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Welcome toComing Clean, a monthly column where writer Lauren Viera finds the best products for the toughest-to-clean parts of the kitchen. Along the way, she just might convince you (and herself) to actually enjoy this whole cleaning thing.
Do you own a baking sheet? Is its caked-on grease causing the pan to look more brown (or, in my case, black) than silver? Have you ever been motivated to clean it only to discover that, after years of literally baking layers upon layers of grease, cleaning is nearly impossible, so you shrug and give up?
If you answered “Yes” to at least one of those questions, then you’ve come to the right place. Today you're going to learn how to (finally) clean your cookie sheet. As beautiful as the patina of a well-seasoned sheet pan can be, there’s something unsettling about the fact that it never really looks clean. We repeat the grease, bake, patina cycle until, well, decades later we eventually bequest our cookie sheet, grease layers and all, to a grandchild. (I’m speaking from personal experience here: I’m pretty sure my favorite baking sheet came from my grandma. It’s that old—and that grimy.)
As sentimental as it may be to imagine Grandma’s ghost grease working its way into every batch of baked cookies or roasted vegetables, the state of my cookie sheet recently hit peak disgustingness. (I blameCOOK90, during which I used it nearly every day.) So, I began researching ways to clean it. If you’ve been down this road, you’ve likely seen the array of methods demonstrated viaYouTube—from layering dryer sheets overnight on pools of grease, to smearing a coat ofketchupon the sheet pan and scrubbing with a Brillo pad.
Reader, I tried them all (including the ketchup, which was so, so gross). And what worked for me, better than anything else, was a combination of the following staples that you probably have on hand, but should stock up on for this exact purpose:baking soda,hydrogen peroxide, andsteel wool. (You’re also going to need a heck of a lot of elbow grease.) Here’s why.
If you do any baking (orfridge de-odorizing), you’re already familiar withbaking soda, the common name for Sodium Bicarbonate. Thanks to its natural alkaline base, it’s great at breaking down acidic stuff, including decades worth of baking grease. Simply combining it with water dilutes it more than enhances it, so you’ll need to combine it with something a little stronger—which brings us to the next ingredient.
过氧化氢is incredibly strong as an oxidizer, i.e., breaking up matter like long-baked grease. I also tried combining the baking soda with distilled white vinegar, buthydrogen peroxideworks better because it isn’t acidic, meaning it works with—not against—baking soda. (Vinegar, for the record, is so acidic that it essentially neutralizes baking soda, rendering this combo into salt water. Not very effective.)
But, even with that powerful combo, your cookie sheet isn’t going to scrub itself. So if, like mine, yours has so many layers of grease they’re opaque, atough scrubberlikesteel woolis your best bet for chipping away at the grime. If your pan is just mildly greasy, SOS or Scotch Brite pads should work; my job called for something sturdier.
The application method is up to you. You can create a paste using a few tablespoons of baking soda mixed with a few glugs of peroxide, but I lazily poured both directly into the pan and started scrubbing from there. Just don’t forget to rinse with soap and water when you’re done, lest you risk rust spots.
