How to Clean Copper Bottomed Pots

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My mother used these copper-bottomed pots for year and years and gave me some when I left for college. They are pretty great pans and I love using them, but over time the bottom gets tarnished and dirty looking. Thankfully, my mother also taught me how to get them clean and bright looking again! I've since learned of two more ways to get them clean too. We'll start with my mother's method first.
Here are the pots I have. I have three of them, and yes. The bottoms are not so pretty here! Let's fix that....
First, pour regular table salt onto it!
Next, pour some regular white vinegar onto the salt.
Grab a scour pad and scrub in the vinegar into the salt and clean the pan! Be sure to get the sides too! Pour more vinegar and salt onto it as needed until it's all clean.
And here's how it compares to the two other dirty ones!! Amazing difference right?!
Another way to clean them is using Bar Keepers Friend! This time, wet the bottom of the pan with water, sprinkle the Bar Keepers Friend onto the pan, let sit for a minute, then scrub with a paper towel or scour pad, and viola! A clean-bottomed copper pan!
The last way to clean a copper bottom pot, in case you're really desperate for some reason, is to use KETCHUP!
Be sure to head to my blog to watch the videos for the vinegar and ketchup tutorials in action!


If you love these type of practical cleaning tips for everyday things, be sure to check out Speed Clean the Deep Clean: A Collection of Time-Saving Cleaning Tutorials and Tips for Busy Moms! It has 50+ cleaning tutorials and tips to help you get every area of your home looking great, including all of these ways of cleaning copper pots!
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Katelyn Fagan
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  • Georgette Georgette on Jan 24, 2019

    Is only for copper pots or can u do any pot with that.

  • Rosemary Rosemary on Aug 31, 2019

    will this clean grease off also?

  • Becky Eisenman Becky Eisenman on Oct 01, 2019

    Don’t really have a question just love that someone else likes to stick with the old pans. I have had mine since 1975 and they still look fantastic. Can’t say that about some of the new stuff they are making.

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  • Karen Bergmann Karen Bergmann on Sep 26, 2021

    Ketchup works too. Just smear it on, leave on, then wipe off. I found that out by accident when ketchup got on the bottom of the pot. I didn't clean it right away since I didn't see it. When I was cleaning up after dinner, I wiped it off and was amazed!

  • P P on Mar 24, 2023

    I use lemons & salt to shine my Revereware copper bottoms & other copper & brass items - be sure to get all the salt off or it corrodes the metal like crazy! I sprinkle salt on the lemon & then rub. No scrubbing needed - chemistry magic!

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