- Keep the sides of your oven tidy
If crumbs, spills and stains stick to the sides of your oven, pick up some inexpensive plastic gaskets (usually used for electrical insulation) from a hardware shop. Slipping them between a freestanding oven and the benchtops will keep dirt and grease from sticking to the oven’s sides. When the gaskets get soiled (and they will get filthy), simply remove them, wash them and reinstall them.
- Beat baked-on mess on a stovetop
If the pan supports on your stove are made of cast iron and a spilled substance has baked on, wipe them with non-toxic oven cleaner and place them in the oven the next time you self-clean it, then remove and wipe clean.
- Salt a grease spill while cooking
If grease spills over in your oven while you’re roasting meat, sprinkle salt over the grease before it has a chance to bake on. Close the oven door and let the cooking continue. By the time you come to clean it, the spill will have transformed into an easily removed pile of ash.
- A poultice for ridged grill pans
Grill pans with burned-on food are a major pain in the neck to clean. To make the job less of a chore, heat the pan and sprinkle washing powder over the affected area. Now cover the detergent with wet paper towels, wait for 15 minutes, remove the towels and you’ll find it much easier to scrape and scrub off the mess.
- In-the-bag oven-rack cleaning
Put the rack into a large, heavy-duty plastic rubbish bag that’s sitting in an empty bath, and add 2/3 cup (160ml) washing-up liquid, 1 cup (250ml) white vinegar and enough hot water to almost fill the bag. Seal the bag, half fill the bath with warm water and leave the bag there for an hour. Then empty the bath and release the water from the bag. Remove the rack from the bag to scrub, rinse and air-dry your now beautifully clean oven rack.
- Ease a rack’s slide
When you clean the shelves in your oven, don’t Forget to clean the ridges that they slide in and out on. Scrub with soap and nylon scrubbing pads, rinse off the soap and dry the ridges, then wipe them with a little vegetable oil to keep the racks gliding smoothly.
- A scrub for exhaust filters
Once a month, take the filter off the range hood above your oven and spray it all over with WD-40. After an hour, scrub with an old toothbrush then put it in the dishwasher or rinse it in hot water for a final cleaning.
- A shortcut to microwave cleaning
The quickest way to clean a microwave oven is to place a handful of wet paper towels inside and run it on High for 3-5 minutes. You don’t need a science lesson to know that the steam from the towels will soften the grime. Once the paper towels cool down, use them to wipe the oven’s interior.
- Clean the microwave base with bicarb
To remove cooked-on spills from the base or turntable of a microwave, make a paste of 2 parts bicarbonate of soda to 1 part water and apply it to the hardened substance. After 5-6 minutes, wipe up the bicarb with a wet sponge or cloth and remove any residue with a paper towel.
- Make a mini steam bath
The easiest way to melt the grease that accumulates on the walls of your microwave is to fill a heatproof glass bowl with water, run it on High for 2 minutes, don’t open the door for another 2 minutes and then wipe with a soft rag. The steam will have softened the caked-on dirt so it should wipe away easily.
Credit : Reader’s Digest
Picture Credit: Google