In our last blog (linked here if you missed it), we talked about some tips to help you get your dirty oven back to its best and promised that the next one would be how to clean the racks and shelves. Well, guess what! Here it is!
In many ways, cleaning the oven is the easy part. It has large open surfaces and you can easily see the progress you're making, but the racks are an entirely different proposition.
They're fiddly enough when they're clean, but once pitted with food stains they become awkward to handle and, 'thanks' to their design, you can work on them for ages without seeing any real result.
If you recognise that scene then welcome to the club.
Of course, there are plenty of products you can use to get them shiny, but they often use very harsh chemicals which make an unpleasant job even more so. We've got a way to do it without any chemicals or toxic substances.
The price for that is that it will take all night, but don't worry. You don't have to sit there for that long!
The first thing you'll have to do is put them in the bath. Yes, that's right. The bath! Before you put them in there, it's a good idea to put an old towel in the bottom of the bath first. This will stop the racks from staining or scratching your bathtub.
Once done, lay the racks onto the towel and fill the bath so they are completely submerged. You don't have to fill it to the brim, just enough to completely cover the racks.
Don't put ANY cold water in. For this to work, the water needs to be HOT! HOT! HOT! If your bathtub can stand it, it might be worth boiling the kettle once or twice to make sure it's hot enough.
Once they're covered, add around half a cup of washing (or dishwasher) powder into the bath and slosh it around so it's well mixed with the water. Remember the water is going to be hot, so don't use your hand and be careful. A wooden spoon might help here.
After that, just leave it overnight (or around 4 hours if you've got time during the day). When you wake up in the morning, the grease and baked-on stains will have magically disappeared or, at least, loose enough to simply rinse away!
Pull the plug and rinse the bath with cold water to get rid of the dirty water and any excess powder.
There you have it, wonderfully clean oven racks to go with your lovely clean oven!
If you've got any tips, please leave us a comment below. If there's anything you'd like help with, again, just leave a comment and we'll do our best to help you out.