Do you know what is worse than deciding what you are going to eat tonight? Making sure not cooking your food in hot dirt. That means cleaning your oven. And while the thought might send shivers down your spine, we assure you that there is a way to keep your oven in cooking order.
How the Oven Gets Dirty
Unfortunately, the oven is not something that most people remember to clean. They cook and forget that it needs to be wiped down on occasion. However, you are not going to make the same mistake because we can show you to make it shiny again. All it takes it the right tools and some elbow grease.
If you haven’t cleaned your oven in a while, then you may notice some black build up. This is from all of the little crumbs and juices that fall onto the oven when you are cooking. While you might reach for the closest bottle of harsh chemicals, we don’t want you getting sick. Instead, using baking soda and vinegar will work just fine.
Cleaning Your Oven
First, remove the oven racks and anything else inside of your oven. This will give you more room to clean. Mix a ½ cup of baking soda together with a few teaspoons of water in a bowl. This should make a paste that you are going to rub all over on the inside of the oven using rubber gloves. Avoid spreading the paste on any heating elements, it might cause problems.
The next step takes some patience. You need to let the paste sit overnight. After it has had a good amount of time to set in, wipe it off with a damp dish cloth. If you need to, use a spatula to scrape the paste off.
The last step requires putting vinegar in a spray bottle, coating the inside of the oven, and giving your oven one final wipe down. When you spray the inside, you will see the vinegar cause any leftover baking soda to foam up. If the baking soda residue is all gone, then done with the inside of your oven.
Join us next month and we’ll help you with a way to clean those oven racks as well.
