Oven disaster. My husband says "ask the horse ladies..."

[Moutaineer]

So, I boiled over a fruit pie at the weekend and burned the subsequent sugary mess apparently irrevocably into thick, shiny carbon on the base plate of my gas oven--my oven is not self cleaning, but this oven is my dessert oven and was therefore immaculate... This part of the oven does come out.

How in the hell do I get this off? It isn't soaking off in soapy water. I can use oven cleaner, I guess, but what else would work?

[avma]

I would try using baking soda and vinegar. I've found that baking soda will take pretty much anything off. Make sure to sprinkle on the baking soda and wet it a little bit....like a paste....and then let it sit for a while. Then when you're ready to scrub it, pour on some vinegar. You may have to repeat the process a few times. I'll admit that most of the time I omit the vinegar part.

[heddylamar]

Pour boiling water on it, wipe, repeat.

[westisbest]

I sprinkle cheap no name dishwasher soap on any really ugly food stained pots or pans. Add a little boiling water so that it's pasty then leave in the sink overnight. Usually works a charm breaks down the burnt on food enough so that you can then scrub it off with regular scrubber and dish soap.

[MissDee]

You can also try putting it in a thick plastic garbage bag with a half cup or so of ammonia - seal it up and let it sit outside overnight. You don't have to submerge it in the liquid, the fumes from the ammonia are what do the trick.

[Canyon]

I've copied this "recipe" last week and have yet to try it. Let me know if you try it and it works!

MAGIC CLEANER
Ingredients:
2 oz. Dawn,
4 oz. bottled Lemon Juice,
8 oz. White Vinegar,
10 oz. Water.

The secret is to spray on surface, let sit overnight (or longer) and then wipe with clean, wet cloths to remove residue.
TIPS:
*In the oven, do NOT use heat, just spray, let sit, wipe clean.
*For showers, just spray, rinse and if you like the shine, wipe with dry towels.
*The secret on whatever you chose to clean is to let it sit, then rinse off the residue. Amazing stuff!

[no.stirrups]

This sounds like not at all your style, but what I do is ignore it, bake a few more things, and after a while I notice that the former goo is now a pile of ash. At which point it wipes away very easily. Benign neglect is my housekeeping style.

[Sue B]

have you tried a dryer sheet? I know it works great on stuff burned into pots n pans and on my glass stove top. You simply put the sheet into cold water over the scorched item and let it soak for a bit, then scrub the gunk out using the sheet.

[Moutaineer]

See, my husband was right. You all would know what to do.

no.stirrups, on the whole, I'd take that approach, but the black smoke and acrid smell filling the house is a bit much. And it is my dessert oven, so I try to keep it clean so that the thermostat works correctly and delicate things don't pick up odd odors. All bets are off on the roasting oven

OK, so it's soaking in a paste of dishwasher powder atm. We'll see how that works! The dryer sheet is a funky idea. I'll try a few of the others too if I need to.

Canyon, yeah, if it comes to that I'll break out the lye!

Thank you all, I will report back on what works.

[Don Giovanni]

FWIW, the "recipe" that Canyon printed is now my go-to cleaner. It works on just about everything. I used it to clean the grout in my bathroom after having tried just about everything else on the planet. I've used it in the oven, but not with a gooey spill. I wonder if that plus a shot of steam would get the mess out?

Mountaineer - your husband is a wise man. The horse ladies to the rescue

[Don Giovanni]

PS - I'm just envious that you have a dedicated dessert oven.

[Moutaineer]

It's not gooey--more like thickly shellacked on... My fault, I should have cleaned it straight away.

And yeah. Put anything that spits or splatters in that oven and I will have a fit. Caught my DH trying to broil sausages in it once. He won't be doing that again

[westisbest]

I've copied this "recipe" last week and have yet to try it. Let me know if you try it and it works!

MAGIC CLEANER
Ingredients:
2 oz. Dawn,
4 oz. bottled Lemon Juice,
8 oz. White Vinegar,
10 oz. Water.

The secret is to spray on surface, let sit overnight (or longer) and then wipe with clean, wet cloths to remove residue.
TIPS:
*In the oven, do NOT use heat, just spray, let sit, wipe clean.
*For showers, just spray, rinse and if you like the shine, wipe with dry towels.
*The secret on whatever you chose to clean is to let it sit, then rinse off the residue. Amazing stuff!

I think this is also a recipe for getting stains out of white sock on horses lol!

[KathyK]

I've copied this "recipe" last week and have yet to try it. Let me know if you try it and it works!

MAGIC CLEANER
Ingredients:
2 oz. Dawn,
4 oz. bottled Lemon Juice,
8 oz. White Vinegar,
10 oz. Water.

The secret is to spray on surface, let sit overnight (or longer) and then wipe with clean, wet cloths to remove residue.
TIPS:
*In the oven, do NOT use heat, just spray, let sit, wipe clean.
*For showers, just spray, rinse and if you like the shine, wipe with dry towels.
*The secret on whatever you chose to clean is to let it sit, then rinse off the residue. Amazing stuff!

I mixed up a half-batch when I got home (in a Quic Braid bottle that was almost empty ). It works very well.

[angela9823]

I am going to have to try that recipe!

[Sue from Auckland]

Benign neglect is my housekeeping style.

It's my horse-keeping style (within reason, of course), as well as my house-keeping style