Bicarbonate of soda, washing soda and water, spread thick and left overnight. Fifteen minutes of work, about 30p, and no shop-bought oven cleaner.
Washing soda is caustic and irritates skin and eyes: wear rubber gloves and avoid inhaling the powder. Keep it out of reach of children and pets. Don't use it on aluminium, or on waxed, oiled or lacquered surfaces. Switch off at the mains, and keep the paste off the fan and elements.
Baked-on oven grime is polymerised fat — effectively varnish made of dinner. The strong alkalis slowly break the polymer bonds, which is why the overnight wait matters.
Use a soft cloth or sponge on the glass, not a scourer. Which? warns that harsh scourers can leave tiny scratches that weaken the glass.
Tested in an electric oven. If yours is gas, enamel-lined or self-cleaning (pyrolytic, catalytic or steam), check your oven manual before using any paste.
A weekly thirty-second wipe of the still-warm (not hot) oven with the all-purpose spray means you may never need the overnight treatment.
Make fresh each time. Don't pre-mix the vinegar into the paste: bicarbonate and vinegar react once, fizz, and cancel each other out. The vinegar goes on afterwards, only where you need it.
Oven cleaner paste, laundry powder, descaler tablets, mould remover, floor wash, glass cleaner, dishwasher tablets — every cleaning product in your house, made from a handful of cupboard staples.
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