you might try boiling some water in it.

SOS soap pad....it will work....just keep scrubbing....it will wear away your back porch if you scrub long and hard enough!
Linda c

Oven cleaner.

Try soaking again. Hot water and some dishwasher soap or laundry detergent.
Really, it works!
It might take more than once, but it will eventually come off. Use a plastic scrubber on it the next morning.

Deanna

Bar Keepers Friend, make a paste and let it sit over night.

Claudia

I concur with the suggestion of using Barkeepers Friend. It really works!!

Lori

Barkeepers friend.

My husband was heating up two slices of pizza in one of my new stainless steel pans. He put the lid on, put the heat up too high, and went to watch tv. Words can't describe what that pan looked like.

Again, Barkeepers friend!

1. Oven cleaner over night will do the job.

2. There has been so much talk about stainless steel cannot be seasoned. True, not the same way as cast iron. I have a st. steel frying pan that is very very dark from use, and it is kind of non-stick.

3. For other st. steel pots, I use a wire brush and a cordless electric drill. It takes a few minutes to take off the most stubborn carbonized burnt-on food. No scrubbing needed. When I have parties, trying to be considerate, I try to make sure that everything in the kitchen is ultra clean, because some people feel that a kitchen needs to be surgically clean, I would use the wire brush to clean the bottom of the pots as well. You know how difficult it is to clean the bottom of pots.
dcarch

Barkeepers Friend or Soft Scrub on a Scotch-Brite pad and lots of elbow grease. Works every time.

Dcarch, I've never seen a stainless steel pan that has a finish that darkens. Are you sure your pan is stainless and not a carbon steel? My wok is made from carbon steel and over time it has darkened. It needs to be oiled after each use so that it doesn't rust.

Ann

Yes, it is st. steel. It never rusted.

I am not talking about seasoned like cast iron.

If you have any stainless steel forks or knives that you are not using, try burning them red hot on your stove and let it cool down, you will see some of them will take on a darker patina which can only be removed by sanding.

dcarch

The higher quality stainless steel doesn't darken like that.
I use ss bowls for mixing and often sit one over the gas for a moment to soften butter for something that calls for creaming butter and sugar together.
One cheap bowl has discolored....the better ones do not.
I don't use SS fry pans, but my son does, and he has several Cuisinart frypans that they have had for 22 years....and they are not darkened at all.
Are you sure the pans you are speaking of are not aluminum?
And if you scour your pans with a wire brush, don't they get badly scratched? Why not just use oven cleaner like you recommened to the OP?

I vote for BarKeepers Friend too.

Dcarch, since you mentioned it, my brother's counter needs help like yours (he lives alone at his lake house). How can I tactfully help him clean the grout? Thanks.

Who was it that filled the pans with dish washer soap and something and got them clean without all the scrubbing?

Maybe that would work here.

Cathy, just go to his house and after lunch start wiping the counters. Get a toothbrush out of your purse with a spray bottle of bleach and start scrubbing. If he says anything just say "you know how I am". If he's like my brother he'll know better than to ask, LOL.

Makes me glad I only have one countertop with ceramic tile!

Annie

"Posted by lindac ----------------The higher quality stainless steel doesn't darken like that. ---------------- they have had for 22 years....and they are not darkened at all. Are you sure the pans you are speaking of are not aluminum? And if you scour your pans with a wire brush, don't they get badly scratched? Why not just use oven cleaner like you recommened to the OP?"

Yes, ThatÂs an inexpensive pan that I use (and abuse, LOL). Very thin metal. I use it often because it is thin and gets heated up very quickly for some frying use.
Stainless steel is one of the more difficult metal to machine because it is tough, it is not easily scratched by a wire brush. I do use oven cleaner regularly for general cleaning, but when things get burned and a thick carbon layer gets stuck on it, the wire brush just takes it out in no time. I would not use a wire brush on aluminum.

"Posted by mustangs -----------------Dcarch, since you mentioned it, my brother's counter needs help like yours (he lives alone at his lake house). How can I tactfully help him clean the grout? Thanks."

Haha! When I cook, I really make a mess in the kitchen. I actually donÂt have a lot of time to spend to cook. However, I do make a distinction between being sloppy and unsanitary. I have a way to keep my cook area extremely sanitary without much work, but I am not going into for now. It is not a very common method. It may upset some folks, Not going into it until you guys get to know me a little better. :-)

dcarch

Oh dear............

I can scratch my stainless sink and cook top with steel wool....just a SOS soap pad. I can make a dull spot on a Revere ware stainless pan with something like Comet cleanser....I can't imagine what a wire brush would do.
But as you say it's a cheap pan, and what do you care what it looks like....but if that's so....why bother to clean that bottom at all? if it's been over the fire, surely there are no germs in it.

Dcarch:
I have a set of Stainless Steel Pots and Pans, over 55 years old.
One of them turned Darker but that was from overheating.

They are 304S - Tri Ply SS, made by VOLLRATH, USA.

Any SS will darken if overheated.

Lou

Annie, that was me who did that per Deanna's suggestion, but I'm pretty sure those bread pans had some kind of coating, so it probably wasn't as tough a clean as burned oil. Still, I'd try that or a paste of Barkeepers Friend first. Neither should scratch or discolor the stainless.

Thank you all for your suggestions. This is actually for my son, so I'll let you know what worked!

Thank you!!!

Dcarch, Okay, I'll wait for your "uncommon method". My brother doesn't make a distinction between being sloppy and unsanitary.

"Posted by mustangs ----------Dcarch, Okay, I'll wait for your "uncommon method". My brother doesn't make a distinction between being sloppy and unsanitary. "

OK. I promise. :-)

dcarch

i see this conversation is a few years old, however it's 2016 and i'll bring it up to date: last night ..... very badly burned olive oil in the bottom of a not-very-spendy stainless steel pan .... the fixer: BARKEEPERS FRIEND .... HANDS DOWN ... i read this site and a few others to get the fix and b/c i own barkeepers friend {bf for easier typing} i tried it ... amazing ... completely AMAZING ... the oil was heavily burned on and i figured i would probably not get it off ... i shook the bottle, squirted a bit in the bottom of the pan, enough to cover the oil burn, let it sit for ...... uh, maybe 15 mins {i'm impatient} took my non-abrasive green and yellow scrubber and in a circular motion started scrubbing the oil off .... took me about three tries, each time leaving it on the burn a bit longer, not overnight, and voila ... amazingly the burn is gone .... thanks for all the advice here .... i appreciate it ... bf is a great product and i will not be without it now ....

i've belonged to gardenweb for about 20 years, before it became so *sophisticated* and this is a wonderful site, sooooo much information on so many topics ... i love it here .... thanks again .... darlene

If none of these work, try this. I did it once when I scorched some jam in an enamel pot. I put water and white vinegar in it just enough to cover and brought it to a boil. As it boiled, I used a wooden spoon to gently scrape the burnt stuff off. The scorch gradually lifted off in small pieces. I had to pour it off and re-do about 3 or 4 times but it finally all came loose. Good luck.

I did not have that much success with Bar Keeper's Friend, and so I ordered some Dawn Power Dissolver, as I also need to remove some burned on olive oil from my All Clad skillet. With my Revereware skillet, I used BKF and left it in the skillet with some water, which I heated, covered, and left for several days, but the burned oil still did not all come off. I'm hoping DPD will work better.

Why do none of the cooking shows ever have this problem? It looks like they use a brand new skillet for each dish that they prepare, especially ATK. I would like to see them clean a used skillet for once.

I received my Dawn Power Dissolver today from Amazon, and it beat Barkeeper's Friend. I just sprayed some on the pan, covered it (because of the fumes/smell), and half an hour later, the burned-on grease wiped away with a soft sponge - no scrubbing required. It reminded me of how the over cleaners worked back when we used to use them (not me personally).

If you have not tried DPD, I cannot recommend it highly enough! Thanks, Nancy, for that recommendation. I was not sure where to buy it, which is why I ordered it from Amazon, and I don't have much time to go to stores right now.