I am embarrassed to show you our old, dirty oven toaster ?
But all the oven toasters we have ever had have ended up in this state – with the previously light-colored aluminum covered in brown grease. I have repeatedly told people at home to clean it after each use, but that rarely happens. At most, only the tray gets cleaned. No one is diligent enough to wait for it to cool down and wipe the inside of the oven toaster after every use.
Not knowing how to remove all the gunk from the oven toasters, I usually just ended up replacing them after a few years, when they still cost around P500-ish. But prices have gone up, and the current oven toaster we have is a bit pricier so I tried cleaning it.
HOW TO CLEAN YOUR OVEN TOASTER
Baking Soda Doesn’t Work
The most common advice I see on the internet is to use baking soda. I tried this last year and it doesn’t work. It cleans the gunk a little, maybe by 20% max, but it’s too much work, and I had to scrub really hard until my fingers were raw. Let’s just say it doesn’t work as advertised.
Do Not Use Easy-Off Oven Cleaner
I bought Easy-Off Oven Cleaner when it was on sale at S&R to try on our previous oven toaster. It ruined the aluminum pan – the aluminum became pitted (not smooth anymore, like the Easy-Off ate the aluminum). That’s how I learned the hard way not to use Easy-Off on aluminum. Easy-Off works great at cleaning the caked on grease at the bottom of stainless pots and pans though. If you have pans whose bottoms have turned black from use, you can just use Easy-Off on it a few times until all the gunk is removed and it looks sparkling new! You have to use it in an area with good ventilation because it has fumes. I try not to breathe while spraying it on pots & pans.
BAR KEEPERS FRIEND
I have seen a lot of people, usually on American blogs, recommending Bar Keepers Friend. But where am I going to find Bar Keepers Friend in Manila? I haven’t seen it available in local supermarkets. Fortunately, just before ECQ, my sister chanced upon it at True Value for P250.
So last week, I FINALLY mustered up the courage to clean the oven toaster again using our new Bar Keepers Friend ? I was worried for my poor hands, but it turns out, I didn’t need to be. The Bar Keepers Friend worked like a dream!
I didn’t even have to let it sit for 30 minutes or something unlike with the baking soda. As soon as I sprinkled some Bar Keepers Friend on the wet surface to be cleaned, I used a wet rag to scrub the white powder around, and most of the gunk dissolved immediately! I didn’t smell any fumes.
Tip: Use a rag that you can throw away right after so you don’t have to wash it.
This oven toaster has a flap at the bottom that opens to make it easier to clean the inside.
There were a few stubborn bits that didn’t want to come off, so I just used a steel wool to scrub. I didn’t even have to use much effort at all unlike with the baking soda.
After I got all the grease off, I wiped everything with a wet, clean rag thrice, to make sure that no Bar Keepers Friend residue is left.
As you can see, this is how it looks like now!
Unfortunately, there is nothing I can do about the chipped / melted white cover/coating ?
Note: when cleaning your oven toaster, make sure that it is not plugged in, and that it is not hot.
Here’s the dirty tray. The oven toaster rack is soaking in the sink (on the right).
I did two rounds of Bar Keepers Friend on it. I wasn’t able to get it sparkling clean, but you can see a definite improvement. I’ll try again next time and hope it gets cleaner each time until it looks as good as new!
For this particular oven toaster, we usually cover the tray with some aluminum foil, thinking that it will prevent the tray from getting dirty. But it doesn’t help at all. As you can see, the tray still gets dirty. So now I am leaning more towards just using the tray as is, no more aluminum foil unless we’re heating up something sticky.
CONCLUSION
Bar Keepers Friend is the most effective cleaning solution I have tried for cleaning the oven toaster. This is LEGIT. Even if it’s pricey at P250 for a cleanser, it’s worth it. I didn’t even have to use a lot. I think for this oven toaster, I only used up about 1/4 cup of Bar Keepers Friend.
Thanks to this, I am not afraid of cleaning the oven toaster, or any other kitchen gunk, anymore 🙂
I have not yet tried it on other things, but I heard that it is also what many use to clean the inner pots of their Instant Pot.
