Clean as you go is always best practice

Clean as you go is always best practice
                        

For the third straight time in as many rented homes, we have a range with a glass cooktop, and as I’ve mentioned many times, I do not understand their popularity. The heat is just as hard to control as with an old-fashioned electric coil burner, the tiniest splash burns right onto the glass, every stupid crumb and smudge shows, and it is no time at all until they look abused and foggy.

It is always important to clean as you go when you’re cooking. A dishwasher emptied of clean dishes — or an empty sink — is part of your prep work. As soon as you’ve finished with a bowl, pot, spoon or measuring cup, rinse it and drop it into the machine or sink. Try not to let it pile up and, for heaven’s sake, don’t create a mountain that will only have you or your family cursing aloud later.

Wipe up spills as soon as they happen. Toss onion peels and other such discarded trimmings into the trash before you continue with chopping or slicing. A bag to catch such things by your cutting board makes this easier. When you’re done eating the meal you’ve made, cleanup should be nothing more than serving pieces and the final pans you’re serving from.

Sooner or later, careful as you may be, you’ll have to take the time to more thoroughly clean things. Having these stupid glass top ranges means I’ve learned, through trial and error, how to seriously clean them so they are at least presentable. There are creams that work well in combination with a designated scrubby sponge, but there’s a trick to it and you need an extra tool.

Once you’ve spread the stove-top cleaning cream using the proper sponge, the first trick it to let it dry completely until it flakes off. The second is to use a flat razor blade, like those used to scrape paint flecks off windows, to carefully scrape all that chalky white stuff off along with burned-on messes. There are plastic versions of the scraper made for this, but I have found them to be unequal to the task. From there you can wipe it off with paper towels and then shine it with window cleaner along with the dials and backsplash. While you’re at it, shine up the tea kettle and the overhead ventilation hood and run the hood filters through the dishwasher.

Then there is inside the oven, and here, I have a miracle to share. As I understand things, you should not use chemical oven cleaners in a self-cleaning oven. It’s an either-or proposition. Personally, I have only used a self-cleaning oven feature once, and the intense heat — more than 800 F — and smoke were just too scary. It’s quite a bit more work, but I prefer to use some nontoxic goop and a little elbow grease.

This winter I bought a tub of something called The Pink Stuff, which is an odorless pink paste without harsh chemicals that is safe for your hands, your oven and the environment. I also use a yellow smiley-faced sponge called a Scrub Daddy and the razor blade used for the cooktop. Trust me, just spread this stuff inside the oven and on the door and glass window, scrape up the stubborn bits, and wipe clean. It all shines like new without too much effort.

The Scrub Daddy sponge has a rough surface if you dip it in cold water and is very soft if you use hot water. I’ve never found The Pink Stuff anywhere locally, but it’s easy enough to find online.

Cleaning cookware isn’t so hard either. I have a few tin-lined copper pots and use the cookware version of Barkeeper’s Friend to get them shined up, inside and out, pretty quickly. It’s important to scrub the sides and bottoms of pans along with the interior, as they accumulate a lot of sticky goop.

Last week I burned the ever loving snot out of a prized pot. I left my marinara sauce simmering while I changed to another task, and because glass cooktops are the worst, it burned and left a thick layer of black gunk stuck to the bottom. I covered the bottom with baking soda, poured in a cup of white vinegar and let it soak for a day. It scrubbed up fine with the aid of a plastic bowl scraper.

Clean as you go is always best practice, but you also have to get down in the trenches and do more now and then. Even the worst messes have solutions, once you find things that work.


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