Good Friday Chores

We do not have a self cleaning oven.  So when it gets dirty you have to roll up your sleeves and get in there, you can't just push a button.  I wish I could just push a button.  Our oven is coated in burnt on grease from roasting whole chickens and what not.  Regular soap and water is not going to take it off.  In my attempt to remove cleaning chemicals from our life using Easy Off isn't really my first choice.  The idea of cooking food in an oven that might be burning off those chemicals onto my food is not appetizing.

Awhile back I tore out an article from Martha Stewart Living where they gave a tutorial cleaning the oven using baking soda.  I decided to use my Good Friday off work to give the method a try.  You mix 3/4 cup baking soda with 1/4 cup water.  Then brush the paste all over the oven and let it sit overnight.  The next day use a plastic scrapper to remove the paste, wetting as needed.

I am too impatient to let it sit overnight so I let it sit for about 3 hours.  I was really skeptical that baking soda would clean some of the seriously baked on grease.  After three hours it didn't take it all off, it really only took a little off.  But I didn't think it would clean anything and it definitely did do some cleaning.  I am sure if I left it on overnight it would have done a much better job.  I will probably try it the right way again in a month or two.  My only complaint is that it was messy to clean up and a lot of work for it to only be partially clean.  For now we have an oven liner on the bottom of the oven to help prevent future messes.