Cleaning a dirty oven can be one of the most tedious chores. The residue of grease and burnt food often requires more than a simple wipe to restore it to its former cleanliness. Faced with the enormity of the task, one might be tempted to put off cleaning, which only adds to the already present grime! Fortunately, there are effective cleaning products and techniques to tackle stubborn stains. Among all the tips and tricks to help clean the oven in a single step, this one that does most of the cleaning on its own overnight is certainly the smartest, most practical, and appreciated.
The benefits of this oven cleaning tip: To use it, you will need an ovenproof dish, white vinegar, and a good night’s sleep to rest and dream of your clean oven. Forget about the environmentally unfriendly, expensive, and potentially hazardous chemical cleaning products, as well as the long hours spent scrubbing. This trick doesn’t require any complicated recipes or effort. Plus, it’s much more energy-efficient than a self-cleaning oven. Ready to give it a try?
Here’s what you’ll need:
- An ovenproof dish
- A saucepan of water
- White vinegar and dishwashing liquid
The steps:
- First, preheat the oven to 80°C (175°F).
- While it’s heating, boil some water in a saucepan.
- Once the oven is nice and warm, turn it off.
- Place an ovenproof dish filled with white vinegar on the top rack. Then, add the saucepan of water to the bottom of the oven and close the oven door.
(You can also boil vinegar water directly and place it in the oven.)
- Now, all you have to do is let it sit overnight. There’s nothing else to do for the moment!
- The next day, open the oven door to let the vinegar vapors dissipate. Feel free to open a window if the smell bothers you.
- Afterward, remove the saucepan of water and the dish of vinegar. Add some dishwashing liquid to the vinegar and use this solution to scrub the various elements of the oven (walls, etc.). Then, rinse and wipe clean.
We advise against mixing it with baking soda, as these two products neutralize each other (hence the foam). However, you can sprinkle baking soda directly on the oven and scrub with your sponge soaked in vinegar. This will be more effective, as they will have less time to neutralize each other, and you can take advantage of the “mechanical” effect of the foam on dirt!
Why does this trick work so well for oven cleaning? Vinegar alone is already very effective at degreasing and removing stains from an oven, especially when it’s preheated. Boiling water and heating the oven create vinegar steam that acts over several hours. This softens and dissolves the grease stuck in the oven.
Good to know: if you don’t have vinegar, lemon juice has the same properties and the advantage of smelling better. Additionally, you can heat a bowl of vinegar or lemon water in your microwave to clean it as well.