Oh god I hope it's OK, otherwise I'm gonna have to buy all new pans...

I wouldn't worry about it if you can cook in them fine. I had to replace my cooking sheets recently as THE WHOLE THING has a very dark patina that was burning things everytime I used them. It was holding a lot of heat, but it was quite built up from too much fish bakes.

*many fish bakes.

I have a few like this and was hoping the final word would be that it was allright to use them...WHEW!

I bet it's alright, unless the buildup is enormous. I find that giving stainless like this a scrub right after baking with a baking soda slurry-you can even do this now, helps keep the buildup to a minimum.

If the built up residue on your cookware gets too thick you can remove it with oven cleaner. Just put the pan in the sink, spray it with a thin film of cleaner and let it sit for a while. Built up gunk will wipe right off. Cheaper than buying new pans.

I second the baking soda.

I use Barkeeper's Friend or Bon Ami for this too, which seems to work pretty well.

wow that gunk actually has a name? who knew!

@toddtaylor13 - Thanks for the oven cleaner tip, I'm going to try that out. I've used steel wool before but the less work the better. Plus the oven cleaner won't scratch - sweet.

I'm guilty, but don't feel so bad now. Patina sounds much better than "goo."

My oven mitts don't look much better. Anyone?

Oven mitts? You do send them through the wash periodically, don't you? I use Shout on the oily parts and my mitts always come out clean.

Oh yeah, my oven mitts, too. Mostly because they have been, uh, lightly toasted.

I was recently doing disshes and my pizza cutter ran across the baking sheet. it took a lot of patina with it! I was surprised, i thought that gunk was there to stay (without the use of harsh chemicals). The pizza cutter got the gunk off the sides beautifully without messing with the non stick coating. Weird discovery, but now all my baking pans are clean!

So glad to see this post, because I always wondered if it was doing something bad to the pan. :)

I work in a bakery and all of our pans have some 'patina'. it's basically oil that's been baked on again and again (and tends to build up in corners and things that are harder to clean no matter how much you scrub). think of it as a little added non-stick protection. while I would definitely still try to clean your pans thoroughly after each use, (and definitely romove anything chunky), this will still build up, and it's not really worth the effort or necessary to remove.

i have some pans that i leave the patina on and others that i scrub it off - some jelly roll pans that have them just seem to make better tasting food :-)

toddtaylor13 and violetcassis:
Do you know how TOXIC oven cleaner is? Just read the contents on the can. It's bad to use it in the vessel where you cook your food but to spray it on your pans where food touches?

Please, NO NO NO!!!

My dad who is trained as a chef told me the patina on pans is GOOD and that it makes food cooked on them so much better-- and stick less.

Since he said that, I've built up a nice patina some cookie sheets and baking tins and it seems to be working out just fine!

And oven cleaner? Good lord, people still use that?

I just bought a new pan, and the packaging says:

You may notice slight discoloration from the [vegetable cooking] spray; this won't hurt your pan's performance.

I think the slight discoloration they're talking about is what we're talking about as patina.