It's Oven (and Racks) Cleaning Day!

My husband knows I will figure out an efficient way to do something, or more likely, not do it very often. Even with a self-cleaning oven, I haven't cleaned mine for over three years, and so it needed it badly. Today is a beautiful sunny day with the temperature in the upper 70's--exactly the kind of day needed to open the windows before turning on the oven hot cleaning cycle that produces smoke and noxious gases.

Oven cleaning is fairly easy with self-cleaning ovens. You start by first removing all pans and other things from the oven--top, inside, and in the storage container at the lower part of the oven. Then wipe the oven interior to remove serious food spills.

It is the oven racks that cause problems. The racks first have to be removed from the oven before turning on the CLEAN cycle that brings the oven up to a high temperature for over three hours.

I've found the easiest and quickest way to clean stainless steel racks is to place them in a black garbage bag in hot sunshine. Spray the racks with OVEN CLEANER before closing the bag entrance. Leave the black bag in the sun for at least half an hour; then open the bag to spill the racks on the ground (without touching the corrosive spray).

Use a water garden hose to spray the racks clean. I used this procedure twice today and the racks now are beautifully clean and shiny with hardly no effort.