Scratched pots | Imamother

zaq

Mon, Jun 01 2020, 1:33 pm

What kind of pots? If nonstick, NEVER use a metal utensil, which will scrape off the coating.
If aluminum, don't leave soaking in water and avoid cooking with tomato sauce, both of which will cause pitting.

Very fine steel wool or a commercially available metal polishing compound may remove some very fine scratches. Scrubbing with corn starch or baking soda will remove grime and restore the shine that a coating of grime hides. You need to find a balance between extending the life of the pot and preserving its looks. The more you scour and polish, the sooner the pot will wear out. If it's good quality, your pot should last a lifetime anyway. If it's flimsy, you could actually wear a hole in it by excessive scouring. OTOH you can't treat it like a cashmere sweater if you want it to get clean--you need to scour, and scouring will leave scratches. The softer the surface, the worse the scratches will be. Stainless steel is better than aluminum for this--but aluminum shines up nicely with steel wool.

Scratches are a part of life. If you use metal utensils, the surface will get scratched. if you let pots bang against each other , they will get scratched. If you treat your pots and pans like a cashmere sweater, never letting them clang against each other, always placing them gently on a rubber pad in the sink, never using on high heat, never allowing anything to burn, never cooking anything sticky, never scraping or stirring with a metal utensil--you're not a real cook but are merely pretending to cook. Maybe you're a newlywed still eating at your parents every Shabbos and YT.

If you're a real cook cooking real meals, your pots will get scratched. the damage is cosmetic only. Like creases in the spine of a book and smudges on the page edges, scratches and dings on cookware are a badge of honor proving that they're being used.