How to clean burnt pan with dryer sheet

Many home cooks take a lot of pride in their pots and pans collection, especially regarding expensive, shiny, stainless steel pans. Unfortunately, regular cooking can and almost inevitably results in occasional burning. There are few things more heartbreaking than cleaning up after dinner, only to realize that your favorite pan has a big, ugly scorch mark.

Luckily, burn marks don't have to be permanent if you know how to get them out. Many people swear by plenty of tips and tricks, including vinegar and baking soda mix, lemons, specialty products, aluminum foil, and more, via the Taste of Home. While these methods are easy enough, they're not always effective, and it can be exhausting trying to find an efficient way to revitalize your cookware and bakeware.

But did you know something you probably have in your laundry room could be a cure-all? According to Kitchn, you can bring your pots and pans back to life with just dryer sheets, dish soap, hot water, and an hour of your valuable time.

Cleaning your pan with a dryer sheet

The best thing you can do when your food has stuck to a pan or you've scorched it is to start cleaning it right away -- even before you sit down to eat. The prep will only take a second.

• Remove the pan from heat and fill it with warm water from the tap.
• Add about a teaspoon of dish soap to the pan as you fill it with water.
• Sit the pan on a trivet on the counter or an empty burner on the stove.
• Place a dryer sheet in the soapy water and make sure to fully submerge it.
• Let the solution sit in the pan for at least an hour. For really bad cases, you may want to let it sit overnight.

After it has sat for at least an hour, pour the solution out of the pan. The grime might not simply pour away, but the worst of it will definitely be loosened and much easier to wipe -- not scrub -- away.

For problem areas that don't come clean, grab a non-scratch scouring pad or scrub sponge and clean as you normally would.

After all the stains have been washed away, you'll want to give the pan a thorough cleaning, since you used a dryer sheet to help lift the stains.

While this method requires several hours of waiting around for the dish soap and dryer sheet to do their job, the level of effort required by you is significantly less. You no longer have to spend hours over the sink scrubbing to clean just one pan.

If you're also tired of scrubbing your blender clean every time you use it, there's a simple trick to speed up that process, as well.

It's here: Our game-changing guide to everyone's favorite room in the house. Your Do-Anything Kitchen gathers the smartest ideas and savviest tricks—from our community, test kitchen, and cooks we love—to help transform your space into its best self.

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