It can happen! The liquid in your pot has evaporated, and suddenly you are assailed by the smell of burnt food! In a panic, you start stirring the food in the pot, and the burned food gets mixed up with the food on top. Don’t do that. Remove the pot from the fire, and very carefully remove the food (pieces of meat, vegetables, etc) on top, that is not burned and place it in another pot, leaving the burned part undisturbed. You may have to add some sauce/water and carry one cooking the food that you have rescued.
It is quite hard to clean a pot from the burned food that has stuck stubbornly to the bottom. No sweat. Put 2 – 3 teaspoons baking soda and add 1 – 2 glasses of water. Boil it at a low temperature for ten to fifteen minutes. The burned food will just lift off. If there are small spots with burned food, you can remove them by rubbing them with some steel wool.