When’s the last time you looked inside your oven? I mean really looked inside your oven? I bet if you went to go look right now you’d see some pretty nasty stuff on the bottom and on the sides. The humble oven isn’t something most people clean regularly because it doesn’t sit in a sink and constantly remind you to clean it when you’re done using it. When you’re finished cooking the oven is normally too hot to handle and is left to cool whilst you get on with your meal. If you have a “self-cleaning” option on your oven, yours might be slightly better-looking than most. Unfortunately those options don’t always work that well and can warp your oven racks if you forget to take them out beforehand. Cleaning your oven takes a little longer than washing a pan or throwing some cups in the dishwasher but the end result is a sparkling clean appliance that won’t smoke up with last week’s dinner on the bed of your oven.Your oven is just as important as any other cooking tool and requires regular cleaning. You could go to the store and buy some special cleaner but today we’ll talk about how you can clean your oven with baking soda and vinegar.
What You’ll Need
- Washing up Gloves
- Baking Soda
- Distilled White Vinegar
- Water
- Spray Bottle
- Cleaning Cloth
- Scraper or Spatula (avoid metal utensils)
Getting Down and Dirty
The first thing you’ll want to do is open up your oven and remove the racks. Although you won’t be turning on the oven during this process you don’t want them in the way. Next, combine about ½ cup of baking soda with enough water to make a paste. Spread your baking soda paste all over the inside of your oven. Now, you’ll need to wait around twelve hours until the paste has completely dried. Whilst waiting, this is a great time to clean the oven racks you took out earlier!
After the paste has dried, use a wet sponge or towel to wipe it away. After removing as much as you can, spray the inside of your oven with distilled white vinegar. If you don’t have a spray bottle a damp cloth soaked in vinegar will work as well.
Distilled white vinegar is a great multi-use product, you can clean with it in the kitchen as well as throw a few tablespoons into your washer, it also is a great way to bring some acidity to your cooking and is what is typically used when pickling at home.
Damp a cloth with warm water and wipe away any leftover vinegar, scraping away any hard bits that might not have come off previously. I recommend not using a metal utensil for this only because it can scratch the inside of your oven. This shouldn’t affect the function of the oven but it won’t look as pretty when you finish.
To finish, wipe away the residual hard pieces that you just scraped off the surface using a damp cloth and appreciate the shine of your fresh oven!
Keeping Your Oven Clean
Just like your kitchen knives or mixing bowls, your oven is a tool and needs to be cleaned regularly. Unlike other types of cookware, it doesn’t need to be cleaned after each use. I recommend cleaning your oven about once or twice a month depending on how messy your oven gets. Normally I’ll start the process before I go to sleep because I won’t be baking anything overnight anyways. It’s also really satisfying to scrape the paste away in the morning and start the day on a productive note with a clean oven!
