How To Clean Your Pots And Pans

6 cookware cleaning tricks for 6 types of cookware.

Everybody does it. It’s your typical weeknight scenario: You spent all that time prepping and cooking dinner, and when it was finally done, you hastily abandoned your post in the kitchen and ran off to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Pots and pans lay in wait on the stovetop, slowly cooling and congealing. The shimmering oil and grease splatters glisten, and the starches and dairy bits begin to dry, clinging onto your cookware with superhuman strength. While you're relishing in the results of that new recipe you’ve conquered, your cookware is becoming crusty, dusty and cold.

As you might’ve guessed, we’ve got a few cookware cleaning tips. Listen up.

We’d like to cordially introduce you to our favorite pot and pan (and all dishes, really) cleaner: Dawn Platinum Powerwash Dish Spray. It’s ideal for larger pots and pans that can’t be fully submerged to soak in your sink. You just spray down your soiled cookware—no need to even rinse first! The dirtier your pan is, the longer you can let it sit, giving those concentrated suds time to break down the caked-on food and grime. Then just wipe the soap off with a wet sponge or dishcloth, and rinse with hot water. Watch all that gunk just wash away down the drain.

• Rule number one of cast iron: Don’t wash with soap! Dish soap will strip away that hard-earned nonstick coating you’ve curated over the years.
• Instead, try adding a couple tablespoons of oil and kosher salt to the pan and scrubbing that around with a paper towel to loosen food particles.
• If you cook with cast iron a lot, it’s worth investing in a chain-mail scrubber. With this handy tool, you won’t have to waste excess salt and oil every time you use your cast iron cookware.

How to clean copper pots and pans

• Clean the inside of a copper pan the same way you’d clean a nonstick or ceramic pan (you don’t want to be too abrasive).
• Try out Dawn Powerwash for effective results without having to put in too much time and energy. Use that energy to clean your stovetop or load the dishwasher with all those other dirty dishes.
• Use dish soap and warm water with a regular sponge or nylon scrubber.
• You should never use steel wool on copper surfaces, but you can use a gentle abrasive like baking soda.
  • Let your copper cookware soak in soapy water for 30 minutes.
  • Remove from water, and sprinkle some baking soda on a damp sponge, using it to scrub the pot or pan in small circular motions to dislodge those stubborn bits of remaining food or grease.
• If soap and water isn’t doing the trick, try boiling water in the copper pot or pan for about 20 minutes, and then wash and rinse as normal.
• The very thing that makes copper pots and pans so beautiful and luxe is also their most annoyingly high-maintenance trait: the copper coating. Copper reacts to oxygen and slowly becomes tarnished over time. The best way to combat this is with an acid (similar to aluminum).
  • Cut a lemon in half, dip the cut side in kosher salt and then give the outside of your pot or pan a good scrub. The lemon will return the shiny look of the copper, and the salt will remove any rogue food bits or stains.

How to prevent tough grime on pots and pans

The best cleaning advice we can give you, regardless of what material your pots and pans are made of, is to get them soaking as soon as possible. When they’ve cooled, toss them straight into the sink to soak in warm water or coating them with a generous spray of Dawn Powerwash. The longer that food, grime and grease is allowed to harden up on them, the more challenging it will be to remove. Do you future self a favor, and get that cookware on the road to revitalization shortly after using. Think of it as the final step to cooking dinner. Then you get a hall pass to fully relax and enjoy your meal.

We’ve also got a few more suggestions for how to best wash the rest of your dishes, if you’re in the mood for a deep dive down the rabbit hole of informative dishwashing tricks.