How To Remove Burnt-On Stains From Your Ceramic Cookware

With its superb capability of keeping food from sticking to pans and its aesthetically pleasing appearance, ceramic cookware has grown in popularity with home cooks in recent years. Still, just like other forms of cookware, it can accumulate burnt-on stains. There are plenty of pantry ingredients that can clean burnt pans, and we found an expert who knows just what to use if those pans are ceramic.

As a cake decorating instructor for over 35 years and school director at the Wilton Sweet Studio, Sandy Folsom has seen her share of stains on cookware. To deal with them, she said "Dish soap, a non-abrasive powder, like baking soda, and some good old fashioned elbow grease should remove most stubborn stains." However, for persistent stains, dish soap and baking soda won't always do the trick. For that, you'll have to reach for another common pantry item.

Just as vinegar can remove chocolate stains from carpets and clothing, it can also make your pans look new. Adding another ingredient helps it work even better. As Folsom said, "Depending on the type of pan you are using you can add a little vinegar and lemon juice as well and let the pan soak overnight." The citric acid in lemon juice (which is great for cleaning plastic cutting boards) and the acetic acid in white vinegar are more powerful when used together than separately. You can also bring the mixture to a boil for a couple of minutes to help break apart the stains (though be aware of irritating vinegar fumes here), then let it continue to soak overnight to eliminate extra-tough stains.

Vinegar and lemon juice work well for removing stains from ceramic not only because of the acid in each ingredient, but they are also typically gentler than household cleaners you can purchase at the store. While they may be ideal for cooking a wide variety of cuisines, ceramic pans are a bit more delicate than their stainless steel alternatives and need to be treated with extra care to last as long as possible.

Ideally, a little forethought will mean you won't ever have to use a vinegar and lemon juice solution. "The best way to prevent stains on cookware is to clean, or at least rinse off, your pans as soon as possible after using them," noted Folsom. Still, be cautious about rinsing off ceramic pans before they have had a chance to cool down because significant temperature changes — say, from a hot stovetop to cool tap water — can damage them.

As Folsom suggested, a combination of dish soap and baking soda will often make your cookware sparkle like new if you don't want the strong scent of vinegar wafting through your kitchen — but it may take some scrubbing. "Just make sure not to use anything abrasive like steel wool or aluminum foil on pans with a non-stick or enamel coating as these will damage your pans," she cautioned. If you try and take a shortcut by using an abrasive scrubber, the stain might be gone ... but you will likely end up with a scratched-up pan that has lost some of its nonstick capability.