The Complete Guide to Maintaining Stainless Clad Cookware

When working with the best cookware material, you want to be extra careful you are doing everything you can to preserve your pots and pans for years to come. Whether you are trying to remove rust from Stainless Clad or get rid of annoying calcium deposits, we have a few tips that can help keep your Cookware looking good as new. Read on for our recommended Stainless Clad cleaning and care tips.

How to Clean Stainless Clad

There are a few different methods we recommend for cleaning Stainless Clad depending on the level of damage. You can follow along with our video, read on for step-by-step directions, or check out our article on cleaning Stainless Clad Pans.

An important thing to keep in mind when cleaning Stainless Clad Cookware is to avoid using an abrasive sponge like steel wool when scrubbing. Steel wool, scouring pads, oven cleaners, bleach, or strong abrasive cleaners (although seemingly effective) can scratch and damage your Stainless Clad Pan.

Best for: A regular cleaning without much food residue left behind.

• Wipe out any cooled oil or residue in the Pan with a paper towel.
• Using dish soap and a dish sponge, scrub the interior and exterior of the Pan.
• Rinse off the dish soap with warm water.
• Dry the Pan immediately after washing to prevent water spots.

Best for: Burnt-on food bits and stubborn remnants.

• Scrub the interior of the pan with the abrasive side of a dish sponge, dish soap, and warm water. This should loosen up some of the food remnants.
• Pour in a cleaning solution like our Make it New Cleaner or Barkeeper's Friend, then add in enough water to create a paste. Baking soda and vinegar works well here too, just don't add water.
• Using a new sponge or an old toothbrush, work the paste into both the interior and exterior of the Pan. If you have space, put the Pan on your countertop on top of a dish towel to get better leverage for scrubbing stubborn stains.
• Once the remnants or burnt bits have been visibly removed and cleaned off, wash the paste off both sides of the Pan.
• Dry immediately with a dish towel or paper towel.

Best for: Severely burnt-on food bits, like scrambled eggs.

• Pour in enough water to cover the bottom of the Pan and any food remnants, usually around a half inch. If the food bits are very burnt or very stuck on, use a 50/50 solution of vinegar and water.
• Bring the water to a boil on the stovetop over low to medium heat. This helps loosen those food bits from the surface of the Pan.
• Once the water has boiled, carefully use a utensil like a Wooden Spoon (anything metal will scratch the surface of your Pan) to loosen and release stuck-on food.
• Once the food bits have been removed, let the solution cool before pouring down the drain.
• Finish cleaning your Pan with soap and water. Dry immediately with a dish towel or paper towel.

How to Clean Calcium Deposits

Calcium is commonly found in water supplies, and can cause chalky white spots to appear on your Stainless Clad Cookware (especially if they aren't dried right after cleaning). While these aren't hazardous or harmful for your health, we don't blame you for wanting to get your Stainless Clad back to shiny and new.

Check out our guide on how to remove calcium deposits for an in-depth dive into removing these spots once and for all.

Removing Heat Tint

Even though Stainless Clad Cookware is oven-safe up to 800F, overheating is usually the culprit of discoloration, or a rainbow stain, on your pots and pans. While this has no effect on the cooking performance of your Stainless Clad, it can be an unsightly mark on the interior of your Pans.

Luckily, our guide on cleaning rainbow stains from Stainless Clad will help you clean that stain and get your Pans looking like they're fresh out of the box.

Removing Water Spots

Water spots are caused by not immediately drying your pots and pans after washing them. To fix this, simply wet your surface, wet a soft sponge and sprinkle baking soda or our Make It New cleaner on it, then rinse and dry the pot or pan as normal with a clean, dry cloth.

How to Get Rid of Pitting

Unfortunately pitting is commonly the result of adding salt to the water before it's boiling, caused by a chemical reaction between the salt and the metal. This can't be fixed, but can only be prevented by not adding salt until water is fully boiled. Pitting does not affect the performance of your cookware.

Check out our post on how to prevent pitting in Stainless Clad to avoid damaging the interior of your Cookware.

While caring and cleaning for Stainless Clad takes a bit more care than Non Stick and other types of Cookware, we believe the benefits easily outweigh the occasional hassle of cleaning.

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