I’m a chef and you’ve been cleaning your baking trays all wrong – get more of the gross burnt gunk off using my method
IT can be all too tempting to throw out a baking tray when the burnt gunk feels like too big of a task to remove.
But according to one chef, it doesn’t have to get this bad… if you’re willing to completely change the way you clean your kitchen tools.
Elise Smith has two golden rules for making her baking trays sparkle.
Don’t put them in the dishwasher and only scrub them with natural ingredients.
Following these rules will also improve the longevity of your baking sheets as you’ll protect the nonstick coating on top.
“I would never use any harsh chemicals,” Elise told Today.
“It’s something that you’re cooking with, so you want to keep things pretty natural.”
Good natural ingredients to clean baking trays – and any other kitchen tool for that matter – with are baking soda and vinegar.
This combination has made waves on TikTok, as people pour both ingredients onto surfaces with congealed and burnt food to create a fizz.
The reactive fizz helps lift off the gunk when left to sit, duly reducing scrub time afterwards.
If you don’t have any of these on hand, a natural dish soap can also do the trick.
What’s more, rather than “shocking” the pan with cold water when rinsing, Elise advised using hot water to make any sticky mess come off easier.
It may be tempting to just stick your baking trays in the dishwasher – but this could damage the shape and make them wear quicker.
“It becomes this dense, hot pocket because it’s in the dishwasher,” Elise explained.
“It can degrade the integrity of the pan over time.
“Also, you’re likely not to be able to wash the rest of your things effectively, because they have jets and those pans block the jets.”
Opting for elbow grease over the dishwasher could save you money, too.
The average dishwasher uses between 1.2kWh and 1.5kWh per load, according to research by Compare The Market.
And even though the price to run a single cycle has gone down from 27p under the current Energy Price Guarantee to 24p thanks to the new price cap, a controlled amount of water to clean can still work out cheaper.