: Spots in Stainless Pots after cleaning in self cleaning oven Is there anyway to restore the Stainless finish to a pot that has been cleaned in a self cleaning oven. I burned it so badly it was the only way to salvage the

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A self cleaning oven won't clean pans put in it, only the bits of oven wall that have the right surface and get hot enough. If the pan you put in was dirty, all you've done is burn the food on to it.

Stainless isn't a finish, it's a material, so you may be able to remove the discolouration by polishing or sanding it. But if you make the surface rough, food will stick to it.

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As Chris H already mentioned, the self-cleaning cycle of your oven won't be of much help here. You need some abrasion to get the burned bits out.

Use a coarse salt, such as Kosher Salt, scrub... rinse and repeat.

Start by pouring a good amount of the salt into the pan, and then use paper towels, a real towel, or a sponge to scrub. It may take a bit, and the salt will become black/grey after a bit... rinse it out, and repeat the process until it's all clean.

The salt is fairly abrasive, and will help chew through whatever is burnt onto the pan, but not hard enough to damage your pan (test in a small section first, if you're worried about the finish of the pan).

This method is commonly used to clean out heavily burned-on food bits in cast iron pans as well.