How to clean off years of dried baked stuff from oven dish?

Try putting water in the tray and add dishwasher powder or a crumbled dishwasher tablet. Put the tray on the hob, bring to the boil then simmer 5 minutes or so. Turn off the heat and leave it for a few hours then have a go at scrubbing the gunk off.

I take my oven racks outside, place in a bin liner, spray with oven cleaner* and tie the top, leaving it to work for the suggested time.

Maybe this would work for the tray?



*The oven cleaner has all sorts of warnings about safe use, so this was recommended.

I wonder if sterilizing tablets could help any?

Any idea what the metal is? My first thought was similar to luxor4t's, put the tray into a black plastic bag, tip in a couple of tablespoons of ammonia, seal and leave in the sun all afternoon. If the pan is stainless steel, this trick will work well. However, I wouldn't use ammonia on aluminium - they react rather badly together.

My second thought was to put the pan on the stove, add half a cup of bicarbonate of soda and a kettle-full of boiling water, turn the burner on and simmer for 5-20 minutes (depending on how bad). I do this with burnt pots and it lifts off everything. It's particularly good with enamel lined pots that you don't want to scratch.

If the pan isn't flame proof, e.g. if it's glass or pottery, scatter the burnt bits with biological washing powder and apply enough warm water to make a paste. WEAR GLOVES when doing this. Leave overnight and wash off. (This is my least favoured method because I find it taints metal pans, leaving a taste behind, which is why it comes in at number 3.)

HTH

- Pip

I'd second Oven Pride. Find it works really well.