Bring Your Dirty Baking Sheets Back To Life With Two Cheap Kitchen Essentials

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Baking is a form of expression, a way to make a connection, and even an outlet for relieving stress. Maybe you're the parent who loves to bake cookies and pies for your kids, or the friend who loves trying out new recipes to share. Either way, your baking sheets can sometimes take a beating from all of the work. Dirty baking sheets are sometimes labeled as "seasoned" because the oils have been baked into the pans; however, the problem is that this can be confused with burnt grease and oil, rather than genuine seasoning. If you notice there's more of a film where you believed your pans to be seasoned, it's probably because they were baked in grease and oil, and those along with food residue got stuck to the sheets. You can bring those dirty baking sheets back to life with just two simple and cheap kitchen essentials: baking soda and vinegar.

It can be baffling to understand why baking sheets become so grimy after use. If you don't thoroughly clean them right away, the worse it will get. The burning pieces start to flake off and can even get into other foods — gross! Maybe you've already tried dish soap with water and scrubbing, and it just didn't work. You might consider just scrapping the baking sheet, using it for something else, such as upcycling it into wall decor that doubles as an organizer, or just going and buying a new one. Before you do that, try this easy cleaning hack first. You'll be surprised how much better your pans will look!

You may first want to use a razor blade to easily clean burnt baking sheets and scrape the hardened parts off, then rinse it to get rid of the loose stuff. Once that's done, grab your baking soda and vinegar. You may want to invest in a high-quality scour pad for scrubbing, such as the Scotch-Brite® Zero Scratch Scour Pad. It can also help to have gloves to protect your hands, and an empty spray bottle for the vinegar.

Start by sprinkling the baking soda all over the parts of the baking sheet that need cleaning. Add a touch more baking soda in the parts that are especially dirty. Next, take the bottle of vinegar and spray it over all the spots with baking soda. It will fizz and bubble, and this is essential for getting down deep into the grime. Let this sit for about 20 minutes so that it can break down everything. After it sits, take your scour pad and scrub it to get rid of the rest of the grime, and then lastly, rinse it once more in warm water. Vinegar can be a versatile cleaning tool, so you can use it for more than just kitchenware, but this cleaning hack really does bring your baking sheets back to life! If you have really tough baked and caked in grease or oil, you can repeat the soda-vinegar combination to achieve a better clean.