Cleaning Your Oven

While we were doing up our house, I had the freedom of choosing my kitchen layout, equipments and everything else from size to voltage. Hubs left it entirely to me. That doesn't mean I am on a spending spree, I made my choices on the following order : 1)practicality, 2) user friendly 3) value buy.

I was excited to finally choose my own oven. I consulted the kitchen appliance supplier on functionality vs budget and finally settled on a Bosch oven and so I was a happy baker starting from my chinese new year cookies, then experimenting, roast pork, roast chicken, cakes and what nots ...

Someone asked me the other day how I clean my oven. "Maid lor" I replied. Then I remembered the few times 'maid' forgot to clean the oven ,leaving pans of dripped oil overnight and sometimes over 2 or 3 days. Sei Mou ? Anyway, I have instructed her to wipe the oven only and spefically do not use any abrasives to clean it.

So, last Sunday, after a long weekend, I was in the 'mood' (this kinda mood doesn't come by very frequent!), I sat down to clean my oven, removing piece by piece.

**One word of advise if you plan to get a built in oven, get one which you can remove the doors and has pyrolictic or self cleaning. Self cleaning parts, the stains will be removed over time by continuos baking over high heat, dirt will turn to ashes.

Ok, getting started on my 'big messy project' , I got this ready :


Cosway cream cleanser (for stains on racks), multi purpose cleaner and vinegar solution for oven floor and enamel coatings.


Soak the side rails and racks in hot soapy water.. stain removed easily. If this doesn't work, rub a little non abrasive cream cleanser (I use Cosway's)

Use a damp cloth and soap water for oven doors.

Then comes the tricky part, the enamel coatings. I tried hot soapy water and vinegar solutions but still could not remove the stains.

I ordered hubs to get this for me from Ace Hardware :

RM22.99 per canister

Spray it on, leave for couple of hours and wipe off.. easy peasy.

From this :

To this :

There's still a few specks of stain there, I could remove all of it if I wanted to , just a few more spray and wipes.

And the mother of all stains. No soap or vinegar could do the trick :

On the oven floor, after rounds and rounds of wiping with hot soapy water, vinegar, no improvements. I suspect this stain was from one of the roast, not properly wiped off before another long bake and the stain happily set home in my oven !

Then just after 3 or 4 spray-wait-wipe with my oven cleaner, it's gone, abracadabra, like this :

Just a tiny speckle left. Just a few more spray-wait-wipes, it'll be gone.

So, don't worry about cleaning the oven. It's actually quite easy. Just go ahead, utilize it, bake, roast and grill with it !