When you love cooking, you often also love your love oven. It allows us to concoct the most beautiful meals for the greatest happiness of our loved ones! But even if we love it, we can quickly begin to curse it when we see the stains that have taken up residence there and we can quickly become overwhelmed if we don’t do regular cleaning so as not to end up with a filth out of control! How to clean your household appliance? What are the right actions and the right method of cleaning? With what products? Here are all of grandma’s tips and natural solutions for cleaning a dirty oven. With these natural and ecological products, forget about harmful commercial household products for manual cleaning of your ovens!
And to find out how to clean the oven rack, the tip can be found here!
1) Take the bull by the horns early
We know that a stain is often easier to treat when it is still “fresh” and then becomes more hardened as it cools. Inside the oven, it is therefore a good idea not to allow stains and dirt to settle and to scrape them off while they are still soft. By acting right away, you will avoid a future headache and work on a slightly warm (but not hot!) oven will make your job easier in any case.
And of course, it is more than preferable to proceed with cleaning after each use. This will prevent difficult burnt food residue and built-up grease that makes cleaning more complicated. This also allowsuse natural ingredients that are less harsh and make future cleaning easier. A simple spray of alcohol vinegar or soapy water (dishwashing detergent, black soap or Marseille soap) could be more than enough. Also consider recycling old newspaper by rolling it into a ball and using it damp, a bit like a sponge for scraping. Very efficient and clever!
2) Deal with small parts
It is advisable to remove small detachable parts which might otherwise get in the way while cleaning your oven. You can soak them in white vinegar to degrease them and leave the way clear for a thorough cleaning. For example, you can do this on the oven knobs that we don’t always know how to clean.
3) Salt on heavily encrusted dirt
Salt is an excellent very degreasing maintenance product and has the advantage of being in all kitchens. It will therefore quickly make you forget about the commercial chemical stripper! Sprinkle it generously on the baking tray and heavily encrusted stains, then heat everything to 50°C. When the salt turns brown, turn off your oven and wipe with a sponge soaked in hot water. You can also use it for regular maintenance. Simply sprinkle some into a still hot oven after cooking and let it cool. THE salt will absorb the fat. You will then just have to wipe it with a sponge to make it impeccable.
4) The one, the only: bicarbonate!
Baking soda is a good degreaser and stain remover as well as a mild abrasive product which does not risk scratching the oven. You can mix it with water and apply it everywhere with a sponge to dissolve grease. For the plate, you can also consider covering the most dirty areas with this miraculous powder, filling it up to the edge with mineral water and putting everything in an oven heated to 100°C until the The water evaporates completely. A damp sponge or cloth will do the rest. Your oven will be spotless and deodorized!
Pro Tip: Don’t hesitate to use a brush for more precise application in hard to reach areas.
5) White vinegar… obviously!
Very versatile, this multi-use works wonders on a dirty oven studded with encrusted grease. Here you can use white vinegar alone or combine it with degreasing dishwashing liquid (a 50/50 mixture) or a little salt. Apply it to the areas to be treated, then leave to act for 30 minutes before wiping with a sponge.
6) Soda crystals against burnt food
For this tip, don’t forget to put on your gloves! Mix three tablespoons of soda crystals with hot water to create a mixture. It will be easy to apply by hand (thus gloved) or to spray on the burnt residue. Then leave everything to act for a few hours and rub with your sponge. This solution will melt grease and black residue without needing to scrub too much. Yes! This is the advantage of using the right cleaning products.
7) The very stripping mixture with baking soda
For a effortless cleaningwe take out our sodium bicarbonate to combine three teaspoons of it with one teaspoon of citric acid. This powerful combination should be applied directly to the areas most affected by dirt. Leave it on for a bit then rub. (Psst, it also works on limescale and eliminates bad odors ;)!)
8) With percarbonate to spray oven grease
Heat two glasses of water and add 1 tablespoon of percarbonate of soda. Mix gently to allow it to dissolve well and transfer this preparation into a spray bottle. Spray and scrub! No need to make larger quantities to save some for later. Indeed, after 4 hours your preparation will no longer work. This mixture must therefore be prepared only before use. However, considering its effectiveness, this is not too disturbing.
9) How to clean the oven glass effortlessly
Rather than straining to scrub, soak cloths in alcohol vinegar. Then, let them sit on the glass for around thirty minutes and scrape with a scraper for glass ceramic hobs. It is very effective for shining all glass surfaces! If this isn’t enough to make your glass surfaces shine, it may be because dirt is between the oven windows. In this case, it may be necessary to dismantle the door to gain access to it. We explain in detail how to clean between the panes here.
10) The recipe for oven cleaner made from baking powder, vinegar and dish soap
This recipe is very effective against greasy and burnt stains. Combine the following three ingredients: 8 tablespoons of dishwashing liquid, 8 teaspoons of baking powder, and 6 teaspoons of white vinegar. Apply your mixture to the entire oven, leave to act for 10 minutes and wipe with a damp cloth.
11) Simple: based on black soap and soda crystals
Mix 2 tablespoons of cold or lukewarm water with 1 teaspoon of soda crystals and 2 tablespoons of black soap until everything is smooth. Then, spread this cream in your oven with your sponge and leave to act for 15 minutes before rubbing and rinsing with a clean sponge soaked in lukewarm water. For a natural oven cleaning and removing stains we don’t do better than this homemade cleaning product!
12) A more “complex” and complete mixture to clean your oven!
Well…complex is a big word. This powerful recipe for oven cleaningjust contains several natural ingredients, but you probably already have them in your kitchen. In a spray bottle, mix 20 ml of good degreasing dishwashing liquid, 40 ml of lemon juice, 80 ml of vinegar and 100 ml of water. Spray some and scrub! You can also leave it on for a few minutes for large stains. We really like this one because the ingredients are effective on the oven, but also other surfaces in the house. For delicate surfaces, consider doing the test on a small area first.
Good to know: for the oven tray and the grills, two ingredients are enough!