Allister > wrote:
>Does anyone have any suggestions on any products that I could use to
>polish these up so I can get them back the way they were? I'm
>guessing that people do this every now and again to keep them in good
>shape?

Usually it's not needed for stainless steel. You can clean
the inside with soap and water and a green plastic scrubber pad.
I let stuck-on animal fat soak in soapy hot water for a few
minutes.

You'll get blue or white stains on the "stainless" steel,
which will come out with a mild oxalic-acid cleanser like
Barkeeper's Friend.

You'll get hard brown baked-on deposits (it's actually
polymerized oil--you've made your own plastic!) on the
outside of stainless that will come off with an SOS pad,
hot water, and a minimum of elbow grease, and it won't
leave scratches on the mirrored outside; I don't need it
on the brushed-finish inside, though I imagine it would
affect the ridge pattern on the finish and make it look
less orderly and more scratchy.

Rough scraping with cooking tools and burner grates will
scratch stainless; there's no way to avoid that, and it's
purely aesthetic.

Normal roughening won't affect cooking at all; if you have
a lot of trouble with sticking, lower the heat, it's probably
too high. Some things you want to stick, so you have lots of
stuck-on goodies to use for gravy.

>Thanks again for useful information anyone might post.

--Blair
"De nada."