How to Make Your Sheet Pans Last

For most of my culinary life, I’ve relied on the discards of old roommates to stock my kitchen: the abandoned All-Clad skillet that’s now my go-to for making an egg or two; the blue and white floral utensil holder where I still keep my Microplane and spatulas; the mismatched sheet pans that always seemed good enough even though they bore the scars of other people’s kitchen mishaps.

At some point, however, those hand-me-down sheet pans passed a point of no return: their discolored interiors bore big spots of a thick, gummy oil that never quite came off, no matter how hard I scrubbed. Unsure if I’d ever be able to make these inherited sheet pans “good,” I decided to give them away and go for an upgrade.

Instead of the thin, nonstick-coated sheet pans I’d been using, I opted for sturdier, commercial-grade aluminum sheets, some from Nordic Ware (both Wirecutter and The Strategist’s top pick) and some from the restaurant supply store. I endeavored to take care of them better, to avoid winding up in the same situation again. While time will be the ultimate judge, I am happy to report that with some basic maintenance, I’ve managed to avoid accruing any gross buildup, and my sheet pans still look — and work — great.

What’s the best way to maintain clean sheet pans?

If you’re starting from scratch like I was, the answer is pretty obvious: Small, frequent cleaning efforts will generally keep you from having to do a big, intensive scrub in the future. Sanaë Lemoine, co-author of the sheet pan-focused cookbook Hot Sheet, simply soaks her sheet pans with hot water and soap for the length of time it takes her to eat her meal. “By the time I get to doing the dishes, I find that the food just slips off easily,” she says.

When soaking doesn’t loosen things up, Lemoine reaches for steel wool. To her, this is also an upside of using uncoated aluminum sheet pants: They can take a beating without you having to worry about ruining any coating. With foods known for sticking, like melted cheese, Lemoine avoids future strife by first lining the pan. She’s partial to parchment, but foil or a silicone baking mat also work. Prevention is indeed the best cure for cooked-on crud and grease.

Well, the damage has been done. How do I get all this gunk and/or burnt food off my sheet pan?

If you get behind on regular cleaning or just have bad luck with a particular dish, Lemoine and her co-author Olga Massov recommend letting the sheet pan sit as long as overnight under a paste made of water and baking soda, Bar Keepers Friend, or Bon Ami powder cleanser. Afterwards, the muck should slide off easily, though you may still want to have something abrasive nearby to scrub the pan just in case.

The Kitchn also recommends letting a mixture of baking soda and hydrogen peroxide sit on the problem pan overnight. The next morning, scrape the baking soda off and simply wash the pan with soap and water.

Need something even stronger? I’ve had good luck with oven cleaner. Spray it on the affected areas and then set the sheet pan in the (turned off) oven so you can avoid the odor. After about 30 minutes, whatever was caked on should come off with a little scrubbing and an abrasive pad. The caveat is that, despite my bottle of Easy Off’s claim of being fume-free, I find this option to be a little intense and only worth it for particularly bad grime.

What should my sheet pans look like, ideally?

Before you get out any scouring agents, it’s worth asking yourself why you want to “fix” your sheet pans. On Food52, Margaret Eby makes the argument that you should simply “give up on your sheet pans” and let them look used, because, well, you use them. If aesthetics are your goal, just don’t bother. Come to peace with scorch marks and discolored edges as industrial chic; be proud of the patina that forms across the bottom.

There’s a difference between a dirty pan and a seasoned pan, as Wirecutter explains. It’s worth fixing the former and leaving the latter, since (as with cast-iron pans), it might even help with browning. For that reason, “each sheet pan that I have has its own purpose and personality,” Lemoine says. She tends to reach for the one with “more burnished” edges and a darker, patinaed finish when she wants her food to get “really crispy and caramelized” and the pristine sheet pan when she’s making baked goods.

That said, if your problem is, in fact, dirt or something more functional — Ah, I hate touching my weirdly sticky sheet pans or I burned all this food onto my pan and now it’s covered in a bumpy layer of char — okay, fine, get out the gloves and cleaning products. Just remember that you don’t have to refinish the sheet pan until it looks brand new in order to enjoy cooking with it for years to come.

Nicole Medina is a Philly based illustrator who loves using bold color and detailed patterns to create eye-catching illustrations. Nicole likes drawing surreal imagery that tells a story and has a sense of adventure.