There is nothing worse than cooking a beautiful lunch or dinner, enjoy your meal with your family, and then have to face the music of washing your dirty cookware.
Whether you have a dishwasher or not – cleaning greasy pans has always been one of the most hated things in the kitchen.
And if you ever caught yourself trying to clean greasy pans without much success – you might have believed that there’s no better way to get things done.
Luckily, this time, you’re in the right place as we’ll show you exactly how to clean pans and your cookware set without getting into much trouble.
Is There a Way to Avoid Burnt On Grease Pans After Cooking?
We have all wondered at one point. Is there anything we can do to eliminate the mess that’s left behind you in the kitchen?
Or at least, is there anything you can do to avoid leftover grease that is one of the things that makes cleaning a lot harder than it should be?
The best way to prevent non-stick pans from sticking is to grease them, right? But how come all we end up with is hard grease, burnt grease, or very stubborn grease that feels like it will never leave the pan?
Unfortunately, sometimes you have to use as much grease as you usually put, and putting any less will only improve the chances of your food sticking to the pan.
Therefore, we highly recommend worrying less about greasing your pans and more about learning how to remove grease immediately after you finish cooking.
Below, we’ll show you some of the best methods of cleaning and removing grease so you don’t have to feel like you would rather do anything than finally get down to cleaning your pots and pans.
How to Clean Greasy Pans
If you’ve ever felt like you can’t fight grease alone and that there must be something that will help you win this battle – you were right.
The chances are that you’ve tried multiple products that are advertised to help you clean greasy pans. However, did any of these products work?
Not all of them work and the ones that do are usually high-priced – but you’ll be amazed that there’s a better way to clean greasy pans.
How?
Here’s all you will need:
- Baking soda
- Sea salt
- Straight vinegar (white vinegar/distilled vinegar)
- Hot water
- Scouring pad or Steel wool sponge
These are the things you probably have in your kitchen but if not – you can get them at any local store around you.
That’s what we really like about this process – so here’s what you have to do:
- Sprinkle the baking soda powder over the grease and greasy stains
- Spray the baking soda with straight vinegar
- Let it soak and sink in for 5 minutes
- Scrub the pan and then wipe it clean
That’s all you will have to do and this 4-4 technique (4 products and 4 steps) – you won’t damage your precious cookware and yet you’ll get grease off a lot faster and easier than ever before.
Is There Anything You Can Do to Clean Burnt Grease Stains?
If there’s a thing that’s worse than the greasy mess in your pans and pots – then it’s definitely burnt grease stains.
The most important component of cleaning grease is the natural degreaser which is vinegar. We highly recommend using white vinegar or distilled vinegar.
To get the most stubborn greasy stains out – you should apply the vinegar with either a spray bottle or by cloth.
This should cut grease with minimal rubbing but to see the most effect – you should add water 4 times the vinegar you’ve sprayed and let it sit for about 10 minutes.
Rubbing burnt grease stains doesn’t always help and in most situations, it can even make things worse. The worst-case scenario is that you can damage the surface of your cookware.
It’s all about dissolving grease and then removing it rather than trying to remove grease in its worst state.
But if you’re still looking for a bit of help and you aren’t sure if pure vinegar is everything you will need – keep on reading to find an even better solution for the worst-case scenarios.
What Will Dissolve Grease the Best?
We haven’t been dealing with grease in the kitchen only but we’ve also been dealing with grease in a drain and many other places.
While there are highly effective and harsh dissolvings that work magnificently in many different situations – we just can’t use these in the kitchen.
Why not?
Health & safety, and cookware damages.
However, we can do our best to find and introduce the best version of a kitchen grease dissolvent.
As you could notice, distilled vinegar/white vinegar is the best choice out there. Mixing it with baking soda did help a bit.
However, you can also find other natural dissolvents such as alkaline soap. Even dish soap is a decent choice for minor oil spills and messes.
It might even help with grease in some situations or with burnt-on gunk or ketchup, however, going for a better solution is always a smarter choice.
When vinegar or alkaline soap doesn’t work – you have to experiment with other solutions and see what works the best.
We find that mixing baking soda with water to create a paste is a lot more effective in certain situations and even though it might take a bit longer to get things done – it will get the grease off.
Remember, it’s all about softening the grease and then wiping it off rather than scrubbing it off in its prime state.
Heavy Duty Cleaners – Special Tips
If none of that works and you can see the grime at the bottom of your pan, you do have other choices.
Bar Keepers Friend will work miracles both on your stovetop and on your pan. Oven cleaner will work well. And also Method cleaner.
These solutions will wash away and loosen greasy residue in no more than 30 minutes.
However, it’s important to NOT mix chemicals and do NOT leave them on overnight. Mixing chemicals can cause a dangerous reaction. And leaving them on overnight will at the very least scratch your pans and at the very worst destroy them.
Conclusion
You probably knew how to clean greasy pans but we believe that there’s always room to improve and learn a new technique so we are sure that this simple yet effective technique will help many of you.
How did you deal with greasy pans before? Did you ever discover the true power of undiluted vinegar?
We highly recommend paying attention to the process as you don’t want to scrub the grease off and yet you want to do all you can to prevent your cookware from getting damaged.
