If you don’t already know how to clean burnt on food in the oven, chances are you are going to need to know how! Spills will inevitably happen and you won’t get to them right away because the oven is hot. You’ll forget about said spill until you go to use your oven again and smell something burning.
Sometimes, it’s easy to forget to add cleaning your oven to your to-do list. However, it’s an important step to take to ensure that your food is made in a clean environment. On top of that, a dirty oven can even affect the flavor of the food you’re making!
This means that it’s absolutely crucial to know how to clean a convection oven. There are actually a few ways that you can tackle convection oven cleaning to make sure your kitchen stays clean, tidy, and safe no matter what messes come your oven’s way.
In this guide, I’ll give you all the tips I have to help you know exactly how to deep clean an oven. This way, you’ll be ready to go next time you notice your oven might need a scrub!
What You’ll Need to Clean Your Oven
- A high-quality cleaner for your oven. You have a few options for this:
- Store-bought cleaner: If you want the fastest and easiest solution to cleaning a convection oven, a store-bought cleaner is the way to go. Yet, since store-bought cleaner is usually rather harsh and chemical, you might want to choose the other options for a more natural approach.
- Baking soda solution: You can create your own cleaning solution as a baking soda paste. For this, you’ll need baking soda and water and enough time to let the paste sit for between 10 and 12 hours.
- Lemons and water: Alternatively, you can also create a DIY cleaner with a pair of lemons and some water. Unfortunately, this method is best suited for a routine cleaning, not for tackling problems like burnt-on food.
- Rubber cleaning gloves (disposable gloves are not strong enough)
- Protective glasses if you’re using a chemical cleaning solution
- Damp rags
- Microfiber sponge
- Paper towels or newspaper
- Liquid soap
- Abrasive sponge
How to Clean a Burnt Oven (Also the Burnt-Food inside)
Step 1: Preparing Your Oven
The first step in how to clean a convection oven, no matter what method you use, is to remove everything in your oven. This includes the oven racks and anything sitting inside like a pizza stone.
This will help you to clean the oven’s nooks and crannies without anything getting in the way. It’s also a great method to ensure that you don’t get the cleaning solution on things other than your oven.
At this point, it’s also a good idea to take the time to put your paper towels or newspapers on the ground surrounding where you’re working. This will help make sure that nothing falls out of the oven and onto the floor.
Step 2: Applying the Cleaning Solution
Before you start this step, make sure that you have the right protective gear on. This includes the gloves and eye protection mentioned earlier.
Now, you’ll want to take out your cleaning solution and apply it to your oven. Remember, if you have a gas oven, don’t spray the solution over the area where the gas enters through. If you’re using a store-bought solution like Easy-Off Convection Oven Cleaner, you’ll want to pay attention to what the instructions on the bottle are.
Most store-bought cleaners tell you to apply them evenly to your oven and allow them to sit for around 20 to 30 minutes.
Step 3: Tackling the Oven Racks
If you want to really know how to deep clean an oven, it’s a good idea to take the time you’re waiting for the solution to work and tackle the oven racks. These were set aside earlier and you can clean them in your sink. All you need is liquid soap and an abrasive sponge.
From here, you can scrub these the same way you might handle a dirty dish. Once you’re done, either let them air dry or wipe them dry and set them aside.
Step 4: Cleaning Up the Solution
After the allotted time for the solution to sit has passed, we can return to the core of how to clean a convection oven. The main goal now is to clean the solution out of the oven.
Start off by using a damp rag to wipe all of the cleaning solution out of your oven. It’s often helpful to have a few damp rags on hand in case you need more than one.
Once you remove the solution this way, you might notice your oven still has a few tough or sticky spots. Here, you can pull out your microfiber sponge or abrasive sponge to scrub away the grime. This should be easier now than it would have been before you used the cleaning solution. It’s important in this step to make sure you get all of the solution and grime out of your oven. because you don’t want to leave any behind.
How to Clean Convection Oven Glass
The best way to clean the glass components of your convection oven is actually to opt for a natural method. You can use a baking soda and water paste to clean the glass by spreading it over the glass.
This time, you can wipe the paste up after about 15 minutes of letting it sit.
How to Clean a Convection Oven Without Chemicals
The best way to clean a convection oven without chemicals is to use baking soda and water. As for how to clean an oven with baking soda and water, you’ll want to start by making a paste. For this, mix two or three tablespoons of water with ½ cup of baking soda.
For this, you’ll follow much of the same steps as above such as spreading the paste around the inside of your oven. To clean your oven naturally this way, though, you’ll need to let the paste sit for 10 to 12 hours before wiping the oven down with a damp rag.
Cleaning Burnt Food in Your Oven Alternatives
What’s there to do, but use the oven anyway and hope the smell doesn’t affect the taste of the food you’re about to bake? This will happen a few more times before the spill is just burnt to the bottom of your oven and it doesn’t smell anymore.
In that case you just leave that big black blob until you come upon a cleaning tip that seems quite effortless or you break down and run the self-clean option. Ammonia
to the rescue!
That colorless, highly irritating gas with a pungent, suffocating odor (ahem, ammonia) works wonders on removing burnt on food from the oven. For more facts about ammonia that might seem alarming, check out this fact sheet by the Department of Health for the State of New York. For all the details on how to clean burnt on food in the oven, keep reading!
So I was casually reading the back of my bottle of ammonia and it advised leaving a dish of ammonia in the oven overnight for easy cleanup of spills in the morning. So I tried it out and it worked pretty well!
See some great tips how to organize your own spice rack.
How do I clean my Oven with Ammonia? (with Tips)
- You don’t need very much ammonia. 1/2 cup is sufficient. More than that and you’re gonna be able to smell it, even with the oven door closed.
- Hold your breath, plug your nose, do whatever you need to do to not inhale it. It is powerful stuff.
- Before opening the oven door in the morning, open windows. Air flow is good. Keep the air quality in your home good by scheduling duct cleaning near me regularly.
- When you do open the oven door in the morning, do so (with your nose plugged) and head out of the room for a few minutes.
- After a few minutes you should be okay to wipe away the burnt on food without irritating your nose or throat. It should wipe up fairly easy. I had a couple of spots about an inch big that didn’t just wipe up that I had to scrape with my fingernail.
- Never mix ammonia with bleach or any household cleaning products that may contain bleach!It will create a deadly gas.
If you use caution and good sense, this is a pretty effortless way to get your oven clean! If you’d rather not use ammonia, try out this oven cleaner recipe.
Conclusion
Did you enjoy this tutorial on the best way to clean a convection oven? It’s crucial to keep your convection oven clean to ensure you have a safe and tasty meal at the end of the day. Enjoy some tips how to organize foil and how to clean glass as well here.
Tell us what you thought of this tutorial in the comments!