Yesterday, I cleaned the range oven and hood. After a few weeks of use, they invariably get coated with a layer of oil and grease or, in some areas (especially the grille of the range hood), sticky gunk. Previously, I have been using dishwashing soap and it would always take a lot of time and effort to get good results. But this time around, I used Simple Green which I happen to have around for bathroom cleaning. Back when Jeanne was born, I decided to get only organic and environment friendly bathroom cleaning products just to be safe. I didn’t realize it’s also an awesome kitchen cleaner. It made short work of the oil, grease, and gunk! In just a short time and with minimal effort I had a gleaming range oven and hood!
How To Keep Your Pots and Pans Spic and Span
One of the problems when you play around the kitchen, is keeping your pots and pans sparkling clean. I try to follow three simple rules.
First, don’t go too hot on the burner. This burns oil turning it into stubborn gunk that sticks to the pan. It also vaporizes some of the oil stinking up the air and your clothes. Worse, with time it gunks up your range, range hood, kitchen, lungs even.
Second, don’t spill. The spill gets burned into the sides of your pot and onto the burner. If you spill, you’re using the wrong pot size or you’re cooking way too much. Or you’re just plain sloppy.
Third, clean. If you somehow screw up the two simple practices above, I guarantee you will have a tough time cleaning up. And you will need abrasives. To avoid scratching up your pots and pans too much, use the mildest abrasive pads if possible. This will require a lot of elbow grease.
In the tougher cases, you will have to use harsher abrasive pads. In that case, once the pot is gunk free, you will need to polish your way down to the milder abrasive pads to lighten the scratches and, finally, top off with a metal polish if you really want to be shiny.
Clean up is a lot of work, and in this case, as with most, an ounce of prevention is worth and pound of cure.