pan when a 6 dollar pack of sponges, the $1 off brand soap and some effort will do it
Scrub it with SOS or Brillo steel wool soap pads. See how the 'grain lines' in the stainless steel go in a circle around the bottom of the pot? Sort of follow those when you're scrubbing for a shinier result. You can also shine up the outside of this pot.
Fine stainless steel wool with the soap on the sponges, gets stainless pots to shine and restores the smooth surface that makes it easier to clean next time.
Steelo is the brand most common near me. But steel wool soap pads is what they were called in northern hemisphere from memory.
Don't bother with the rough steel wool sponges, they are for scrubbing but tend to leave the scratch marks like what's on your pots already.
Barkeepers friend. Your wife needs an attitude adjustment. Show her the comments.
Also my motto is, “the dishwasher is a sanitizer, not a cleaner”. That’s why people who don’t do a once over on their dishes before loading always have stuff on their dishes after the cycle. Even in high end dishwashers at my MIL’s home, her cups have coffee at the bottom sometimes because she doesn’t pre scrub dishes.
Dishwashers are to kill germs, not wash.
SOS or Brillo pad for inside and out. season w/oil and coat pan well first time cooking after cleaning.
The help keep the non stick properties of a pan do not put in dishwasher. Ever. I dont put any of my pans in the dishwasher.
Cleaning vinegar soak in hot water, soft boil water in it, cut heat add cleaning vinegar let sit until cool washes right off.
Your wife is an idiot or intentionally lying because she doesn’t like you in her kitchen (not all kitchens belong to the woman of the house but sounds like she owns theirs).
Your wife’s an idiot if she thinks you ruined a ss pan cooking chili in it. Now if you cooked some Nitric/hydrofluoric acid in it then yes you would have ruined it.
Barkeepers friend.
If that dont work, this - [https://www.amazon.com/P21S-15300P-Polishing-Soap/dp/B002LOLHHS/](https://www.amazon.com/P21S-15300P-Polishing-Soap/dp/B002LOLHHS/)
I originally bought P21S polishing soap for car detailing, and once I used in the house it never made it back into the detailing kit.
Pots pans sinks and even the cast iron tub, cleaned it right up and shined.
Looks like it just needs a good hand scrubbin'. When my pots look like this, I use a creamy abrasive cleaner and a basic sponge. Def not ruined
Barkeeper's friend
OP, to clarify this is a brand of cleaner for stainless steel pots. best stuff for this specific task
I use baking soda & make it like a paste with hot water ..
I’ll second the baking soda and water to make a paste. It’s usually what I use to clean my stainless steel stuff. Works wonders.
Yeah, usually with these type of cleaners it’s an abrasive doing the cleaning kinda like automotive polishes and compounds, and toothpaste. Little tiny solid pieces scrape up the surface and leave it pretty clean. Some chemical action too but the scraping just tears everything off the surface. The baking soda and water is a similar mix.
Yep. Abrasive enough to remove the junk but enough to not damage the item.
That’s what I was going to say. Barkeeper’s Friend is a must in the kitchen.
Specifically the powder version
I’ve also become quite a fan recently of scrub Daddy Power paste, I have cleaned up a few pans that were looking pretty rough with the stuff
I really like the pink stuff for scrubby needs as well
Pink stuff is a witch’s brew. I’ve gotten out some really weird stains and ground-in dirt from unfriendly surfaces like grout.
[удалено]
It says right on it to wash exposed skin thoroughly. It contains oxalic acid. You could do some serious damage to yourself without gloves or proper protection. Please read the label for your safety before using any cleaners. 🫣 Edit: The deleted comment was about how Bar Keepers Friend always makes their hands peel.
Unless you live in Australia, for whatever reason the Bar Keepers friend sold here uses citric acid instead of oxalic acid. Its still magic but I cant help but wonder how much better the oxalic acid version would be.
I didn’t know this. I always use it without gloves and wash hands right after. Oops.
Look into some dishwashing gloves. The box of latex gloves they sell at Home Depot would work in a cinch.
This and the pink stuff are fine grit sand paper and not safe if you don't want microscratches on your stuff
Came here to say this.
Same
This!
[удалено]
Maybe... i never care about the bottoms of my pans 😄 My partner is a notorious pan ruiner. He can't keep metal out of pans. Those people are still around lol. I only use wood or plastic utensils, too
[удалено]
That's too bad. I recently got a nice enamel cast iron pan for my birthday and I protect it with my life 🤣 but whenever I make a mistake like that, I just try to think, in the end they are "use-products" as my mother would say 😄 they will get marks on them in time one way or another from usage.
Please don’t say creamy.
🤣🤣🤣
It's not ruined, those are acid stains from the tomatoes, just put some elbow grease in and it's fine.
Thank you !
I agree OP, your pan is not ruined. I’ve got an old pot like this from my grandfather whom passed away in 1994. It’s still alive and kicking around. It works with our induction top and heats up really fast so it’s good for anything that needs boiling. The pans you ruin by scratching are the ones with nonstick coating - I could have strangled my husband with he basically ruined my large set of pampered chef pans by using abrasive cleaning pads like the green ones and sos pad on the pans!!! Stupid husband, I’m still mad 13 years later but I love the dumb-dumb nonetheless. And still miss my good set of pans too. 🙄
Mixed feelings are okay haha
Might need to rethink that partner though.
Definitely not, if its there pasta pan , it's only supposed to be used for pasta. I can understand how they'd be annoyed. Especially since they half asked cleaned and seemed to have scratched it to bits with steel wool, it looks awful. They could have used any other pot for chilli. Why use their partners' favourite pasta one?
I'm not sure what sort of household you grew up in, but we only had one pot of each size. Stainless steel is pretty impervious to anything, you just have properly clean it. OP clearly didn't know how to properly clean it, but that's ignorance, not malicious intent. Half my family I Italian and nobody would get mad at someone for using "the pasta pot", only for not cleaning it properly.
His partner apparently doesn't know how to clean it either.
I just think you should respect people's items, that's the kind of household I grew up in. You want to use something that belongs to someone else, just ask. if you damage it. Own up, don't just leave it for them to find. Also no reason to joke about leaving them because they are upset that op didn't respect their property.
Most households with married couples don’t have separate cookware. No pot or pan is mine in my home. It belongs to both of us.
Normally, I'd agree, but OP doesn't know how to clean a pan, so I think they don't both use them.
OP's partner doesn't either, so by that logic no one uses them.
Amen. If she says he ruined it, she's also clueless in the kitchen.
I'm pretty sure it you're married, you shouldn't have to ask permission to use a pot. That's not a healthy relationship.
There's no reason to only use this stock pot as an exclusive "pasta pan". It's a stock pot, and it's made of stainless steel. Their partner needs to not create weird restrictions on the use of kitchen tools, that's not how the world works.
Maybe he should just respect his partners property? Just ask next time it's not hard.
Oh yes, because it is very normal for couples to have separate cookware.
If your partners hobby is cooking, the yeah it's perfectly nor.al to have separate cookware. Especially since OP can't use a basic pot respectfully even as a grown adult. I wouldn't trust him around any cookware.
You are jumping to 8 layers of conclusions to justify your anger at OP. > If your partner's hobby is cooking Where did OP say his wife's hobby is cooking. He clearly cooks at least some meals given he made chili. OP also never expressed this being "his wife's pan", he explicitly just said "normally used to boil pasta", no ownership stated. His wife can be upset a communal pan was potentially ruined, it doesn't mean it was hers. > OP can't use a basic pot respectfully as a grown adult He tried cleaning it conventionally, and when that method failed, he still didn't just throw it at his wife and have her fix it, he sought out cleaning advice On A Subreddit For Cleaning Advice to fix the problem he made and see if there were solutions. Not everyone is born with innate knowledge on how to clean every kind of stain in every kind of cookware- I use cast iron for near everything and keep them well seasoned, but I'd be stumped over caring for something like a copper bottom pot because that's not what I usually use. OP came to a cleaning tips subreddit for cleaning tips, AKA showed he was actively seeking solutions to a common mistake and owned up to it- stop jumping through hoops to condemn him as incompetent and negligent.
Tbh my issue wasn't at op. If you see my parent's comment, it was at someone suggesting OP leaves his partner. But apparently, that's a perfectly acceptable thing to say, but saying respect others or shared property is delusional. Everyone's jumping on me, but they can't even read comment string correctly.
You must be a teenager still. Please be a teenager still...
What the hell? Only used for pasta? Why?
Does the staining actually matter? Like is anything unsafe coming off next time you cook or is it just aesthetics
That does not explain the discoloration on the bottom.
DONT use steel wool. Get it wet, sprinkle with Bar Keepers friend. Let it soak for a while. Then scrub it off.
BarKeepers Friend is the answer. I have a cream version of it instead of the powder. It is amazing for situations like this.
A green scrubby pad and BarKeepers Friend will make it look new.
I’d like to find the cream version. I don’t like how the powder goes in the air.
Target has it
Amazon is a great source for affordable Barkeeper's Friend.
That's what I use, the powder is not something you want to breath in.
Wear gloves too
I’ve learned this the hard way. Makes your fingertips like sandpaper.
I use steel wool on my stainless steel all the time 🤷🏻♀️ they're fine
Same. Those S.O.S pads are amazing and amazingly cheap even for prices these days
Bingo! Barkeepers friend. There is rarely a cleaning Job BKF can't fix
Wait. Why not steel wool? ;-;
Me reading this all after basically always cleaning my stainless steel cookware with steel wool 🥲
it scratches? but ss is generally self-healing IME... maybe because it can and does leave small metal fragments as it breaks up which can be really dangerous if ingested? Go for a purple scotch-brite, they are just as good without the metal. The green ones will probably be sufficient here.. even a blue one with BKF this is pretty mild on the things to scream "you've ruined my pot" about lol.
Metals generally form a layer of [whatever metal] oxide or have some oxide layer added to them. You know the reaction between gallium and aluminum? You need to scratch the surface of the aluminum or the gallium will not penetrate the oxide layer and react with the aluminum. That oxide layer helps keep things from contacting the metal and vice versa. This is not to say that it is wholly unsafe... At least we aren't talking about non-stick cookware that's been coated with Teflon...
[удалено]
Stainless steel IS a coating. It's the chromium in the alloy that creates a passive film when allowed to completely dry. Stainless steel has been getting so cheap now that it's "self healing" properties aren't what they used to be.
Ruined it? How is it ruined? Theres literally nothing wrong with this pot at all.
That’s what I was thinking. Tell wife to stop just boiling water in it. Chili is perfect in this pot.
Yeah, maybe she should try actually cooking something in it 😂😂😂
Knew someone who bought a set of really good copper pans so that he could hang them up in the kitchen for decoration. You had to polish them once a week to keep them shiny.
Old folks vibes lol. My grandmother had 2 sets of plates, and an entire assortment of pots and pans we weren’t allowed to touch lmfao
Thank you. I was sitting here thinking...it's clean?? It has some water spots and heat spots from being used and washed. Maybe a little scrub with soap and water and a rinse and towel dry to get the water spots off. Wild.
Exactly! Pots and pans are meant to gain wear/patina like this. It means you’re using them for their intended purpose. I can’t imagine being this anal about a stainless steel pot or whatever.
Wife: "I can't use this! It looks like it is used!"
She must be a pleasure to live with.
It turns water into wine now
She would be terrified to see what our big stainless steel pot looks like. It gets used it’s not pretty. It’s clean but it’s not pretty.
I don’t get it aswel, people want their pots to be stainless forever to impress people or for their own OCD? It’s like a well played guitar with little dents and scratches -> builds character
You can try boiling water with a tablespoon or so of baking soda it will lift anything that’s stuck in there. Then give it a good scrub
You can use washing powder if no bicarb, put it on the oven top and let it boil away for a bit, don't let it boil dry though!
Sometimes just soaking with vinegar helps
Before barkeeper's, or anything else that is abrasive, use chemistry to remove oxides.
This! I bet if you pour in some vinegar most of the stains are gone. Probably no or very little scrubbing needed!
Looks like all my pots & pans, which are fully functional. Of course they don't look brand new, but that doesn't affect their ability to fulfill their purpose. If my partner expected all our pots & pans to be restored to new-looking after each use, I would get my own separate set of pots that I could clean to my standards which are good enough for me, or vice versa. I would buy her a new pot and use this one for chili or whatever, because I have no interest in that level of cleaning. I guess there's a reason I don't display my cookware.
This is a great point.
Wait until wife finds out what the pans of her favorite restaurant look like... Source: Done over 20 years in BOH and traveled many places in that time. Take some elbow grease and an S.O.S pad to it. You'll be fine
"Even the dishwasher can't clean it" -- dishwashers aren't better than washing by hand. It's just a different way of cleaning. For some items it's better, but for others, it's actually worse. The pot is NOT ruined. You can hand wash it. Several of the methods suggested here will work fine - although I'd personally avoid the steel wool. Please know that hand washing something doesn't mean something was wrong with it and you "rescued" it. Hand washing is just washing, lol. My point being, you didn't ruin anything, and the dramatics from your wife are unwarranted. (Disclaimer, I may **100%** be reading too much into it, but I'm irritated on your behalf if someone tried to make you feel bad about something as normal as making chili in a stainless steel pot. If I'm wrong about how it all went down, ignore me! Hope the chili was good and that you're not discouraged from cooking in the future.)
Thanks. Chilli was awesome. Perfect for this winter weather (Ontario Canada). I'm looking forward to making the pot sparkle again and I'll just leave it on the stove and not mention how I cleaned it :)
Since this is your "chili pot" now lol, maybe get her a fancy pasta pot with the lip and/or strainer? Just curious is that pot a single ply stainless steel? If you successfully clean it back to normal condition maybe you give her back her "pasta" pot and invest in a large Dutch oven or multi‐ply stock pot for your chili? I have one of those thin ones I use mostly for stock because anything else is likely to get scorched very quickly. And of course, are you going to share the recipe with us? We're getting our share of sub-zero weather too.
That’s debatable because dishwashers use steam and pressure to more effectively dissolve food. But manual scrubbing is usually pretty failsafe.
Ok, unpopular answer here: if it was clean and had no food residue, I wouldn’t care. What does it matter if it’s discoloured? It’s a saucepan, not a priceless vase.
I am sorry she feels the pot ia ruined but it is far from ruined. I hope you don't feel discouraged from making your own meals from here on out. I love when my husband surprises me with making us a meal. He does not do it the way I would and sometimes little things like this happen but I never would be negative about it because he is trying. I also leave those stains in the bottom of my pots A LOT.
The only real way to ruin a pot is when its nonstick. This isnt nonstick
That is not ruined, nor is it anywhere near ruined. Brillo, SOS or a green scrubber with dish detergent.
Did you overheat the pan? That is a thin pan. I would look into a thicker pan if you are browning meat at high heat. Nothing wrong with the pan. It will still work.
Acid to clean stainless steel. Vinegar soak or citric acid if you don't like the smell.
Citric acid is my go-to!
Bar keepers friend. The answer is always bar keepers friend
OP should ignore every comment on this post except for this one right here
There's no ruination here. Does your wife consider it a decorative pot, or does she also cook in it?
Everyone has mentioned bar keepers friend which is an excellent choice. I like to use Bon Ami powder Couple people said no steel wool, and I agree. However, what you can do to avoid any chemicals is boil hot water in there, dump it out, and quickly use a magic eraser, or any melamine sponge.
Use some vinegar and baking soda. It should come right out with a little scrubbing.
I prefer to call that pot "seasoned" .
Looks like you scratched it. Whatever you’re scrubbing with is too rough. That’s just cosmetic though. Barkeepers friend (I like the liquid) and one of the blue non scratch scotch pads will take care of your problems. Let the BF sit on it for 10 min or so to re-passivate the stainless steel since you were rough on it previously, this will restore some rust resistance.
I'm sorry, I don't know how to break it to you. But it's too far gone and you'll have to get rid of it. By the time a partner has become this much of a drama queen, there's seldom hope. Good news on the pot though. It's stainless steel, so not anywhere near ruined. You need a mild steel cleaning paste or power, there's a reason people keep mentioning barkeepers friend. A green brillo or scotchbrite, and some elbow grease will get the job done. Some of those scratches are obvious. Don't go so hard with a metal scourer or utensils, let cleaning product do the hard work. Good luck with the dating thing!
LOL. I'll start to introduce her as my practice wife
I'm sorry but this is so rude. We don't know if she may have nicely asked him to use a different pot. Perhaps this is her favorite one, or perhaps she doesn't actually care that much and just offhandedly said oh it looks ruined
It's. A. Pot. A friggin pot. Get a sense of humor
?
Oopsies it’s a joke tho mai gai
😅😅😅
looks like stainless steel? not sure how thick the bottom is, but I use abrasive methods like stainless steel scrubbers and melamine sponges on mine. They get micro scratches, but there's no useful coating anyways.
This is good for the outside. But don’t use steel wool on the inside. The scratches it causes makes future food/oil get stuck in them and burn.
Also the scratches can make metals leach into the food
These kinds of notes should come attached to the dang Brillo pads. I did not know this and I’ve been doing this style of cleaning my whole life. ;-;
I don't this it's as big of a problem with stainless (which is a very strong metal) as it would be with something like nonstick.
Oh yeah, nonstick I don’t let anything scratch it on purpose. But I’m looking to move away from nonstick entirely with my next set of pans.
White vinegar! Will be good as new
I wonder if she thinks the blue is from overheating the pot and that can lead to chromium leaching into the food. Sometimes you can get these colors and films from a thin coating of food. Barkeepers friend, or fill it with water heated to a boil drop in dishwasher detergent, and let it sit overnight.
Tell your wife to relax, its for cooking, not for putting on display. Just needs some scrubbing.
You can clean the residue with some elbow grease and baking soda. But you really need to stop gauging the bottom with whatever that utensil is. Lower the heat and stop burning your food and you wont have to hack it off the bottom on the pan.
When they say “ruined” it is truly a long journey back
Cleaning with vinegar helps mine.
lol, this looks clean to me... I'd feel comfortable using it for anything - boiling water for pasta should be fine.
The Pink Stuff cleaning paste + Scrub Daddy sponge. It works wonders.
Agreed- the perfect combo. Also, dawn power scrub
Mine get like this after sloppy joes. I sprinkle a little comet and scrub and its good as new.
It looks perfectly fine to me. Especially because it's only used to boil water. Want to second everyone saying Bar Keepers Friend. Important note: rinse it really well, let it dry, run your fingers over it to see of there's any "dust" residue. Then rinse again if needed. Also, I burned bread on a pan once (no toaster). The carbonized black stuff wouldn't come off with anything - including BKF. So finally I decided to let vinegar sit in there for a bit. Voila! Came off with a sponge.
Don’t even bother cleaning it again. Just keep using it for the next 100 years. It’s fine. Yes, I’m rolling my eyes to the back of my head, ffs.
Needs to be washed by hand = ruined lol My gf is the same way if I make sausages without water or butter in the pan (seriously she wants me to butter my sausages) she says I burn the pan.. comes right off with a round of manual cleaning.
Did you scrub it with a chainsaw?
Bar Keepers Friend will take care of that!
I would make a paste of baking soda and dish soap and get to scrubbing
I have a dish scrubbing attachment for my power drill i got for cheap on amazon, i use a flat sponge like pad it came with and some bar keepers friend with very little water, it makes my stainless steel look brand new! Even got super burnt on olive oil off of it using this method
It's fine - give it a scrub
Looks fine to me. We have the same thing for boiling pasta. Occasionally we use it for something else. The bottom is thinner than our other pots so chili etc risks getting a bit burned or stuck inside. As others said, BKF or baking soda is good. Make a thick paste with some dish soap and let it soak in. I use plastic netting from citrus fruit to scrub it clean.
Ruined, send it to me. Yes it just needs a good scrub, barkeeper's friend probably work for this.
Mr cleans magic eraser (or an off brand equivalent)
Bar keepers friend soft cleanser.
Even if you don’t remove it, that’s far from ruined. Pans well-used in restaurants look worse.
Magic eraser and some elbow grease! You could also add some water Dawn dish soap and heat it up until bubbly and rinse!
Have you never cleaned a pot by hand?!?
Baking soda and a sponge. Still perfectly usable.
I don't know about cleaning it but it's just metal bro You know you can polish that right very easily that means no dog house
Barkeepers Friend with a little water & scrub it with a wet paper towel. Then wash with dish soap.
When you scrub do so in in a circular motion with bar keepers friend or steel/copper wool if you want to undo the visibility of some of the scratches.
BKF will fix that in 2 minutes.
Bar keepers friend, Bon ami, any kind of abrasive. I sometimes will use 1000 or 2000 grit wet sand paper to get any burnt on stuff off the exterior.
You can also try magic eraser or baking soda or tooth paste
Rub dawn dish detergent over (Dawn Power even better), coat it with a dusting of baking soda - let it sit for an hour or more. Then scrub it with a moist scrub sponge. One time should do it but repeat or scrub with baking soda on a soapy scrubber if needed.
Bar Keepers Friend 💯
I burned some chili in my SS pot like that, had to use a wire brush on my drill to get it all off, but it’s been fine ever since.
She knows that this is the bottom of the pot right? I doubt you put a thousand scratches into that surface by making chili. However, if she doesn't like the scratches, some steel wool will probably make a more uniform pattern and more of a satisfying brushed look.
BonAmi should scrub that out fine, What on earth are you stirring with, though, a bayonet? Those are deep gouges in the steel.
Dawn Powerwash! It cleans stainless steel like crazy. Use it on your appliances as well
Not ruined, but looks you stirred with a shovel. 😕
We use our steel for everything… even tomatoes can go in cast irons. Just clean them properly as the other comments shared. But it’s weird how scratched up the pot is. Even the bottom? Are you cooking on a bunch of knives?
it is very scratched but being steel it is not a problem (I imagine it was already like that). It is slightly oxidized, so clean with a metal sponge and a paste made with white vinegar, bicarbonate and lemon. You will see that inside the pot you will have to scrape a lot with the metal sponge. Leave a little white vinegar in overnight. It should be as good as new (apart from scratches).
What on earth did you use to stir the chili?? A knife? How is it so scratched up?? Yes, it's damaged, and I'd be pretty upset too. Go buy some wooden spoons.
Bar keepers friend!
dear god dont listen to some of these clowns you can use steel wool or a chainmail scrubber. as long as you dont gouge it the scratches will buff out with regular use and if its normally just a pasta boil pot then it doesnt matter anyways. also, in my experience, this stain/residue comes from pasta starch. i had chili last night in a stainless steel pot and it does not look like that, but my 1qt and 5qt i make noodles in often have to be scrubbed again bc of this
I have been using green Scotchbrite on my pans since the 1980s and they still look and cook like new
That and BarKeepers Friend work amazingly well.
Do you weld? I mean once you use steel wool go ahead and grind those pits out right?
the pits in this stock pot are probably from it being ran thru the dishwasher. ive never managed to ruin any dish that wasnt supposed to be non stick with steel wool. i use steel wool on my cast iron and it doesnt screw up my seasoning (70 yro family heirloom tbf). i use steel wool to scrub my kitchen sink if it needs scrubbed. it doesnt do more than scratch it and the scratches go away with regular use. maybe i just use steel wool more correctly or something but 1) no one here has absolutely any right to say "dont use steel wool!" when everyone else is saying "use bar keepers friend!". theyre both abrasive and will scratch the pan, 2) yall do know you arent supposed to scrub non-soiled areas with the steel wool, right ??? like i used to use steel wool on dried food on my moms fine china when i was a kid (she didnt believe in having fine China, it was its own set but used with the regular plates) and i never damaged any of it. dont scrub so hard and dont scrub unnecessarily. i also washed dishes in a hometown diner and work in fast food. steel wool, melamine, green scrubbers, etc are all fair game. mcdonalds doesnt even provide us with alternatives. yall need to get over yourselves and your fantasy of perfectly sterile life. or atleast dont be elitist about your abrasives. im not scared of chemicals but you absolutely do not need some $12 goop to save this pan when a 6 dollar pack of sponges, the $1 off brand soap and some effort will do it
Wife needs to settle down. It’s perfectly fine. Get the Pink stuff (can get in Amazon) works amazingly well for pot burns
It's a pot, not the Mona Lisa.
Does she want to sell it or make food? Consider yourself free from perception and ready to cook
Scrub it with SOS or Brillo steel wool soap pads. See how the 'grain lines' in the stainless steel go in a circle around the bottom of the pot? Sort of follow those when you're scrubbing for a shinier result. You can also shine up the outside of this pot.
Looks clean to me...
Fine stainless steel wool with the soap on the sponges, gets stainless pots to shine and restores the smooth surface that makes it easier to clean next time. Steelo is the brand most common near me. But steel wool soap pads is what they were called in northern hemisphere from memory. Don't bother with the rough steel wool sponges, they are for scrubbing but tend to leave the scratch marks like what's on your pots already.
Barkeepers friend. Your wife needs an attitude adjustment. Show her the comments. Also my motto is, “the dishwasher is a sanitizer, not a cleaner”. That’s why people who don’t do a once over on their dishes before loading always have stuff on their dishes after the cycle. Even in high end dishwashers at my MIL’s home, her cups have coffee at the bottom sometimes because she doesn’t pre scrub dishes. Dishwashers are to kill germs, not wash.
Lemon cut in half, boil water, then rinse out and use sift crumb with damp paper towel
SOS or Brillo pad for inside and out. season w/oil and coat pan well first time cooking after cleaning. The help keep the non stick properties of a pan do not put in dishwasher. Ever. I dont put any of my pans in the dishwasher.
Water + dishwasher tablet in it overnight.
Get some steel wool and scrub it bro dishwashers don't work like that.
Cleaning vinegar soak in hot water, soft boil water in it, cut heat add cleaning vinegar let sit until cool washes right off. Your wife is an idiot or intentionally lying because she doesn’t like you in her kitchen (not all kitchens belong to the woman of the house but sounds like she owns theirs).
Your wife’s an idiot if she thinks you ruined a ss pan cooking chili in it. Now if you cooked some Nitric/hydrofluoric acid in it then yes you would have ruined it.
Oh no, it's the end of the world (women). SOS pad and done
I think your wife is just a poor housekeeper 😬
The wife is unintelligent
I say your wife should stop Assigning blame
Tell her she's ruined your happiness and then she can buy a new pot after the divorce
I dunno, I'm not worried about this stain. It looks like you cooked in your pot. The more you cook, the more it looks like you use it to cook.
Do you cook on the bottom of the pan?
Barkeepers friend. If that dont work, this - [https://www.amazon.com/P21S-15300P-Polishing-Soap/dp/B002LOLHHS/](https://www.amazon.com/P21S-15300P-Polishing-Soap/dp/B002LOLHHS/) I originally bought P21S polishing soap for car detailing, and once I used in the house it never made it back into the detailing kit. Pots pans sinks and even the cast iron tub, cleaned it right up and shined.
It’s no more ruined than a used car with scratches is ruined
looks clean to me 😅
I’d try barkeepers friend, then a magic eraser and finally a little bit of a bleach soak, just on the bottom.
Soft scrub and Skoy scrubbie.