How to clean stainless steel pans, burnt bits too

A stainless steel pan will survive almost anything except neglect, and even a pan that looks ruined usually is not. The trick is using the right method for the mark in front of you. Brute force with a scourer works, but it scratches the surface, and scratched steel grips food more. Here is the gentler order of attack.

Everyday washing

1. Deglaze while warm. As soon as you have plated the food, pour a splash of water into the warm pan. Browned bits lift away with a wooden spoon in seconds. (If they are tasty, that is a sauce; see our guide to stopping food sticking to stainless steel.)
2. Let it cool before plunging. A very hot pan dropped into cold water can warp, and a warped base heats unevenly.
3. Wash with hot soapy water and a sponge or non-scratch scourer, inside and out.
4. Dry it straight away. Water left to evaporate leaves spots, especially with hard tap water.

If the pan has touched raw meat, poultry or fish, the UK Food Standards Agency's rule applies to it as to every surface and utensil: wash thoroughly with warm soapy water afterwards so bacteria are not spread around the kitchen¹. Then wash the sponge too, or put it in a hot dishwasher cycle.

Burnt-on food

When something has really caught, do not start with metal.

1. Soak. Fill the pan with hot water and a little washing-up liquid and leave it for 20 to 30 minutes.
2. Simmer. If the food is still stuck, empty the pan, add a few centimetres of fresh water and a tablespoon of baking soda (bicarbonate of soda), and bring it to a gentle simmer for 5 to 10 minutes. The same simmer-then-scrape trick is what cast iron makers recommend for their pans².
3. Scrape gently. Let the pan cool, then work at the softened residue with a wooden spatula or a plastic pan scraper.
4. Paste for the rest. Mix baking soda with a little water into a thick paste, rub it over the remaining marks with a soft scourer, then rinse.

Repeat once if needed. Patience removes what scrubbing cannot.

Rainbow stains and white spots

Rainbow or bluish marks appear when steel gets very hot, for example when a pan is heated empty or a thin layer of oil burns off. It is a thin surface tint, not damage. Pour in a splash of white vinegar or lemon juice, wipe it round with a soft cloth, then wash and dry as usual.

White, chalky spots or rings are minerals from hard water, or occasionally starch from boiling pasta and potatoes. They respond to the same splash of vinegar. For a pan with lots of scale, add a cup of water and a cup of vinegar, bring it to the boil, leave it to cool and wash.

Small pits after salting cold water happen when salt crystals sit on the bottom of a pan of cold water for a while. Add salt once the water is hot, and stir it in.

Brown and black marks on the outside

The base and sides of a pan gradually collect a brown film of polymerised grease, especially on gas. It is cosmetic. To lift it, make a thick paste of baking soda and water, spread it over the marks, leave it for 20 minutes, then scrub with a non-scratch scourer. A dedicated stainless steel cleaner works faster; follow the label and rinse well.

A blackened ring on the base, or a darker exposed aluminium edge on clad pans, is normal wear. As long as the cooking surface is clean, the pan cooks just as well.

What not to do

• Do not use bleach or chlorine cleaners on steel; they can pit the surface.
• Do not leave steel wool or rough scourers as your first tool. They work, but leave fine scratches that hold food.
• Do not store food in the pan. Move leftovers into a container once they have cooled, and into the fridge within one to two hours of cooking¹.
• Do not heat it empty for long. That is where most rainbow stains and burnt oil come from.

What a new steel pan releases

Stainless steel is not entirely inert. In a 2013 laboratory study, researchers simmered tomato sauce in different grades of stainless steel and in a saucepan for 2 to 20 hours, and measured the nickel and chromium that moved into it³. After six hours, nickel rose up to 26-fold and chromium up to 7-fold, depending on the steel grade³. The amounts fell with each repeated cooking cycle and stabilised after the sixth, though the steel still added measurable amounts to the food³.

The authors point to people with nickel allergy: small oral doses of nickel can trigger dermatitis in those already sensitised³. For most people this is no reason to give up stainless steel. If you have a nickel allergy, the study suggests three simple habits: avoid long acidic simmers in a brand new steel pan, use enamelled cast iron or glass for tomato sauces that cook for hours, and never store acidic food in the pan.

Keeping it looking new

• Dry the pan straight after washing, and buff it with a dry tea towel for shine.
• Once a month or so, give it a vinegar wipe to remove the slow build-up of mineral spots.
• Heat it before adding fat and keep the heat at medium for most cooking. Steel does not need fierce heat to brown, and lower heat means fewer stains.

Look after it this way and a good steel pan will still be in daily use in twenty years. For deciding what else belongs in your kitchen, our cheat sheet of which pan to use for which job is a good next stop.