How to Clean Your Oven

After a few months of cooking and roasting, your oven is likely to accumulate grease and burnt food residues. Oil and grease cling to surfaces, and leftover food burns, turning into a layer of carbon, which produces a strong burnt odor when you cook. An oven covered in this carbon residue can affect your food and pose a fire hazard. Read the guide below to learn how to clean your oven, whether it has a self-cleaning function or not.

Identify the type of oven you are using. There are several types of standard ovens, and each requires a different cleaning method.

• Self-cleaning ovens have a function that heats the oven to a certain temperature, causing food and grease buildup to turn into ash.
• Non-stick or continuous-cleaning ovens feature an enamel coating designed to burn off any food residue as you cook.
• Traditional ovens without these features require manual cleaning on a regular basis.

Prepare for oven cleaning. Choose a time to clean your oven when your kitchen isn’t busy with cooking.

• Keep children and pets away from the kitchen area during cleaning, as the temperature can get very high, and there is usually a strong burnt smell.
• Open windows to ventilate the kitchen and prevent family members from inhaling smoke.

Remove the grilling rack. Place the rack in the sink filled with water mixed with a few drops of dish soap.

Activate the self-cleaning function of the oven. This function will lock the oven door and raise the temperature to between 430°C and 480°C.

• Make sure the oven door is locked before cleaning. If the door can't lock, consider taping or blocking it so that others know not to open it during this process.
• The oven will clean itself over 2 to 6 hours, during which time grease and burnt food will be turned into ash.
• Allow the oven to cool for at least 2 hours after the self-cleaning cycle.

Open the oven door. Use a small brush to sweep the ash into a dustpan. Then, wipe the inside of the oven with a damp cloth.

Clean the oven door. Use a clean cloth and a kitchen cleaning spray to wipe the inside of the oven door. You can also use a vinegar and water solution for this task.

Clean the grilling rack. Scrub the grilling rack with soapy water. Rinse it thoroughly, dry it off, and then place it back into the oven.

Remove the grill. Place the grill in a sink filled with water mixed with a few drops of dishwashing liquid.

Wipe the oven interior with a damp sponge. Since the oven is cleaned regularly, there is no need to preheat it. Just ensure that the oven is cool before cleaning.

• Avoid using abrasive scrubbing pads or chemicals to clean a non-stick oven to prevent damaging the enamel coating.
• If needed, you can use a mixture of vinegar and water to wipe the oven interior.

Clean the grill. Scrub the grill with soapy water. Rinse thoroughly and dry it before placing it back in the oven.

Remove the grilling rack. Place the grilling rack into a sink filled with water and a few drops of dish soap to soak.

Prepare the cleaning solution. Add 4 tablespoons of baking soda to a 1-liter spray bottle and fill it with water. Shake the bottle to mix and dissolve the baking soda.

Spray the mixture inside the oven. Spray the inside of the cool oven, focusing on areas with burnt spots and stains until the surface is soaked.

• For very dirty ovens, increase the baking soda-to-water ratio to create a thicker mixture, then apply it to the burnt areas.

Let the mixture sit for at least an hour. After an hour, check if the burnt areas have loosened.

• If the burnt spots are still tough, spray or apply more baking soda mixture and let it sit for another hour.
• If the burnt spots have lifted, proceed to the next step.

Use a scraper to remove the loosened burnt layer. A scraper used for removing paint from walls works effectively for this task. Continue scraping until no more burnt layers are visible.

• Wear rubber gloves to avoid getting blackened hands from the soot.
• Spray more baking soda mixture while scraping to make the process easier.
• Clean up the debris using a small brush and a dustpan.

Spray the baking soda mixture inside the oven once more. Let the mixture sit for another hour, then use a cloth to wipe away the remaining soot.

Clean the oven with a vinegar and water mixture in equal parts. Your oven should be fairly clean by now. If there’s still soot left, you can try these alternative methods:

• Use a heavy-duty oven cleaner. Be cautious, as this product contains harmful chemicals that can be dangerous to inhale. Follow the instructions to let the solution soak into the burnt areas, then scrub it off.
• Use ammonia. Pour ammonia over the dirty spots and let it sit for 30 minutes before scrubbing with a pot scrubber and wiping clean with a damp sponge.

Clean the grilling rack. Scrub the grilling rack with soapy water. Rinse it off and dry it before placing it back into the oven.

Line the oven with aluminum foil to catch any spills. If you’re preparing food that may spill or cause a mess in the oven, be sure to line the bottom with aluminum foil to catch the grease and food remnants.

Clean up spilled food immediately. When food drips onto the oven, you can clean it up even while the oven is still on.

• Sprinkle salt over the spilled food, then close the oven door and finish cooking your food.
• After removing the food and turning off the oven, use a damp sponge to immediately wipe away the food remnants inside the oven.
• Use a vinegar and water mixture in equal parts to clean stubborn stains.