Tips and Tricks in the kitchen……because we all need a little help sometimes.
When I first started baking on my new oven, I had to figure out how hot the temperature really is on the inside, regardless of what it says on the knob. Maybe it’s just me but I have this feeling that machines have their own temperaments. Microwaves, laptops, cars, ovens…..sometimes when you’re at your most frantic they decide to play hookey with you by failing to function. Anyways…..long story short, at my still figuring-out stage, I manage to burn a batch a brownies. Needless to say, the whole house smells like a tyre factory. We had to open all the doors and windows to air out the smell.
My oven was completely tainted by the smell of burnt brownies. When I say burnt, I meant REALLY burnt! Like a slab of black, hard rock. I need to rid the smell inside the oven before I could use it for anything else. I made a concoction of the following items;
*Water not in picture
I know that it might be overrated to say that oh…..vinegar, lemon juice and baking soda cleans everything. I don’t know about everything, but at least to get rid of burnt-smell, it does the trick. I microwaved the lemon juice, vinegar and water for 5 mins in a heatproof bowl. Then take it out and pour in the baking soda. Place it in the oven and close the door. The baking soda will react and because the water is super-hot, the steam will travel throughout the oven. Something about the vinegar will help to dissolve the smelly particles while baking soda absorbs the bad odour. Lemon juice is just there to balance it out.
You might have to do it a few times for severe cases like mine. The first time I did it, I left the concoction in the oven overnight, the next day when I opened the door, it smelled like a wet dog. So, I did it say 5 more times to completely eliminate the smell. Air your oven as well in intervals. After all that, give your oven a good wipe with mild soap and water and clean all the parts inside. I suppose you could always place a piece of charcoal inside at the end to absorb any of the remaining smell, but I didn’t have any.
This mixture works for microwaves too. It’ll help loosen all that greasy clumps that is stuck on the top.
