Cooking in the kitchen can get pretty messy, and stovetops in particular can easily become baked in grease if you do not know how to clean them properly.
Grease can be incredibly difficult to wash away as it is made up of oils and fats that do not mix well with water, and if not cleaned it can become burned on a stove.
Katie Kimball, a cleaning expert and founder of Kitchen Stewardship, has shared that stain build-up on your stove is common and can become difficult to tackle the longer you ignore it.
She said: “So many people have dried on, cooked on food and drippings under their burners, and it’s definitely one of those problems that snowballs as you allow it to go unaddressed.”
However, a dirty stovetop can actually be cleaned with items you already have in your kitchen, as all you need is washing-up liquid and baking soda.
Washing-up liquid contains surfactants which lowers the surface of water to make it easier to mix grease and water together to remove the stains.
Baking soda is alkaline, so it can break down acidic material like grease, food splatters and burn marks to make them much easier to clean.
Katie said: “When something is cooked on or stained, use baking soda as an abrasive. I keep some in an old Parmesan cheese shaker under the sink for easy access.
“Just shake on and scrub with the wet cloth. It might take a little elbow grease, but baking soda won’t scratch your surfaces or harm your family with icky chemicals. Plus, it’s super cheap.”
How to easily clean a stovetop
To begin, wipe everything on your stove down with warm soapy water and a clean cloth.
If you have an old stove, take the burners apart so that you can clean under them. Place any removable burners or drip trays in a basin filled with hot soapy water and baking soda.
Sprinkle a generous amount of baking soda onto your stove. Use a clean wet cloth to gently scrub it until it forms a paste.
For more stubborn stains, mix together the water and baking soda beforehand and leave it alone to set on the stove for at least 10 minutes.
Scrub the stove, and the grease and grime on the stove should come away easily. Rinse the stove with clean warm water and dry it, then your stove should be sparkling clean once again.
In the future, make sure to wipe it down after cooking to avoid any grease or food splatter build-up.
Katie added: “When we keep up on the simple habit of wiping everything down after each meal, our stovetop stays fairly clean.”