To clean your oven, there are effective home remedies that save your budget and reliably remove dirt or burnt-on residues.
Cleaning the Oven with Baking Soda
Are the remnants of your last pizza still stuck in the oven? Unfortunately, this is unavoidable. No matter what you bake or grill, it leaves marks. Grease splatters or burnt-on food look unsightly and leave an unpleasant odor. It’s high time to put on gloves and tackle the dirt. Baking soda is a useful helper that makes cleaning significantly easier. It’s inexpensive, available in every supermarket, and spares the environment from a lot of chemicals.
To clean the oven with baking soda, you need a packet of baking soda, water, an old toothbrush, and a cloth. Put the baking soda in a bowl and mix it thoroughly with three tablespoons of water. It should form a creamy, not too thick paste.
If your oven is particularly dirty, simply double the amounts. The next step is to apply the paste with the toothbrush to the crusted areas. Rub the baking soda mixture in firmly and let the paste sit for at least 30 minutes. The baking soda reacts with the acids in the dirt and begins to foam. Carbon dioxide is produced, which loosens the burnt-on food residues. After the waiting period, the baking soda paste will have dried out and turned back into powder. You can simply wipe this off with a damp cloth, including the dirt. If the dirt isn’t completely gone, you can repeat the process.
Sparkling Clean Oven with Salt
Salt is a staple in every household. This means you always have a home remedy on hand to quickly and cheaply clean your oven. This method is also great for cleaning a burnt baking sheet.
Simply sprinkle all dirty areas thoroughly with salt. There should be a white layer over the crusts. Heat your oven to 50 degrees Celsius until the salt turns brown. Let the oven or baking sheet cool down. Then you can remove the salt with a damp cloth. You’ll see that all the crusts have loosened, and the oven shines again.
Lemon Juice as a Home Remedy
A bit of lemon juice and the oven is clean again. Sounds simple, and it is. All you need is a lemon, water, and an ovenproof dish.
Mix the juice of one lemon with half a liter of water in the dish. Place the lemon water in the oven and heat it to 120 degrees Celsius. The mixture slowly evaporates and loosens crusted areas. The oven must now cool down. Then you can remove the food residues with a damp cloth. If you also want to clean the rack or a baking sheet, just place it in the oven as well.
Tips for Cleaning the Oven with Home Remedies
It’s best not to let your oven get too dirty in the first place. Food residues disappear most thoroughly and quickly if you remove them immediately. This way, they can’t burn on further and are easy to remove. If you dislike cleaning, you can also buy an oven with a pyrolysis function, which cleans itself. The oven heats up to around 500 degrees Celsius and burns off all food residues at this temperature. All that remains is ash, which you can wipe out with a damp cloth. Sometimes shaving foam is also recommended for cleaning the oven. However, you should avoid this. It abrades and, over time, damages the surface of your oven. The effect is that food residues and grease stick even better. Moreover, shaving foam contains chemical substances that shouldn’t come into contact with food.
