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I mean really clean . . . not just skim over the surface

My Grandmother was a very houseproud woman, but I must confess that there was one chink in her “cleanliness armour”, she had this thing about “clean dirt”.  A stubborn stain on your clothes which had been washed but refused to disappear was okay because it was “clean dirt”, a few bits of burned on grease on the bottom of a baking pan was okay because it had been washed making it “clean dirt”. Some of her baking trays never got a wash at all . . . it added to the flavor and stopped the puddings from sticking. Now you might be curling your nose up and thanking your lucky stars that you were never invited to dinner, but she and those around her lived to a ripe old age.

These days of course, nobody would dream of playing the “clean dirt” card . . . dishwashers have meant that now thousands of women can function without ruining their false nails, but there are some things which even the meanest dishwashers cannot tackle successfully, baked on grease, that needs a whole new approach.

How to Clean Baked on Pans

I love scruber sponges . . . don’t ask me why but I think they’re the best invention since . . . whatever floats your boat.  Anyway, she seems to have covered just about everything there . . . except.

A little tip which I picked up when watching one of the countless TV cooking programs has proved to be invaluable. You know when you’ve been roasting a joint of meat in the oven, or maybe some lovely crisply roast potatoes (oh oh, getting peckish again), and when you take it out there are loads of bits stuck to the bottom of the pan, all you have to do is to put a little water in the bottom of the pan and put it back in the oven (even if it’s switched off it will stay hot for ages). Then it will simply wipe clean . . . why didn’t I think of that years ago?