Cleaning Out My Oven

Until last night I had never cleaned an oven before. Never. Growing up, I never had to; either we a self cleaning oven or was too young to even think about ovens and cleaning them.

Now I live in my own little apartment with its own little oven. When I moved in, the oven seemed like a cavernous little box; it has no light and no window so its always been dark. I didn’t dare look too close inside or even clean it, I would always just put my dish in the oven, close the door and not look back.

Our little arrangement has worked out well for the last year and a half. I wouldn’t poke my head inside the oven, it wouldn’t produce smoke or bad smells. That all changed with this season’s first pumpkin pie. Being my clumsy self, I spilled some of the filling on the oven door and floor. What followed was an episode of me constantly checking the oven, smoke billowing out every time I opened the door, and my smoke alarm going off every 5 minutes.

The pie turned out OK, but the oven has been angry with me ever since. Every time I turn it on, another nasty bit of pie filling burns and more smoke emerges. So I knew it was time to clean the damn thing.

Now, I could have gone out and bought fancy oven cleaner. But I am trying to be more green and save myself money, so I found some oven cleaning tips online using vinegar, baking soda, lemons and salt. Here’s what I did and how it went!

• Sprayed the entire inside of the oven with vinegar. Then sprinkled baking soda over the vinegar and waited for it to bubble up. 
• Scrubbed and scrubbed, using a sponge and rinsing it often with hot water. That got off most of the nasties, but not all of them.
• Sprinkled the oven with kosher salt. Using lemon wedges as scrubbers, I scrubbed the oven to loosen more grime. Sprinkled more baking soda over that and wiped some areas with dish soap and water. I let that sit for about half an hour.
• Scrubbed with dish soap and rinsed.
• Sprinkled more baking soda over the oven, sprayed vinegar and added some lemon juice. I let that sit over night.
• Next morning, more scrubbing (do you see a theme?). About 90% of the grime and burnt on stuff was gone. But, just to see, I got some stainless steel scrubbies and used some elbow grease to get the last bits out. 

Finally, finally(!) my oven was spotless. Cleaner than its ever been (I am assuming). I wish I could say that it was an easy process, that a little baking soda and vinegar was just the magic I needed. It wasn’t. Good ol’ fashion elbow grease was the magic. But, I didn’t use any harmful chemicals or anything I couldn’t pronounce. Bask in the glory of my clean oven below, juxtaposed against the nasty mess it once was.