Does boiling a pot of rice dry count? (Or beans, which I managed to do just last week.) The pot survived both incidents, although the smell in the kitchen lingered for days, but it took a lot of scrubbing to get the burned-on food residue out of that pot.

My mother did once: A Revereware stainless pot, boiled dry on an old electric stove with the coiled burners. By the time it was discovered, the pot was at its melting point, and dripped a couple of blobs of metal onto the burner when it was lifted up (which, thankfully, did not adhere to the burner).

So that pot, no, wasn't salvageable.

One time three years ago I put on a pot of eggs to hard boil, then promptly drove 45 minutes to meet my mom for lunch. When I got to lunch I realized what I'd done, and called my husband who rushed home from work (only five minutes away) to assess the damage. That pot did not survive, and I swear I still get a whiff of burnt egg in our upper cabinets sometimes. More recently I have let pots boil dry (with or without food in them) and been able to save them with bar keepers friend.

I killed an enameled dutch oven completely all because I had burned some milk on the bottom. I was having a heck of a time getting the black bits off, so I tried to boil some lemon and water in it to soften it up. And then got distracted. When I finally remembered the pot, it was completely black on the bottom. Washing that away revealed an enameled bottom full of spiderweb cracks. Oops. The upside was that I finally had a good reason to buy a new Staub dutch oven.

My reverewear just suffered a mishap with peach butter... I fell asleep. It took a lot of elbow grease, dawn and barkeep's friend to get it back, but those things are well built.

Next time, put the pot in a heavy duty garbage bag with some ammonia & knot it so it's virturally air tight. Let it set overnight. (I usually set mine on the patio so I can open it outside). It'll pretty much wipe clean & be good as new - inside & out. No elbow grease required.

Learned this trick from my dad when I was very young (ahem, a very long time ago). I've burned a few pots but never scrubbed one. Great way to clean oven & grill racks too.

i wanted to stew some apricots a couple of years ago and forgot all about them and had a tarry black horrid mess. i got what i could off but then decided to chuck the saucepan, when my dad stepped in and said he would not allow me to throw it away - and so he scrubbed it clean for me. now i honestly cannot remember which saucepan it was.

but i learnt a lesson and stay put in the kitchen if i am cooking fruit.

baking soda + vinegar.... I use it to get the scorch off my stove top espresso pot regularly

I often use a lemon soak to remove burned on bits, but will definitely look into the amonia/trashbag trick posted above, anyone else have any experience with that?

Make a thick slurry of baking soda and water and heat on the stove until it is beginning to dry out. Let it cool just enough to handle and scrub -- much of the black will flake off. You don't even have to scrub super-hard, though it helps to use a brush or something like that. I've revived some nearly ruined pans this way. Sometimes it takes a few of these treatments, then elbow grease and scrubbing with cleanser to get the last stubborn bits.

Pour some coke into the pan and let it soak overnight or for a couple days. Worked wonders on a pot that I thought was destroyed.

Just had this happen a month ago. I caught it pretty early, immediately put about an inch of hot water in, the water instantly came to a boil because the pan was so hot. I let that sit for a few minutes and the black stuff came up easily with a scrubby sponge.

My mother and my mother-in-law used to tell me to put a spoonful of cream of tartar and some water in the pot and boil it and it will remove everything burnt inside the pot. I've also found that baking soda and water does the same thing. The inside of the pot will usually still be a bit discolored, but it's perfectly safe and still usable.

I boiled a small amount of water in my All-clad pot and completely forgot about it over night. My pot looked exactly like the pot above. I washed it with Bar keepers friend many times and though it still has visible stain, I still use it.

Bar Keepers Friend is a highly effective cleaning product, but please be aware that it was given a grade of "F" by the Environmental Working Group. Its active ingredient is oxalic acid. An F grade means: "Potentially significant hazards to health or the environment or poor ingredient disclosure." Since the package plainly states that oxalic acid is the active ingredient, it must be a potentially significant environmental or health hazard.

I've *JUST* done it, like 10 minutes ago.

It happens to me a lot when I'm busy. I use steel wool, the ones for cleaning barbecue, always come out like new.

I'm afraid to tell people, but I also use steel wool to clean my BMW rims. The original rims have magnetic property with greasy dirt. For the first 2 years, my rims are always black after 2 days of washing. Since I polished it with steel wool, they stay clean!

Many years ago I accidentally left an aluminum saucepan on an electric burner until the water boiled away and the the pot bottom completely melted. When the giant blob of aluminum cooled it popped right off the burner. I was about 11 years old at the time, and I found it fascinating!

Finally something where I have real expertise - that is, I am an expert at walking away from the stove and forgetting about things I'm cooking.

My fallback method is to simmer baking soda in water for 15 minutes or half an hour, repeating if necessary. It works amazingly, magically well. The most crusted on black burned mess will fall right off leaving a sparkling pan. I am very generous with the amount of baking soda I use - even a cup or two of it - and then add enough water to make it a liquid. The only time this didn't work is with an enameled cast iron pot on which the enamel cracked. But usually it works even with enameled cast iron.

I've learned whenever possible to use the oven, not the cooktop.

Steel wool. I just used it a couple of days ago on my stainless (I'm also a fan of the Brillo pad in an emergency.) I'm intrigued by the ammonia trick though ...

I used a can of oven cleaner and it worked beautifully.

No mention of Bon Ami? That would be the first thing I'd try.

Elbow grease? Mother's Powerball.

To the BMW owner, stay away from silicone polishes (armour all, etc) as they attract dust. Also, try a different brake pad. Thirdly, try a wheel wax; then you can just spray the brake dust off.

Okay, I really don't want to admit this, but once when I was in college I did this to an enameled cast iron pan. I sprayed it with oven cleaner and it was good as new. I can't imagine using something that toxic now...however, it saved a the pan.

Oven cleaner does work tho it reqires a bit of elbow grease & is MUCH more toxic than ammonia. Hey, call me lazy but I prefer the remedy that requires the least amount of effort.

i do this all the time.. burning stuff in stainless steel pots and pans.

my first move is to fill the pot/pan with water to cover the burnt parts and bring it to a boil then boil for about 2-3 minutes. immediately drain and start scrubbing. most of whatever is stuck should come off (even charred cheese).

really tough stuff (high heat frying splatter residue) probably won't all come off. i will then (after the boil n scrub) put it in the oven and turn on auto clean. make sure it does not have plastic or wood parts. it will cause a yellow tint to the pot/pan but comes out squeaky clean!

If the offender is burnt sugar on the pan, boiling some hydrogen peroxide causes it to flake right off like magic.

I was making some cinnamon tea...using real cinnamon sticks and boiled some water I set it on low while checking some emails...all of a sudden i hear this crackling noise and im thinking that's strange...then the crackling gets louder and i can smell the cinnamon and *DING* I remember the tea!! I ran over there...and the pot was blackened all along the base. I felt terrible beacuse it's a pot i got from my grandmother a while ago. I'm hoping i can save it with these tips. (From now on i think i'll stick to cinnamon tea bags. My house smelled like i had a campfire indoors using cincamon stcks for a few days!) LOL

WRT oven cleaner ... I had no idea what other uses can be made of it, and now I can add this - cleaning burnt pots!

My elderly mother lives on a farm and the well water contains a lot of iron, which stains the sinks and shower walls. When she was recuperating from a fall, I called Molly Maid to come and do cleaning for her ...

Rust stains on the ceramic tile? Out came Easy-Off Oven Cleaner from the handy bag of tricks. Spray it on, let it work for a while, wipe clean with cold water and a sponge ... stains gone :-D

Wow! A cooking Pot designed to be heated to high temperatures was heated to nearly 2000 degrees Fahrenheit with a conventional electric stove? more likely the plastic handle melted. Side note: If metal is heated to melting point, don't lift it up.