Ovens can be a real drag to clean, but leave them dirty, and soon whatever you cook in it will taste tainted, not to mention the fact that the oven will be a real eyesore in your kitchen.
If your oven is looking (and likely smelling) worse for wear, here are 4 handy hacks to get it spotlessly clean:
- Baking soda and vinegar for your oven’s interior
Once you’ve wiped up all of the crumbs and loose bits of food debris, you can make a solution of 1 cup of water mixed with 1 cup of baking soda. This will create a thick paste, and you’ll need to make enough to cover the entire inside of the oven.
Remove the racks and set them aside, or start soaking them in a sink or bucket-full of hot, soapy water for cleaning later. If you have some old newspaper lying around, or an old towel or sheet, you could place this around the oven and/or racks to minimize mess.
Wearing rubber gloves, smear the paste all over the inside of the oven, taking care to avoid the heating components. Leave it to dry overnight or for a minimum of 12 hours, and you can use some of this time to scrub the grills and leave them to dry.
Once the time is up, wipe the paste off with a dampened sponge or cloth, and for any areas that are still stained and grubby, you could use a toothbrush to scrub them away. If you need it, try squirting some white vinegar around the oven’s interior to degrease it further.
- A dishwasher tablet for your oven’s glass door
With a pair of rubber gloves and a couple of dishwashing tablets, you can get your oven’s glass door gleaming again.
Take a dishwasher tablet and hold it in your fingers, before dipping it into warm water. Slowly move the wet tablet over the glass surface of the oven door, and rub it more over any particularly stained areas. As the tablet dissolves, replace it with another one until you can see the stains disappearing. Then, wipe away the residue with a damp cloth or sponge, and rinse the glass off with water.
- Lemon for the inside of your oven
Take a lemon, slice it into quarters and place them into a dish that’s oven-safe. Then, pour some cold water over the dish and pop it into the oven to bake at 25o degrees for around half an hour. Once the 30 minutes are up, remove the dish and by carefully dipping a sponge into the hot, lemony water, you can start wiping down the oven’s racks and door. Do remember that the oven will still be bot while you do this, so take extra care not to burn yourself, and always wear gloves.
- Salt for spillages in your oven
Most spillages that happen inside your oven can be removed with relative ease provided their tackled early on. Leave a stain to get all crusty and baked on, and you will almost certainly struggle to remove it.
As soon as you spot a spillage in your oven, take some ordinary salt and pour it straight onto the stain. Once the salt has sat on the grease or whatever the spillage may be, for up to 3 hours (but no less than 2 hours), you should be able to easily wipe the salt and stain away with a damp cloth or sponge.
If your oven is beyond the help of any of the hacks mentioned above, why not hire a professional cleaning company and watch as they get your oven sparkling and hygienically clean again.
