Bakings Sheets are those long, rectangular pans that are used in the kitchen for roasting meats, baking fish or seafood, or cooking a whole meal. Frequent use of baking sheets ends up leaving a black or brown layer on it that doesn’t come off with simple scrubbing under the water. Roasting food on sheet pans leaves a layer of fat and oil that polymerises on the surface with time, especially if your pan is made of cast iron. The reason why an ordinary cleaning method doesn’t fully clean the sheet pan is that reheating the pan makes the fatty acids chemically bond with the pan’s material and make them stubbornly intact. However, with a few special tips and tricks, you can clean your sheet pan till it shines bright like a new pan. And if you try scraping it using an abrasive scrubber, it may loosen the polish on the pan. Follow the methods below to make your sheet pans look as good as new.
Add some baking soda to hydrogen peroxide and pour the mixture immediately on the baking sheet. The baking soda in the cleaner sits on the greasy polymerised layer of fatty acid and separates it from the surface chemically. Let the cleaner sit on the surface of the sheet for at least 2 hours.
Wipe the pan cleanAfter 2 hours, take a dry sponge or piece of cloth and wipe the baking sheet. The cleaner will come off with the dirt and grease intact without hard scrubbing. If you see any stains or leftovers, add a bit of cleaner again or use a non-abrasive scrubber.
Run it under the waterOnce the cleaner is rubbed off and all the fatty acids, grease and dirt are cleaned, run the pan or sheet under the water to give it a last touch of cleaning. Wipe it with a clean, dry cloth and let it sit on the kitchen counter to air dry.
While it’s pretty easy to clean a baking sheet or pan using a homemade cleaner, you can find several ready-made cleaning agents on the market that clean any baking tool or cooking utensil with just a rub of a cloth. However, if you clean your baking sheet or pan often or after every use, you won’t have to use any cleaner to scrub off the grease from your baking sheets.
