domestic notes

[zwol]

Techniques which do not remove baked-on carbon from stove drip trays:

1. Soaking them in sinkful of hot water and liberal quantities of Comet overnight, then scrubbing with wet steel wool;
2. Easy-Off™ brand spray-on oven cleaner, applied to cold dry drip trays, let stand for 20 minutes, and then hosed off with hot tap water (technique #2 from the label on the can);
3. Easy-Off™ brand spray-on oven cleaner, applied to trays heated to 300 °F in the oven, let stand (in the oven, as it cooled) for an hour, and then hosed off with hot water (technique #1 from the label on the can).

Techniques which do remove said baked-on carbon:

4. Placing trays under broiler for an hour, allowing them to cool, and then scrubbing them with dry steel wool.

Techniques which I would have been sorely tempted to try, if #4 had not worked:

5. Substituting foaming drain cleaner and/or pure sodium hydroxide for Comet in technique #1 above;
6. 60-grit sandpaper;
7. Blowtorches;
8. Red fuming nitric acid.

(Note to manufacturers of Easy-Off™ brand spray-on oven cleaner: If your product is going to emit toxic fumes that drive me out of the kitchen, the least you can do is make it actually work. Kthxbye.)

(Note to proprietors of Ace brand hardware store franchise, La Jolla, CA: You should stock fewer name-brand cleaning products that don't work, and more tried-and-true vicious chemicals. The Berkeley franchise sells both sodium hydroxide and red fuming nitric acid.)