When you are working on completing your regular kitchen cleaning, you are probably working hard on making your oven as spotless as it was on purchase. Oven cleaning is the most important aspect of your kitchen cleaning efforts. People rarely pay attention to this for long, so you may end up struggling with keeping things spotless if ignored.
The caked-on food can be a real problem if completely ignored, as the excessive buildup of fat may eventually lead to it catching fire in extreme cases.
Tips in Doing an Oven Cleaning
Effects on Flavour and Food
Dirty ovens can not only affect the quality of your food negatively, but they can affect the flavour a great deal. After all, the constant burning of food leftovers caked on the walls of your oven can develop carbon-based fumes. The fumes will end up inside your food like cakes, bread, and whatever else you’re cooking in the oven. Food absorbing this will end up having a bad taste as a result. On the other hand, not cleaning your oven can make it drop its efficiency, as well as cooking quality.
Dirty Ovens Release Smoke
This is one of the issues with a dirty oven since leftover food or grease caked on the walls will start burning if you don’t clean it often enough. This produces smoke inside the oven, often containing harmful gases such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, and sulfur dioxide. Needless to say, you don’t want to end up breathing any of this in the quantities coming out of a burned meal for long. Dirty ovens also tend to emit pollutants such as methane and carbon, contributing to climate change. Maintaining your air quality means you will need to keep your oven clean to the best of your ability. Even a small amount of grease can cause your oven to produce smoke. Make sure you understand that and focus on keeping it spotless after each time you cook something inside.
Grime and Grease Buildup
It may be easy to ignore the oven and allow grease and grime buildup, but you and your loved ones may end up eating the leftover grease from previous cooking sessions. Not cleaning your oven may even lead to health issues if you’re not careful. If too much grime and grease get caked on your oven, it may interfere with ventilation inside and could eventually lead to your food being unevenly cooked or worse. Take for example something as commonly cooked as chicken. Even a slightly undercooked chicken could end up being a problem since you could end up being a victim of food poisoning. Undercooked food can end up being a source of dangerous bacteria such as E.coli, salmonella, and more if it is ignored for too long.
Pest Issues
As food leftovers, spills, and dirt end up dotting your oven, these may attract cockroaches, ants, and even bigger pests like rodents. Keeping your oven spotless is a great way to keep them out of the kitchen where they don’t belong.
Safety Hazards
The risk of fire is something of major concern in neglected kitchens. A dirty, grease-caked oven has been a cause of otherwise preventable fires in many cases every year. Making sure your kitchen is spotless and your oven is free of such accumulation of fat on its surfaces is a great way to ensure you have a great way to avoid a fire. Keeping spillages and grime inside may cause smoke as well, which isn’t exactly great for your lungs. Use an oven cleaner to cut through the grease and keep things fresh after each cooking session.
