The question of the day is: Can you clean your oven naturally or does all the caked on grime demand a stronger, more toxic, cleaning solution?

Well, to begin, it is clearly best to clean your oven often, to avoid things (cheese, anyone?) becoming caked on. To do that, just saturate the area with water and wipe clean on a fairly regular basis or on spots when they appear.

For greasy areas, mix water with some non-toxic dish soap (1 part soap, 9 parts water) and then scrub to town. Or, another solution is to coat stains in a paste of water and baking soda and let stand overnight, then scrub off the paste while wearing gloves. And to prevent spills in the first place, use baking sheets as much as possible, to catch the drips.

But if that isn’t possible, use that handy self-cleaning function on your oven. But only sparingly; it heats the oven to 900 degrees for up to 3 hours and so obviously uses quite a bit of energy. No more than once a year should be necessary. And here’s a tip for you - do it right after you have cooked something in the oven as it will already be hot. Clever, eh?