The Laundry Room Essential That Can Clean Burnt Kitchen Pans In A Pinch

Mistakes are unfortunately inevitable when you're whipping up delicious meals — it's all part of becoming a better chef. Maybe you forgot about your sauce and let it simmer too long, or overcooked your Thanksgiving turkey, or your pan-seared chicken breast didn't follow the 3-2-1 rule. The result of these minor mistakes is usually a burnt pan with hard, sticky residue left behind. These are notoriously a pain to clean and require a degree of elbow grease. But, with one laundry room essential — the drying sheet — you can have those burnt pans looking good as new in no time. 

Dryer sheets are normally placed in the dryer and are activated by the heat to reduce static cling, soften fabrics, and add fresh scents to laundry. But when your burnt pans are paired with a bit of hot water, dish soap, a dryer sheet, and left for an hour (or overnight), the grease will literally glide off when you run it under hot water with soap. The reason this happens is likely that the conditioner in the sheet is released when activated by hot water, which helps dislodge the stubborn gunk.

But how does this method hold up in the real world? On Reddit, the broad consensus among those who have used this hack is that it does indeed work — but with a few caveats. One user noted that their pans were left with the distinctive, fragrant taste of dryer sheets. Another suggested not using this method on a cast-iron pan, as the chemicals can strip away its seasoning and remove its non-stick quality. 

While burnt pans are stubborn to clean, there's a wide range of tried-and-tested cleaning tips that can get them looking shiny and new in no time. One of the kitchen's most trustworthy home remedies is the combination of hot water, baking soda, and vinegar. When it comes to home-cleaning hacks, baking soda takes the crown — from cleaning stubborn grease stains on your exhaust pan to forming a paste to clean your kitchen backsplash. That's because it's a mildly abrasive alkali, which helps dissolve water-resistant stains like grease buildup. To further improve its cleaning properties, acidic components like vinegar or lemon produce a fizzing, carbon dioxide gas to help dislodge even the most stubborn build-up. To use this solution to clean your burnt pans, fill them with equal parts vinegar and boiling water, then add a few tablespoons of baking soda. Let this rest for up to half an hour, and then pour out the liquid and scrub under hot water. 

A more unconventional hack is using a dishwasher pod — but outside the dishwasher. Under running water, scrub your pan with the pod (making sure that you're wearing rubber gloves). This hack works because dishwasher pods are filled to the brim with chemical ingredients designed to break down food residue and grease. Avoid using this hack on pans that you wouldn't normally put in the dishwasher, like cast iron, non-stick, or copper, as the harsh detergents can negatively impact their quality and look.