Bar Keepers Friend Is One of the Underrated Heroes of ‘The Bear,’ and It Will Bring All Your Old Pans Back to Life at Home, Too

Early in Season 2 of The Bear, FX’s hit show about a family-run restaurant in Chicago, the intrepid crew at The Beef is scrambling. Central protagonist Carmen Berzatto has decided to transform the restaurant into a sit-down spot , but realizes they are out of money. 

This is bad news for anyone who wants to open a restaurant because, well, they are expensive — and Tina, newly appointed sous chef, needs new pans. So Sydney Adamo, Carmy’s more practical-minded partner, recommends a cost-cutting solution: Scrub all the worn out, rusted, burnt pans with Bar Keepers Friend. 

Bar Keepers Friend, 12-Ounce

This cleaning powder has long been legendary in the restaurant industry, and it is certainly  magical. It can remove crusted-on rust and grease from years of use from cookware, stoves, and ovens, and restores grills and drip pans. And as most people who have worked in a restaurant or bar know it’s a last resort before a pan has to go in the trash — you just have to be willing to scrub. But it’s also a game-changing cleaning product that all home cooks should keep stocked in their kitchen, too. 

The active ingredient in Bar Keepers Friend is oxalic acid (it looks the same as baking soda, but it’s not), which to put it simply, breaks down the molecules in rust deposits, burned and caked-on food, and grease. At the same time that it scours away stains, it also polishes the surface to make exhausted cookware look fresh, shiny, and most importantly, usable once again. As Tina so succinctly puts it, “That Bar Keeper’s works! Science, baby!” 

To activate Bar Keepers Friend just dust it onto a wet piece of cookware and start scrubbing with a dampened rag or sponge. Depending on how damaged your pans are, it might take some effort to get them clean, but it’s worth the extra elbow grease. When you’re done, you won’t have to replace that stainless steel frying pan that you accidentally left on the stove too long that one time you tried to stir-fry vegetables and tofu.

Whether you’re trying to cut household expenses by extending the longevity of cookware you already own or you’re hoping to get a few extra years out of a pot or pan that has sentimental value, Bar Keepers Friend will come to the rescue. And at just $7 for a 12-ounce can, that’s way less expensive than buying new pans. 

At the time of publishing, the price was $7.