Hi,
I burnt some food onto my stainless steel pan! In searching for a method to get it out on youtube, I came across videos suggesting boiling water mixed with vinegar or baking soda, or both.
Now, I get it that either the acid from vinegar or the base from soda can aid in cleaning the pan, but I fail to see how adding vinegar AND baking soda at the same time would work. Wouldn’t they just neutralise each other and you end up with …. water? I feel like together they would work less efficiently than either one of them alone, since in essence it’s equivalent to adding whatever amount of either one that is in surplus.
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I think people see the bubbling effect and think it’s doing something like scrubbing or lifting up the dirt but really it’s just making carbon dioxide and saltwater
They both work as cleaning products when separate. You are 100% correct, mixing them destroys their cleaning ability.
It doesn’t. People who tell you to mix it together failed high school chemistry. It just creates fizzy salt water. It is effective in cleaning fabrics or carpets if you soak the stain in a baking soda solution and pour vinegar over it.
Baking soda, in addition to being a base, can be an abrasive similar to what a [scouring powder](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scouring_powder) would use; this will also help with cleaning. Even if all of the base properties are neutralized by the acid of the vinegar, it will still have some effect. Of course, other abrasives could be used, but baking soda is food grade and relatively easy to get.
So mixing vinegar and baking soda could create a scouring solution that is neutral, food grade, and accessible. Not *as* aggressive as a simply basic solution of just baking powder, or an acidic scouring solution, but sometimes less aggressive is what is wanted.
ETA: it’s still possible the video was simply wrong if it wasn’t trying to describe a milder cleaning method or taking advantage of the abrasive properties of the baking soda, but because it would still work at least a little it’s completely possible they are getting false positives on their work; even boiling plain water will lift some pan/pot stains. Also, it’s really hard to fully balance any acid/base pair without careful measuring; they are probably still getting one or the other (and therefore the benefits of either an acid or base soak) instead of ending up with a truly neutral solution.
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