I know that there may be an early blog post or two of these twelve days as Instagram has spoken and people seem to be quite keen on the Guava Thumbprint Cookies (which I can reassure you are so easy it’ll make your heart leap). But, amid virtual water cooler banter I disclosed I’m in the process of deep cleaning my oven to ensure we don’t accidentally burn down the house from my profuse baking needs. Their response? Share the story! Because allegedly not enough people know how to clean their oven or how to even approach it. At worst, you get a post to disregard, at best, you’re welcome you didn’t burn down your home and have hygienic food to eat.
Oven cleaning is an underrated but important skill. The more an oven is used, the more bits of grease and charred rogue bits of food slowly pile up. Which is innocuous enough, however, with enough build up, could become the perfect kindling for a fire, and vector for bacteria to grow and produce toxins. And here’s the thing–heat does kill bacteria and pathogens but it does not kill all toxins produced (looking at you staph)–heat resistant toxins do exist. I could fear monger, but if you have enough internet to find this blog…you can look it up yourself if you want more details.
On a less terrifying level, cleaning your oven helps prevent burned food flavor notes from grease smoke and is just good form to want to cook in clean spaces.
How often should an oven be cleaned?
Short (unhelpful) answer: it depends.
Longer (helpful) answer: if you’re an avid baker–once a season. If you’re not into oven weekly bakes/roasts, a bi-annual clean would suffice.
How does one clean an oven?
You’ll need
White Vinegar
Paper Towels
A Working Oven (ha)
+ 2.5-8.5 hours of your time (not all actively cleaning…but don’t leave your oven unattended when it’s running it’s clean cycle)
Most ovens have a clean cycle which is basically a high heat cycle, taking anywhere from 2-8 hours. I aim for a 6 hour heat run to ensure any difficult particulates that didn’t come off during a vinegar scrub down are incinerated for a post oven cycle wipe down.
Effectively, I’d go about an oven clean like so:
- START with a cold oven, as in one that is safe to touch with bare hands
- Remove the racks, they’re going to get in the way, and can optionally wash these while the oven’s in it’s clean cycle
- (Optional) Wipe oven down with vinegar and paper towels. Vinegar is naturally acidic, food safe, and naturally cuts through grease stains, this will help reduce the amount of gunk the oven turns to ash (or would-be kindling) during the clean cycle (roommate thinks this step is overkill…but our oven at least benefited from it…)
- Start the oven clean cycle, and stay nearby. It will lock the oven door to prevent temperature fluctuation, but that doesn’t mean it should be left unattended! You don’t want to risk burning down your kitchen because it started smoking and you weren’t nearby to handle the situation. Again I aim for 6 hours
- Wait for it to cool to room temperature once the heat cycle is done, door propped open if desired
- Wipe down once more with vinegar and paper towels to clean out anything that did get turned to ash in the process.
- Put the racks back in and enjoy a clean oven!
Stay Hungry & stay tuned for the Twelve Bakes of Christmas!
XOXO
Mish