How to clean an oven without commercial oven cleaner

NMSU publishes two oven methods that use no commercial cleaner: sprinkle salt on a fresh spill while the oven is still warm and scrape it off once it cools, or wet the area, cover it with baking soda, rub tough spots gently with very fine steel wool, then wipe and rinse. Georgia adds a spray of castile soap and borax in hot water, left for 20 minutes and scrubbed off. Each is set out below. For heavy baked-on grease, your oven's own self-cleaning cycle, run exactly as its manual directs, is the other route. Lye-based oven cleaners are a product to buy and use by the label rather than make, and this page explains why, then covers glass cooktops.

Method 1: salt on a fresh spill (NMSU)

From NMSU's G-313 (revised February 2019) [1]:

1. "While the oven is still warm, sprinkle salt on the spill."
2. "If the spill is completely dry, wet the spill before sprinkling on the salt."
3. "When the oven cools down, scrape away the spill."
4. "Wash the area clean."

This is the method for a pie that bubbled over tonight. Turn the oven off before you reach in, use an oven mitt, and let it cool fully before scraping.

Method 2: baking soda and fine steel wool (NMSU)

From the same table [1]:

1. "Wet the area with water."
2. "Sprinkle on a layer of baking soda."
3. "Rub gently with a very fine steel wool pad for tough spots."
4. "Wipe clean with dry paper towels."
5. "Rinse well and wipe dry."

Baking soda is "a mild abrasive" in NMSU's own description [1]. Use the steel wool on enamel oven interiors and racks only where your oven's manual allows abrasives, and never on the oven door glass, a glass cooktop or a continuous-clean or specially coated interior unless the manual says it is safe. Check yours. Baking soda explains what it can and cannot lift.

Method 3: castile soap and borax spray (Georgia)

From Georgia's Green Cleaning: Recipes for a Healthy Home, HACE-E-73-1 (revised October 2018) [2], also on the Kentucky and Missouri cards [3][4]:

OVEN CLEANER - 2 tbsp. vegetable oil based liquid soap - 2 tbsp. borax Mix the soap and borax in a spray bottle. Fill the bottle with hot water and shake well. Spray on oven and leave for 20 minutes. Scrub off.

Spray a cool oven, keep children and pets away while it sits, and wipe out every trace before you heat the oven again. Label the bottle "contains borax," because it looks like any other spray; borax covers its classification and the precautions around children.

Self-cleaning ovens

None of the extension sources covers self-cleaning cycles, so the only valid directions are in your oven's manual. Follow its instructions on removing racks, which parts to wipe by hand, ventilation during the cycle, and which cleaners (if any) are allowed inside a self-cleaning oven. Do not combine a homemade or store-bought cleaner with a cleaning cycle unless the manual says you may.

Why lye oven cleaners are a buy-not-make product

Oven cleaners made with lye (sodium or potassium hydroxide; the label or SDS will say) are in a different class from anything in a pantry. Federal packaging law treats lye products as hazardous enough to require child-resistant packaging: under 16 CFR 1700.14(a)(5), that covers household products with 10 percent or more free sodium or potassium hydroxide in a dry form and 2 percent or more in any other form, such as a liquid or gel [5]. NMSU lists the injuries commercial oven cleaners can cause: "Burns of the mouth and throat" if swallowed, "Irritation" and "Burning" on skin, and "Loss of vision" from eye contact, with the instruction "Seek immediate medical help if oven cleaners are swallowed or there is skin contact" [1].

That is why no homemade lye oven cleaner is given here, and none of the extension sources quoted offers one either. If the baking soda and borax methods are not enough, buy a commercial oven cleaner and follow its label exactly: gloves, eye protection, ventilation and the stated wait. NMSU notes that lye-free commercial oven cleaners exist, to be used "according to label directions" [1]. Child-resistant closures has the full threshold list.

Two cautions while you are using one:

• Do not mix it with anything. NMSU lists oven cleaners among the products that may contain ammonia, along with glass and multipurpose cleaners, and says "NEVER mix chlorine bleach and ammonia because this creates a deadly gas" [1]. Rinse the oven well before any other product goes in. What is hiding in store-bought cleaners shows how to read a label for these ingredients.
• Know the first aid before you start. If any gets in an eye or on skin, or is swallowed, the steps are on cleaner in the eyes, on skin or swallowed. Poison Control is 1-800-222-1222 [1].

Glass and ceramic cooktops

None of the extension sources quoted here gives a recipe or method for glass or ceramic cooktops. That is the honest answer: no tested published homemade recipe was found for them. What the sources do support:

• Do not carry NMSU's steel wool step over to a cooktop; it is written for an oven interior [1].
• Use your cooktop maker's care instructions and whatever cleaner or scraper they name. Cooktop manuals are usually specific about which scrapers, pads and cleaning creams the glass can take.
• For ordinary wiping of a cool cooktop, a mild solution such as Georgia's baking soda fixture cleaner (2 tbsp. baking soda dissolved in 1 quart water, wiped on and rinsed) [2] is the gentlest published mix in these sources, but Georgia wrote it for plumbing fixtures, so check that your manual allows it.

For gas and coil stovetops, burner grates and drip pans, the NMSU baking soda method above is a reasonable starting point on surfaces your manual says can take a mild abrasive.

The other kitchen job people try to make at home

The drain under the sink is the next place people reach for baking soda and vinegar, and it is where the fizz does the least. Slow and clogged drains explains what does work.

References

1. New Mexico State University Cooperative Extension Service (revised by Rick Griffiths and Sonja Koukel), *Green Alternatives to Toxic Household Products and Hazardous Waste*, G-313, revised February 2019. https://pubs.nmsu.edu/_g/G313/index.html
2. University of Georgia Cooperative Extension (Pamela R. Turner and Sharon M. S. Gibson), *Green Cleaning: Recipes for a Healthy Home*, HACE-E-73-1 (Green Clean Booklet), revised October 2018. https://site.extension.uga.edu/greenway/files/2024/09/10.18_Green-Clean-Booklet_update.pdf
3. University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension (Connee Wheeler, adapted from Gibson and Turner, UGA), *Green Cleaning: Recipes for a Healthy Home*, HHF-CRW.175, January 2010. https://fcs.mgcafe.uky.edu/sites/fcs.mgcafe.uky.edu/files/green-cleaning-recipe-cards.pdf
4. University of Missouri Extension (Pamela R. Turner and Sharon M. S. Gibson, adapted by Kandace Fisher-McLean), *Green Cleaning: Recipes for a Healthy Home*, GH201, 2019 (GH-0201-2019 in the MU MOspace record), adaptation of the 2015 UGA edition. https://extension.missouri.edu/media/wysiwyg/Extensiondata/Pub/pdf/hesguide/foodnut/gh201.pdf
5. 16 CFR 1700.14, Substances requiring special packaging, via Cornell Legal Information Institute, read October 2026. https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/16/1700.14