My careless housemate has left a pan on the hob with nothing in it.... and it is now BLACK! Any ideas who to clean it up and whether it is possible? I have tried warming the pan with some soapy water and a steel wool scourer which worked ok but it still looks pretty bad! Suggestions very welcome :-)

There are special, non scraching, cleaners you could try but I fear that it will never return to the beauty of it's youth, it should be fine to use though and may well improve it it is used and then carfully cleaned for a while or you may get used to the way it looks. Is it a problem that the landlord will want it replaced, if so then I would get your house mate to pay up now whilst it is clear who's fault it is.

I had a pan like that - I put vinegar in, and left it boiling, think for about 10 mins - it got rid of all the black.  Might have to do it more than once, but when you wash it, the black should come away.

If it's stanless steel with no non-stick then a metal scourer will do fine :-)  It just takes a lot of elbow grease.  Corossive stuff like vinegar and maybe even lemon juice (or raw pineapple if my lips were anything to go by lol)

Thanks, will try some vinegar! No worries about the landlord, it's my pan! ha ha!

My grandad (this is typical of the man) thought to take a metal scourer to all of our pans when he was babysitting one day. The "black" annoyed him.  Mum and dad came home to lovely sparkling steel pans :-)  Only problem was that the "black" was actually the non-stick and he had taken the whole lot off. 
It may take a few washes but you will get the pan clean again - my tenants successfully blackened every cooking implement in my kitchen and it has taken several good scrubs to get it back to habitable.

My housemate commented how good it looks just after the metal scourer.... cheeky mare! I am hoping the vinegar trick will work... if not I will assign her the job of scouring until its sparkling... she could do with the exercise! :-P

MEAOWWWW!!! :-)  Hehe.  Well she can just pay for a new one then ;-)

Ha ha haaa.. man I am such a cow! She did offer to buy a new one, however since Storm destroyed her sunglasses the other day I don't really have the right to be tooooo mean!

Does anyone know of or have a book that has all the helpful random little tips that you see on TV.Things that Kim and Aggie use or the tips that you see in take a break magazine?.

Sometimes it would be really handy to have that in the cupboard to use as a refernce and also an alternative to some of the horrid smelling chemicals. Also, annoys me tht i need a whole cupboard under the sink for products when kim and aggie use things that are in the house anyway like vinegar and milk

We have a book called 'Spotless' by Shannon Lush & Jennifer Fleming (ABC Books)- few useful hints in that. I stupidly did not actually look in it for my own problem... and it just suggests vinegar and a scourer anyway!

We got a good one from Readers Digest called Extraordinary Uses for Ordinary Things - there's some good tips in it!

We used to put washing powder in them and boil them up worked after a couple of try's but it will not look as good as it did.

You could try soaking overnight in some Ariel Biological powder, then using a metal scourer and some Cif with bleach, give it a scrub. That should work. Depends how badly burnt it is. Its worked for me in the past.

stormy84, I recall seeing somewhere that people have used cheap cola to clean pots.  It works on toilets too if they are really skanky.

Ditto what Cheekychow has recommended. I was told that you fill the pan with cola, bring it to the boil, allow to simmer then leave to cool. It is meant to strip virtually anything.

I might try this after another culinary sucsess with potatoes Saturday!!

Thanks, great tip... will let you know how it goes :-)