The quick version, if you’re just passing through: cover the burnt area with water, add a tablespoon or two of bicarbonate of soda, simmer on the hob for five to ten minutes, then scrape with a scourer. Repeat once or twice if needed.

I don’t know why it happens, but sometimes my Instagram feed is awash, quite literally, with cleaning tips. These algorithms are an odd thing; I don’t particularly like cleaning. But I’m also a soft touch for anything promising a miracle cure. The cupboard under the sink looks like a small to medium chemical plant, full of products that promise to make the house sparkle with little to no effort. I’ve even got gadgets, a mitt that’s supposed to lift white, fluffy dog hair off the carpet that two Henry Hoovers and a robot vacuum couldn’t manage between them (spoiler alert, it didn’t).

And then there are the reels. Well-meaning people pouring all sorts of things down the toilet, one after another, while I sit there thinking “surely the red stuff going in after the blue stuff is going to finish me off with the fumes.”

Anyway, here is a tip that actually works, and it comes from having plenty of access to burnt frying pans at our own campfires.

At the campsite, we regularly end up with frying pans that have been sat over a campfire, and a campfire is not known for its temperature control. Mostly, it’s just very hot. Food gets burnt on within an inch of its life.

So before you consign a pan like that to the bin, go and grab it back out. Honestly, it can be salvaged. Fair warning though, this isn’t a zero-effort fix. The zero-effort version is still living on someone else’s Instagram feed, but this one is genuine.

One disclaimer: this works on a solid stainless steel pan. If you have an enamel pan or a posh non-stick one, you ought to have a google first.

How to clean a campfire-burnt frying pan

1. Put the frying pan on the hob and cover the burnt area with water.
2. Add a good quantity of bicarbonate of soda. I’m sorry, the box tells you a teaspoon or two, but I like a tablespoon or two. A good slug.
3. Simmer on the hob for five to ten minutes, using a wooden spatula to loosen things as the water simmers.
4. Take the pan to the sink and give it a scrape with a scourer.
5. Repeat once or twice if the pan needs it.

Before: well and truly burnt on, straight off the campfire.

Simmering away with a good slug of bicarbonate of soda.

After: a scrape with a scourer and it’s basically a new pan.

This isn’t the worst pan I’ve ever rescued this way, just the one I had to hand this time. But I’m pretty happy with the result.

Why not come and burn a frying pan of your own with us? There are fire pits on the pitches, and our glamping pods and camping pitches are just outside Boston in Lincolnshire. Check what’s available.