Thursday, January 5, 2012

Dawn Dish Washing Detergent + Baking Soda = Clean Soup Pot

Pinterest is full of interesting cleaning tips involving Dawn dish washing detergent. I'm going to try this one with Dawn and white vinegar as soon as I get a spray bottle.

I've used Dawn to clean my stubbornly grimy kitchen floor with great success in the past. It needs the Dawn treatment again.

It seems people are starting to jump on the Dawn bandwagon. But, does Dawn work on things that really involve elbow grease? Tonight, I put it to the test.

The entire bottom of the pot was black. This is after weeks of scrubbing.
A week or so before Christmas, I made cream of broccoli soup in my smallest soup pot. I was in one of my crazy, multi-tasking moods (only trying to do 10 things at once this time), and wasn't giving the soup my full attention. It really needed the heat turned down, but I didn't get to it. So, it did what all ignored milk-based soups do. It burned. The entire bottom of the pot was black and has been soaking in my kitchen sink ever since.

I've scrubbed it several times with baking soda. My mother in law scrubbed it with a scrub brush. We both managed to get a lot of the grime off using lots and lots of muscle power. But, enough of it remained that I wasn't ready to put this pot back into the cupboard yet.

All the talk about Dawn got me thinking. Why not mix the dish soap with baking soda and see what happens? 
I sprinkled a liberal amount of baking soda on the pan and covered it with dish detergent. I used a damp (not dripping) rag and scrubbed. The black spots came off easily! It was much easier than when I used the baking soda alone. The detergent made it slippery and pulled the scorch marks off with ease. (I tried it with a dripping wet rag and that diluted the baking soda and detergent too much to be effective.)

Still needs a bit of work, but this soup pot is almost completely recovered!
I'm thrilled to be able to put this soup pot back into the rotation.

Up next, can you really make your own Oxi-Clean with Dawn and a few other ingredients? Stay tuned for more information.


  1. Barkeeper's Friend will do an amazing job on your pan without damaging it at all. It's a cleaner for stainless steel and aluminum. I'm betting you can get the inside to look as shiny as the outside, if you try it.

    It's one of the 'must haves' in my kitchen. :)

  2. I've had luck cleaning burned pans by putting water with some salt in the pan and simmering on teh stove for an hour. The burned on grime usually comes loose.

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