Household secrets: how to use the oven

A good oven is the key to delicious home-cooked meals. How many pies, stews and side dishes you can cook with it! But not everyone knowingly uses the capabilities of the oven. Improper operation leads to breakdowns, and if you do not regularly clean the oven, the taste and quality of the dishes will be, to put it mildly, unsatisfactory. In order to prevent a romantic dinner from turning into coal, it is important to know the basic rules for using the oven, and the household hygiene of the stove will clearly benefit from this.

Even the most ordinary gas stove has an oven, which is not at all scary to use for its intended purpose. And don’t be afraid to interact with a box of matches or a gas lighter: everything is much easier than it looks. The gas oven is durable and extremely practical.

The heating of the gas cabinet of the stove is carried out thanks to the flame, which lends itself from below through a special burner.

First of all, you need to install the stove correctly in accordance with safety rules. You can install a gas stove only if the ceiling height in the room is not less than 2.2 meters, there is ventilation with an open grate and a window for ventilation. Ensure a free distance to the stove of at least one meter.

The second step is proper and careful exploitation. Do not forget to check the condition of the cooker during cooking and adjust the temperature in time. If the burner flame goes out, you must turn off the fire in all the burners, as well as the valve on the inlet pipe, and inspect the oven for gas bursts.

If there is a smell of gas in the kitchen, you should immediately turn off the stove, turn off the taps, open the window and notify the gas service. It is also necessary to turn off the lights in the apartment and all electrical appliances, and leave the room itself.

If the oven is equipped with a self-cleaning function, this greatly facilitates the life of the hostess. Self-cleaning ovens typically have one of two technologies: catalytic and hydrolytic.

Catalytic cleaning is based on the interaction of a special oven coating and dirt, which occurs at a temperature of 140 to 200 degrees and breaks down fats. Such a self-cleaning mechanism does not need to be performed separately – the oven is cleaned just when cooking. After use, the oven can only be wiped with a damp sponge. However, it often happens that the special composition of the enamel, which enters into a chemical reaction with fats, does not cover all the surfaces of the oven, so you have to “finish” the cleaning with household products.

To activate hydrolytic self-cleaning (steam cleaning), pour a little water into the bottom of the oven and turn on the heat. Once evaporated, the water will soften the dirt that has settled on the surfaces. In the end, it remains only to wipe the walls with a damp sponge.

If there is no self-cleaning function in your oven, it is better to wash it with special products, for example, Amway, Frosch, Top House. Frugal housewives using folk remedies also have a place to walk around: lemon juice, ammonia, vinegar, soda – all this will help keep the gas oven clean.

Let’s see how to use each of these tools.

Take a lemon, squeeze the juice out of it, dilute it slightly with water and wash the ovens by soaking a sponge in this solution. The second way is to fill a container with water and throw a few slices of lemon in it, then put it in the oven, heat it up and wait a while. After cooling, wipe the surfaces with a damp cloth.

Take a heat-resistant dish with water and add ammonia to it, put in a preheated oven for half an hour. After that, wipe with a sponge soaked in soapy water, removing the softened plaque.

The vinegar will help get rid of small contaminants. Mix acid with water in equal proportions. Fields with this solution from the surface inside the oven and heat up to 50 degrees. Let stand 15 minutes.

Mix the above ingredients and apply to the walls and bottom of the oven, leave to stand for 15 minutes. Then rinse with lukewarm water and pat dry. This tool will help to cope with even very old soot. They can also be used to clean grills and trays.

The electric oven consists of two heating elements: upper and lower. Some more “fancy” ovens are equipped with a grill. Many of them are equipped with a fan, thanks to which you can ventilate the oven after the end of the cooking process.

In addition to the two self-cleaning technologies mentioned above, elite electric ovens sometimes install a pyrolysis system.

Pyrolytic cleaning literally burns contaminants at very high temperatures. The process is started manually. The oven must be emptied before starting the pyrolysis. The appliance door will remain locked until the temperature inside drops to 200-250 degrees. After such a procedure, caring for the oven consists only in wiping the walls with a damp cloth. Trays and racks should not be left in the oven during pyrolytic cleaning, but should be cleaned separately.

It should also be remembered that pyrolytic cleaning is a fairly large load on the unit, and it is better to turn it on in case of heavy pollution. If the plate is fresh and weak, it is better to wash the oven in the “classic” way – with a cloth or sponge soaked in a special agent.

It is convenient to wipe the glass of the oven door with a glass cleaner (by analogy, you can use a solution of water and ammonia – it is the latter that is included in most glass cleaners ). The exterior aluminum panels are easy to clean by applying vegetable oil followed by a cleaning agent. Stainless steel and enamel coatings require special household chemicals. The enameled surface should not be treated with abrasives and hard sponges, so as not to scratch it. It is also not recommended to use acidic products such as lemon juice on it.