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Recipe 30 of 100 · The Country Cleans Mix Book

How to Clean an Oven Overnight Before Thanksgiving

No-Fume Baking Soda Paste

Stir 3/4 cup baking soda with 3 tablespoons salt, 1 tablespoon dish soap and about 5 tablespoons water, added slowly, to a frosting-thick paste. Racks out. Spread it 1/8 inch thick on the stains, avoiding the elements and fan. Shut the door 8 to 12 hours, scrape it out with a plastic putty knife, wipe, then spritz vinegar on any white haze. Dry, then run it empty at 300 F for 15 minutes. Not on self-clean coatings or catalytic liners.

No Fume Overnight Oven Paste recipe card: 3/4 cup baking soda, 3 tbsp table salt, 1 tbsp dish soap, About 5 tbsp water, a little at a time
What it fixesCarbonized black spills and burnt on drips on the floor, walls, and door glass of a conventional oven, with no chemical fumes.

You need

Mix it

  1. Combine the baking soda and salt in a bowl.
  2. Add the dish soap and 3 tablespoons of the water and stir.
  3. Add the rest of the water a teaspoon at a time until you get a thick spreadable paste, about the texture of frosting. Too runny and it slides off the oven walls overnight.

Use it

  1. Pull the racks out and take the loose burnt crumbs out with a dry paper towel.
  2. Spread the paste about 1/8 inch thick over every stained surface. Go heavier on the black spots. Avoid the heating elements and the fan opening entirely.
  3. Close the door and leave it 8 to 12 hours. Overnight is ideal.
  4. In the morning, scrape the paste off with the plastic putty knife. It should come off brown and carry the burnt residue with it.
  5. Wipe out the residue with damp paper towels, then a wet cloth, rinsing often.
  6. Now spritz the vinegar over any hazy white baking soda film left behind. It will foam. That foam is just carbon dioxide and it lifts the last of the powder.
  7. Wipe dry. Run the oven empty at 300 F for 15 minutes to burn off moisture.
Dale's noteThe vinegar goes on after the paste is scraped out, never mixed into it. Mixing them in the bowl kills both and you get salty water. Applied in sequence like this, the acid is only there to clear the leftover powder.
Don'tDo not use this in a self cleaning oven's coating or on any oven with an exposed catalytic or continuous clean liner. That porous liner will absorb the paste and smoke for weeks. Check your manual. Also never spray anything onto the bake element or the gas igniter.
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