I Used Oven Cleaner to Clean My Well-Loved Cookware — Here’s How It Went

I don’t know when it was that I decided that all of my cookware would just “have a patina,” but that’s what things had come to. My baking sheets, especially, but also my saucepans and skillets. They all just had these burnt-on brown-ish spots. No amount of soap, water, or elbow grease could get them off. So I had just come to accept them. But when my nightly scrolling led me to this post, I ran to the store to buy Heavy-Duty Easy Off. 

I’m no stranger to oven cleaner’s many extra skills, from restoring tile grout to getting yellow stains off of glass bakeware. With all the amazing uses for a can of Easy Off, I’m surprised it hasn’t been a normal part of my cleaning repertoire. Until now, I didn’t even own any, mostly because I was put off by the strong chemical smell I remembered from childhood. But again, when I stumbled across cleaning TikTok, and the legions of commenters raving about how oven cleaner saved their pots and pans, I became convinced it was worth a try. 

Related: The Clever Reddit Tip for Getting a Le Creuset Dutch Oven Looking Good as New

I grabbed my two most problem-prone pieces: a decade-old baking pan I use to catch drippy cheese when I’m baking pizza and a pot that frequently overflows water when I’m whipping up macaroni for my kids. Knowing the smell would be irritating, I put on a mask (good thing I have them on hand!) and opened the windows. Then, I cleared out one side of the sink and got to it. 

Basically, the idea is to spray a layer of oven cleaner on the bottom of the affected cookware. Because it wasn’t clear in the video how long to leave it on, I followed the “spot-cleaning” instructions on the can of Easy Off and left it on for about a minute, then wiped clean with a paper towel and rinsed. I saw immediate results with the Caraway pot: The oven cleaner totally banished the grease and tiny burned spots, restoring the bottom to a mirror-like finish. 

The pan didn’t come clean so easily. I wiped it down after the recommended minute and the top layer of grease easily slid off, but all the discoloration from the burns remained. So I applied another layer, let it sit for a whole 30 minutes. 

Reader, I was shook! After rinsing, it was a totally different pan. Don’t be mistaken: It still doesn’t look great, but the better portion of the baked-on gunk and all the grease totally disappeared. 

I still don’t love the experience of using oven cleaner (I’ll have my windows open for the rest of the day to air out my kitchen), but I’ll keep the Easy Off on hand for the next time my pots start to look a little worse for the wear. And who knows — maybe I’ll even try it on my oven.

One big note, though: Make sure you wash your cookware thoroughly with soap and water once you’re done cleaning it with oven cleaner.