Michael Symon's Quick Tip For Cleaning Restaurant Ovens
For people who love to cook, the fun likely comes from browsing for new recipes to test, shopping for interesting ingredients, preparing your meal, and then sharing food with your family and friends. And once it's all over, it's time to wash the dishes and clean the kitchen. Cleaning things like baking pans and microwaves can be tedious work, so having some kitchen cleaning hacks up your sleeve makes the work a lot easier.
Plus, you can always take a tip from industry professionals who need to clean their kitchen more often and quickly. On Twitter, chef Michael Symon shared how professionals clean ovens. According to Martha Stewart, you should be cleaning your oven at home every three months. But it's no surprise that industrial kitchens need this cleaning more often.
In his tweet, Symon explained that his restaurants clean their ovens every night with hot and soapy water. He also writes that the ovens are easier to clean while they're still warm. Wondering how this advice holds up with your home oven? Here's what you should be doing in your kitchen.
Other ways to clean your oven at home
Like Michael Symon, you can use soap and warm water to clean your oven. For Martha Stewart, Ron Shimek, the president of Mr. Appliance, recommended soaking burners and oven grates in warm, soapy water. Thankfully, you won't have to do this at home daily. Shimek says that the grates should stay in the water for two hours, then you can scrub and dry them before placing the grates back in the oven.
But for a deeper clean, you'll need to use a bit more than just soap and water. While you can purchase oven cleaner, you can make your own cleaner with things you probably already have at home. Real Simple explains that you can mix baking soda and vinegar with water to make a paste that you can use to cover the inside of the oven. This paste works especially well with any food that's gotten hard.
While Real Simple says that you need at least 20 minutes for the paste to do its job, Architectural Digest says you should leave the paste inside the oven for at least 12 hours. If your oven is caked in grime, then it's best to err on the longer side.
Now that you know how easy it is to clean your oven, don't put it off any longer, and make the time to clean other kitchen appliances and tools you rarely clean, from your knife block to the inside of your dishwater.