I've had these over 10 years. Whenever I make bacon, I lay down parchment. I hate cleaning up/transferring grease, the paper makes it easier. In the case of the sprouts, I wanted the dish to stick to the pan and char a bit, so the bare pan was definitely the way to go. Steel wool scouring pads I highly recommended for cleaning up stainless steel. I like S.O.S. brand the best, but there's also Brillo brand. And Scotch-Brite makes scouring sponges with the dark green rough side/yellow sponge on the other.