Have I mentioned that I love my crock pot? I should give her a name, but I wouldn’t want to upset Nancy, my GPS. I figured since I use my crock pot a lot, I should confess that my favorite slow cooker gets stained. Especially when I prepare beans,cooking for 8-10 hours.

So how do you get those nasty stains out of your crock?

All you need is a little warm water, a few teaspoons of bleach, and a pair of rubber gloves. And a little muscle. They key to using the bleach is to allow the solution to sit for a couple of hours, for allow the bleach to do its work.

Mix 2 tsps of bleach in 2 cups of warm water, or use more if the stains are higher up in the crock. Let the solution sit for a couple of hours before you don your gloves. Give the crock a light scrub. If the stains remain, repeat the process, but warm the crock on low while soaking. Make sure you don’t cook the bleach.

It’s best to soak the crock with plain water for a day to remove any leftover bleach, before using the crock again.