Nine steps to naturally clean your oven

It may take a little time and some elbow grease, but this natural cleaning combination can handle a dirty oven.

• Remove the oven racks, pizza stone, oven thermometer and anything else you have inside the oven and set them aside.
• Make a bicarb soda paste by mixing half-a-cup of bicarb soda with a few tablespoons of water in a small bowl. Adjust the ratio of both as needed until you have a spreadable paste.
• Spread the paste over the interior surfaces of your oven, steering clear of the heating elements (use gloves if the oven is really grimy). The bicarb soda will turn a brownish colour as you rub it in.
• Leave the bicarb soda mixture to ‘rest’ for at least 12 hours, or overnight. In the meantime, clean the oven racks.
• Wipe out the oven after 12 hours or overnight, using a damp dish cloth to remove as much of the dried bicarb soda paste as you can. Use a plastic or silicone spatula to help scrape off the paste as needed.
• Put vinegar in a spray bottle and spritz it everywhere you see bicarb soda residue in the oven. The vinegar will react with the bicarb soda and gently foam.
• Use a damp cloth to wipe out the foamy vinegar-bicarb-soda mixture and repeat until all the bicarb soda residue is gone. Add more water or vinegar to your cloth as needed while wiping, to really get the oven clean and shiny.
• Clean the oven glass using the vinegar and a damp cloth.
• Replace the oven racks and anything else you keep in your oven and the job’s done.
  
  The information in this article has been prepared for general information purposes only and is not intended as legal advice or specific advice to any particular person. Any advice contained in the document is general advice, not intended as legal advice or professional advice and does not take into account any person’s particular circumstances. Before acting on anything based on this advice you should consider its appropriateness to you, having regard to your objectives and needs.