Baking Soda and Pots and Pans

Whether you run your pots and pans through a dishwasher or hand wash them yourself, you know that sometimes pots and pans need extra hands-on time to get them really clean. With the help of baking soda, you can tackle tough stains on your hard working cookware.

Stains on white enamel pots can be cleaned by boiling baking soda and water in the pot for 10 minutes. Dump out the solution and—if you see any remaining stains—scrub the pots with a paste made of baking soda and water.

Return the copper bottoms of your pots and pans to their shiny selves using baking soda. Sprinkle the baking soda on the copper bottom of a pot or pan. Then, pour vinegar over the bottom of the pan and use a half lemon as your "scrub brush." Scrub all over the bottom of the pan. Rinse thoroughly and the bottoms of your pans will be shiny as new again.

Non-stick frying pans can benefit from a mixture of baking soda and water to remove lingering food smells and tastes from the pans. If the frying pans are badly stained, use baking soda to remove the stains by boiling a solution of 4 tablespoons baking soda and 1/2 cups of water in the pan. Rinse thoroughly.

Clean any roasting pan with stuck on food by generously sprinkling the surface with baking soda. Combine 1 cup of hot water and 1/3 cup of vinegar and pour the solution onto the baking soda. The fizzing action caused by the combination of baking soda and vinegar will remove the roasted food particles.

Everyone who has ever burned a pan knows how hard it is to clean off the scorch mark. Next time this happens, cover the bottom of the pan with baking soda and add water to make a thin pasty solution. Heat the pan on the stove until it comes to a boil, then remove it from the heat. (You don't want to burn it again!) Wait for the solution to cool and wipe or scrub the pot to remove the burned-on food.

It doesn't take long for new cookie sheets to start looking like the old ones in the back of the cabinet. That brown stain that doesn't come off no matter how hard you scrub seems to come from nowhere. To return your cookie sheet to gleaming perfection, make a thick paste of baking soda and hydrogen peroxide. Apply it all over the stained area of the cookie sheet. Wait 2 hours. Rub the cleaner off with a cloth or sponge. No heavy scrubbing is necessary. If any stain remains, just rub it with your fingers and it'll come right off. Now, flip the cookie sheet over and repeat the process on the bottom side.