Cleaning your stainless steel pans after a light sauté or sear might be as simple as using warm water and dish soap, but if your cookware has been through a particularly tough session and you’re looking for ways to solve discoloration, buildup, or burnt-on food, the cleanup gets more complicated. Equipping your kitchen with nonstick cookware may feel tempting because it seems easier to clean, but armed with some knowledge about proper upkeep, you’ll find that stainless steel cookware is easy to care for and, unlike your nonstick pans, it will last a lifetime.
We’ve spent years testing the best stainless steel pans, which also means we’ve dirtied, scorched, and baked grease onto hundreds of pieces of cookware. Sure, the internet is full of hacks claiming to offer the best way to clean stainless steel. But after years of cleaning up after ourselves as both home cooks and testers, we feel we have waded through the nonsense to deliver a definitive guide to how to clean stainless steel cookware—even the really tough stains. Read below to learn how to clean stainless steel pans.
General cleaning tips for stainless steel cookware:
Preheat your pan before cooking. One way to ensure that your cookware is easy to clean? Don’t let food get stuck to it in the first place. To make your stainless steel cookware behave more like a nonstick skillet, first, preheat your pan on medium-low heat. You can check if the skillet is hot enough using the water test: Drop a bit of water onto the pan and if it beads up, it’s ready. Next, add your oil to the pan and let it heat. You’ll know the fat is properly preheated when it’s thin and shimmering. Both of these steps will ensure that food does not stick to your cooking surface.
Whenever possible, clean your pan shortly after you use it. We get it, it’s not always possible to clean your pan right after you’re done cooking. You want to eat, after all. But cleaning your pan as soon as you’ve used it means the food won’t have time to harden or bake onto the still-warm pan. Do let it cool down enough that you can touch it without a hot pad though. Running cold water on a blazing hot pan can cause warping.
Deglaze your pan. When you’ve seared a piece of meat like a steak or a pork chop, your pan will have fond and brown bits stuck to the bottom. These bits can be hard to clean off, but also, simply cleaning them would be a massive waste of flavor. Removing excess grease or cooking oil and then pouring wine, vinegar, or just room-temperature water onto your pan while it’s still on low heat on the stove will loosen those browned bits, so you can use a metal spatula to scrape them off the bottom of the pan; it almost feels like magic. Then, add a bit of butter to the pan to mix with the liquid and the fond and voila: You have an instantly sophisticated sauce, and an easier pan to clean. Here’s a recipe, if you want it.
Even if you don’t make a pan sauce, you can use this method (we recommend just using warm water as your liquid) to remove bits of food that have already baked onto your pan.
Wipe your pan dry immediately. Using a microfiber cloth to dry your stainless steel cookware rather than letting it air dry on a dish rack will prevent water spots or that dull glaze that can appear on your pan from hard water.
Everyday stainless steel cleaning techniques
What you’ll need: Our favorite sponge, dish soap, scrub brush, and dish towels.
To clean your stainless steel pan after a night of cooking, simply pour off the excess grease or oil, then clean the pan with warm water and dish soap, using a sponge (our favorite is this Skura style sponge), moving in a continuous circular motion across the cooking surface. If your pan has baked on bits, pour warm water in it while it’s still on the stovetop, then use the spatula you just cooked with, the rough side of your sponge, or a dish brush to scrub the stuck-on bits. You can also let your pan soak in hot water with dish soap for 15 minutes to loosen stuck-on food.
Note that abrasive brushes or sponges will leave small scratches on the surface, but, unlike with a nonstick pan, the scratches won’t damage the pan’s long-term efficacy. Using a soft sponge will also work and it won’t scratch the surface of your pan, but will require more scrubbing.
We also love Dawn Powerwash for cutting through food residue and grease that have really stuck to your cooking surface; it’s a great product to deploy to avoid a prolonged soak. Dish sprays like this include liquid in their formula, so they don’t require water to activate. They’re also fortified with alcohol and other ingredients that are designed to cut through grease, so letting the solution sit on your pan for just a minute or two will make it easy to wipe away grime without much elbow grease or a really abrasive scrubber. Senior staff writer Emily Farris tried a bunch of these dish sprays and found Dawn worked the best, but you can also make your own at home by combining ¼ cup of dish soap, 1 ¾ cups water, 1 ½ teaspoons isopropyl alcohol, and an optional teaspoon of white vinegar.
Drying your pan right away with an absorbent towel will prevent water spots from forming. We like waffle towels for their extra absorbency.
How to clean tougher stains
For the kind of scorched, black stubborn stains that build up on your skillet over time, you’ll need more than a soak in soapy water. You need an abrasive cleaner. Here’s how to use both.
Cleaning with a baking soda slurry
Combine equal parts water and baking soda to make a cleaning paste. Then apply it to your pan and let it sit at least 15 (and up to overnight if you need). Then, using a scouring pad to scrub at the stains on the frying pan. Repeat this process as many times as is necessary.
Cleaning with specialized cleaning solution like Bar Keepers Friend
If your stains aren’t responding to the baking soda slurry, it’s worth trying a stainless steel cleaner. All-Clad makes its own, but we’ve found over the years that the cleaner Bar Keepers Friend works best. Simply apply the cleaning solution to your pan, then, with a slightly damp sponge, scrub in concentric circles to wipe away the grease and grime. Bar Keepers Friend isn’t meant to be left on the surface of your pan for longer periods though. The brand recommends removing the product after one minute to avoid discoloration, so you should scrub as much as you can in around that time frame, then wash and reapply as needed.
How to get rid of water spots or dull residue
If you see a dull, chalky film start to appear on the surface of your stainless steel pan, that’s from oxidization after overheating the cooking surface. Fortunately, there’s an easy fix.
What you’ll need: White vinegar and a microfiber cloth
Make a white vinegar solution using a 1:1 ratio of vinegar and water. Apply it to the pan, then rinse it away and wipe your pan dry. We especially like these microfiber cloths for polishing surfaces.
Should you put your stainless steel pots and pans in the dishwasher?
Most stainless steel cookware brands say their products are dishwasher safe. However, we recommend hand washing, because many stainless steel pans, including those from our favorite stainless steel cookware purveyor, All-Clad, have unsealed rims. This means that the edges of the pan can corrode over time, developing sharp edges that can cut you if you aren’t careful. Even if your stainless-steel cookware has a sealed rim, harsh detergent can damage the chromium oxide layer of your pan, which will make it vulnerable to rusting.
