I used a slurry, using baking soda and water. Learned about it on the internet.

If you have a pancake turner/spatula, use it to gently remove the biggest part of the baked on drippings. Then I would use hot soapy water and a green scratcher or steel wool pads to remove the rest. If all else fails, there is always EasyOff spray on oven cleaner, which can be used on a cold oven.

Consult your oven’s owner’s manual so you don’t damage the finish.

I second Jim Mat's suggestion. We bought a used (very nice, but very dirty) double oven, and I'm sure the prior owners had no idea it would be gleaming and pristine with so little work. Leave baking soda and water paste on it for some time (check internet for the time, I left mine overnight, but it might work in 30 min or so). Then wipe up with a wet sponge. Wa-la.

The baking soda also worked when I had a lasagna bubble over. For pies I now use a pie drip catcher by Chicago Metallic. They cost about $11.00.

Apple pies always leak in some way or fashion. It might not be a lot. But I can't recall the last time, I didn't have some small leak. The combination of butter in the crust and juicy apples just seems to invite this. Might also have something to do with the spring form that I like to use.

But I have learned a long time ago, that I always leave a cookie sheet on the bottom-most shelf when baking anything. In fact, it always stays in the oven no matter what. It catches any drips that might happen and is easy to clean. And if I expect drips, such as with apple pie, I line the cookie sheet with aluminum foil.

The only important bit of information is that you should never put aluminum foil on the bottom of the oven cavity. With many modern ovens, that can permanently damage the oven lining. Just don't go there.

Better than scrubbing with wet baking soda is the Scientific version taught to us by Trailrunner/Sue Hawkins:

Remove whatever your sponge will pick up. Sprinkle the whole messed up area with baking soda until it's fully covered. Lay a paper towel or rag over the whole area. Pour a small amount of boiling water over the towel, just enough to dampen thoroughly, not enough to make it dripping wet. Leave overnight or the equivalent. This will create a reaction with the carbon. It will come up fairly easily where the reaction happened. You might have to reapply if the char is thick, and maybe even again depending on how overfull and bubbling your pie was, but it'll work. When all the heavy char is gone, there make be a few small spots that are easy to get off with a scrubby, or you can do another round of soda.

This works on your racks as well, and scorched pots and whatever else has burnt on carbon.

Extra: For that kind of brown adhered spots that you don't want seasoning your shiny racks, but which don't scrub off for anything, choose a sunny day, get your big box of baking soda, a large dark trash bag, and a spray bottle of hydrogen peroxide. Put the bag on a garden table or other comfortable surface, and the rack on the bag. Spray the rack lightly with hydrogen peroxide to get it just damp enough for the baking soda to stick. Cover liberally with baking soda and spray enough to dampen. Leave to heat in the sun for a few hours. The gunk should now be scrubbable with a gentle scrubby (plant fiber or nylon) and a little normal work. If there's still some that won't come off easily, repeat. You can also do this in a low oven (no trash bag) but it's messy.

Depending on the size of the spill, If ti's good and charred it should just pop off and you will have a minimum of wiping to do.

I used to do what pllog says when I had a problem, then I started using the cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil, like M mentioned above, and ta-daaaa! no problem!

Thank you everyone for your input. Sound all good. Will try

Plllog I recently saw a blog where a girl recommends baking soda and hydrogen peroxide to clean her oven. I was going to try it over the Christmas holiday, but I was sick. You've reminded me again. Hers included some dish soap as well, I think it's worth a try.

For oven racks I have a similar method as pillog except that I use oven cleaner. I place the racks in a back garbage bag, spray the racks and seal the bag. Let sit for several hours or overnight and rinse off in the utility sink in the garage. Grease falls right off.

Baking soda and soap is pretty much what oven cleaner is made from. It's aggressive enough to eat through grease, but not quite aggressive enough to damage enamel, glass or steel. But it can damage other materials. So, be careful what you get it on

Really? I can't be around oven cleaner. Like days later, I react to it when I enter a house where it has be used. Or is there a newer oven cleaner that's just baking soda? The reaction I've had is similar to how I feel around VOC's. I can't imagine putting it where I'm making food.

No issues with baking soda. :)

It's hard to say what you are reacting to, as manufacturers aren't super forthcoming with the list of ingredients, even when you look up the MSDS safety information. But I tried to find some representative information:

1. This particular cleaning product contains diethylene glycol monobutyl ether (DEG). This helps with evenly distributing the cleaner instead of letting it pool in just a few spots. You don't need that when using a baking soda paste. From looking at the safety information for DEG, it seems mostly pretty benign in the concentrations that you'd encounter. In really high concentrations, at some point you'll suffer liver damage. And it also could be outright poisonous in really high concentrations. But that's like saying that "cooking salt" is poisonous. On the other hand, safety information doesn't often say anything about allergies. So, if you have a specific sensitivity to this chemical, you might notice it more than the average person. It doesn't seem to evaporate much, though. It's similar to cooking oil in that way. So, if you avoid breathing in the aerosol and wear gloves while working with it, you should be OK.
2. There is potassium carbonate. It's not exactly the same thing as baking soda (sodium bicarbonate). But it fulfills the same function in the way how it cleans. And chemically it is overall very similar, just a little stronger. Same safety precautions. Don't get it on your skin or in your eyes, don't ingest any significant quantities. That kind of stuff. Direct skin contact can cause an adverse reaction. But it's otherwise just a dissolved powder that won't get into the air by evaporation nor cause any allergic response. In most cases, the best treatment to exposure is simply to wash it off with water as soon as you notice.
3. Since potassium carbonate is a stronger alkaline than baking soda, the manufacturer adds ethanol amine (MEA) to prevent corrosion. That's probably the nastiest chemical of the lot. It can cause eye, skin, and airway irritation. Maybe, that's what you are reacting to. I can definitely see trying to avoid exposure as much as you reasonably can.
4. Finally, you need a detergent. That's why in your homemade cleaner, you would add something like Dawn. In the commercial cleaner, they use limonene. It's a naturally occurring terpene. It's generally pretty harmless. I think, it's one of the ingredients in things such as Goo Gone. But I have also heard that some people can have a sensitivity to it. And its strong smell can also trigger a psychosomatic response, if you happen to associate it with other volatile organic substances.

So, yes, by and large, commercial oven cleaners work very similar to your home-made mixture. They use something alkaline to break down the polymerized grease (baking soda or potassium carbonate), and they use some detergent to wash off everything else (household cleaners or limonene). The big difference is that the commercial product also adds a dispersal agent (DEG) and a corrosion inhibitor (MEA). The latter might quite possibly trigger sensitivities.

But as far as possible damage to the appliance is concerned, both approaches are probably very similar. Steel should be fine. Other materials could suffer damage. The commercial product might be a little easier to use and probably works a little faster. The homemade paste is maybe a little less likely to irritate your body. Use whichever works for you -- and watch that you only get it on those surfaces that you know are safe to clean with chemicals.

For years I've baked my pies directly on a parchment-lined sheet pan to catch any drips. The sheet pan gets preheated with the oven. Works great for me...no drips or mess to clean up. I also use sheet pans for anything prone to drip.

Well, when in doubt, read the instruction book. The Kitchenaid (which is my oven) states in bold:

IMPORTANT: Do not use oven cleaners. The use of chemicals, including commercial oven cleaners or metal scouring pads, may cause permanent damage to the porcelain surface of the oven interior.

Probably other ovens are different.

As a bird owner, I would not use the oven cleaning cycle, ever.

The use of chemicals, including commercial oven cleaners or metal scouring pads, may cause permanent damage to the porcelain surface of the oven interior.

The only chemical in that list of ingredients that can potentially attack the enamel is the potassium carbonate. Enamel is essentially glass, and any type of glass can be damaged by alkaline chemicals. Unfortunately, that also means that baking soda is likely to have the exact same effect. That doesn't leave you a lot of options how to clean your particular oven.

M, thanks for the information. That was very interesting. The big difference is you can ingest the baking soda and water, and even the H2O2. They don't cause irritation. And they're probably cheaper. They also probably require a bit more elbow grease, but it's a good tradeoff to me. :)

It is possible that the reaction to the days old smell is psychosomatic. I've sort of had that experience with mango. Not an actual reaction, but they added mango flavor to my vitamins and I had a strong feeling I should spit them out and it took awhile to train myself to swallow them. Even with "natural" flavor, there couldn't be enough mango in them in a form that would trigger a reaction to worry about! Since the area would have been washed down after the use of oven cleaner, it might just be the smell giving me the eeeews. I get the same kind of fierce painful reaction to oven cleaner in use as I do to environmental formaldehyde, which doesn't usually stink, and certain solvents which do.

My own thought is if you can clean the kitchen with food, use food. I'm a big fan of the efficacy and safety of the baking soda and boiling water. :)

Oh, I agree with you. If you can find a less harmful chemical that works for you. Then by all means, don't let anybody stop you.

The only thing that I feel strongly about is that a lot of foods actually are chemicals. And just because they are perfectly safe for humans, and in fact are used as foods, doesn't mean they are safe for your appliances. So, watch out if you use baking soda, vinegar and/or hydrogen peroxide to name just a few common examples.

They might be fine in and on you, but that doesn't mean they are safe everywhere else. Fortunately, ovens are mostly designed with really aggressive cleaners in mind. So, that should be OK in either case.

My oven also has the big strong don't use chemicals warning, but it also has a fire warning for leaving a thick burnt patch on the bottom and running the pyrolysis. I have used the soda/water and the enamel seems fine. By the time it would be in contact with the enamel, it's discharged. I only need to get it down to thin enough to go out with the self clean. The H2O2/soda doesn't damage the chromed racks, but I wouldn't be surprised if the enamel doesn't like it. :)

BTW, I'd been putting off running the pyrolysis recently. There was a big, thin puddle of burnt crud on the floor of the oven but it was the holidays and I didn't have time to worry about it. I forget what I was making, but I had the oven up to something like 450 or 500. I didn't notice at the time, but that was enough to turn the crud to ash. :)

I do agree that it's the compounds in cleaning foods, like lemons, that make them work, and baking soda is actually a chemical, but I'm more concerned with the effect on the people than the appliances. I'd rather have cloudy enamel than cloudy lungs. :)

Thanks again for all the info and the discussion.

I'm not drinking the kool-aid. Pretty irresponsible to say oven cleaner is mostly baking soda when dozens of cleaners are full of toxic chemicals with respiratory, skin, and eye irritants. "wear gloves and eye protection, keep away from children...do not use if pregnant..."

Processed foods are full of chemicals. 'Natural flavorings' are not natural at all. Just because it is sold as edible food does not mean it is.

Baking soda, peroxide, vinegar, dish soap, ...doesn't sound too appetizing, but it will not cause me to cough, open windows, burn my eyes and throat, sneeze, burn my skin...and is flammable under pressure with a propellant.

I am mobility challenged. It's been over 2 years since we bought this stove and yeah, the oven is way overdue for a cleaning. I do the best I can in the middle of the oven floor with wet paper towels but can't begin to reach toward the back. I bought a can of oven cleaner and then realized I would never be able to wipe the residue off. I did use it on the oven door and went through probably 1/2 roll of paper towels and said "never again." I never thought about baking soda so will use that the next time I need to clean. Thank you for thus very informative discussion!

I'm not drinking the kool-aid. Pretty irresponsible to say oven cleaner is mostly baking soda...

Come on. Is it really that hard to read what I wrote?! I am not telling you that oven cleaner is just as harmless as a paste of baking soda and detergent. I am telling you quite the opposite. Baking soda is in the exact same group as the active component in oven cleaner, and is therefore a lot less benign than everybody makes it out to be.

If you are hesitant to put oven cleaner on something, then you also should be hesitant to put baking soda on the same thing.

In fact, exactly because these are highly corrosive chemicals, that's why there are other additives in commercial oven cleaner that help protect your appliance. These additives aren't necessarily good for you. But they are good for your appliance. So, it's a trade-off. Neither chemical is good. But baking soda is potentially more harmful to your appliance, and commercial cleaner, if not handled properly, is potentially more harmful to you.

Be careful with both substances!