Cleaning the cooker is a horrible task that most of us detest, but if you keep on top of things and never let your cooker get truly dirty, you can enjoy using your beloved appliance with pride. For this to happen, it’s important to clean up spillages as soon as they occur, and ideally when the cooker is still warm.
However, if your cooker has gone past the stage of needing a regular clean, here are 3 simple steps to get it back to its former glory:
- Wipe down the exterior
Unplug the cooker and wipe the exterior down with a moist cloth. If there are any visible stains, use a mixture of vinegar and water to eliminate them; you may need to lightly scrub at them with a sponge, but be careful not to use anything too abrasive. If your cooker has a glass door, vinegar in a spray bottle can be squirted over it to get it sparkling clean again. Spray, leave for a couple of minutes and wipe away with paper towels.
- Clean the cooker’s interior
No matter how grubby your cooker might be on the inside, you will need to take care when cleaning it, and avoid using harsh or abrasive products or tools when doing so. In most instances, making a paste of vinegar and baking soda will work wonderfully well on tougher-to-clean stains in your oven, and with the chemical reaction produced when these natural products interact with one another, grease and grime become easily unstuck.
Take out any racks and shelves and soak them in hot soapy water, create the paste of equal parts baking soda to vinegar as described above, and apply it to all grubby areas of the cooker’s interior with a soft sponge, working it in by using a circular motion. Leave it on for a few minutes, then wipe the paste off with a cloth until all traces of it have gone.
Rinse off the racks and shelves and return them to the oven. For stuck-on grime, you may need to lightly scrub at these items before rinsing and returning them.
- Freshen up the sealing ring
Because they’re made from soft, porous materials like silicone or rubber, sealing rings on cookers do tend to absorb cooking smells, and it’s a good idea to freshen up every so often. Take off the sealing ring and leave it to soak for a couple of hours (fully under the water) in a basin filled with white vinegar and a few drops of dish soap, once a week if possible, or at least on a monthly basis. Then, rinse it off in cold water and allow to air-dry.
If you prefer, you can simply ask a cleaning service to come in and get your entire kitchen spotlessly clean, and benefit from a clean oven, clean surfaces, clean refrigerator…the list goes on!
