Cleaning Instant Pot (Fav Way to Clean Inner Pot)
Are you an expert in burning food? Diana is known as the germaphobe of our partnership, but today she’s The Burn Queen. She has burnt so many pots that she became an expert on how to clean burnt food off an Instant Pot. This method of cleaning an Instant Pot will have it shiny and clean again.
It’s trying to do so many things at the same time. You start dinner on the stove, and your kids ask for something. You forget about the stove, and you soon smell the food burning. Now you have a big mess to clean! I can’t stand how hard it can be to clean this fancy pressure cooker. I was so determined to get it as clean as possible.
In our test kitchen, we burnt spaghetti, dried caked-on oatmeal, scorched milk, and burnt rice to show you the very best ways to get your instant pot clean. Also, it was much harder to burn food on purpose than you might think! Instant Pots make it so easy to set and forget the food that it’s almost foolproof.
How to Clean Instant Pot
Watch the video to see what we did.
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➡️ Best microfiber cloths
➡️ Our favorite Instant Pot with yogurt button (bestseller on Amazon – I like the 6 quarts)
➡️ Barkeeper’s Friend
cleaning burnt food off the instant pot
It is hard to scrape off a burnt mess from the bottom of an instant pot. We tried various popular cleaning methods, such as using the Barkeeper’s friend, baking soda, and soaking a wet dryer sheet overnight. But none of them worked nearly as well as our newly discovered technique, and we’ll show you how to do it.
Step 1: Cover the stain with water
Fill up the pot as high as possible to cover the burnt area.
Step 2: add one cup of vinegar.
You may use any brand of vinegar you have on hand.
Step 3: press the saute button
Let it simmer for about 10 minutes.
Step 4: scrape off with a spatula
If the burnt food doesn’t pull away easily, pour out the dirty water and start the process again.
Step 5: Use the Barkeeper’s Friend to get rid of food residue
Pour a small amount of the Barkeeper’s Friend on a sponge and scrub away tiny bits stuck on the bottom of the pan, interiors of the burner, and lid.
Step 6: rinse with water.
Be careful not to get water inside the electronics.
Step 7: Wipe with Microfiber cloth.
Make sure that all surfaces are dry to avoid bacteria growth.
Use an old toothbrush with the Barkeeper’s Friend to clean hard-to-reach little creases. Then don’t forget the last step: Dry the creases with a knife wrapped with a microfiber cloth.
IMPORTANT TIP: In case there are any little pieces of stuck-on food or fingerprints left, wipe the pot with some olive oil on a folded paper towel.
If you want to learn more, read our article on How To Clean Bottom Of Pans (When You Don’t Like To Scrub).
We hope you enjoyed our tips. It was worth testing all those methods to find something that made our instant pots look good. Let us know in the comments what works for you.
