Out of my element here in the cooking section...

Darling daughter#2 burnt the rice really badly on the weekend in one of our new $$$ stainless clad, 3 ply pots. She turned the rice on to make sushi... and then went to her room to play guitar and forgot all about it.

My wife comes home soon. The good news is that this is the only disaster than happened while she was gone. Other than the pot, the rest of the house is in remarkably good condition... well, there's the beer stains on the kitchen ceiling (courtesy son#1), but I don't think she'll notice those. :-0

I have scraped with wooden spoons & used baking soda paste with a plastic scrub brush. Its also run through the dishwasher. 90% of the original stain is gone, but some of the black stain remains at the bottom of the pot.

Any suggestions on how to get rid of it completely without marring the surface?

You can use Comet with a copper mesh or a brillo pad. I used to burn rice all the time. Just takes a few minutes and presto - all nice and shiny again. Suggest you get the beer off the ceiling before mom notices.

Might try Soft Scrub w/bleach (they make it w/ bleach already in it or use own) with a stiff nylon brush. Coke is said to take the rust off bumpers. Might try that. Maybe polishing compound for cars. It's a mild abrasive (take small defects out of paint w/o doing much to mar finish. Rubbing compound for same thing is just a bit more abrasive but still less than scouring powder.

So the end of the story... cleaned most of it out with elbow grease, VIM and whatever else I could find in the cupboard. My wife finished the rest - no idea how she did it so easily.

Oh.. and she noticed the beer stains on the ceiling from my son's beermaking within 5 minutes of getting home. Honestly I don't know how she does that, because I could barely see them, and she's a foot shorter than I.

So all is back to normal in the rtw household again.

You should keep SOS pads on hand! They work like magic on stainless steel pans.