Oven Trays: How to Clean, Maintain, and Choose the Best Ones

When you think about cleaning your oven, you’re really thinking about oven trays, the removable metal or glass shelves inside your oven that catch spills, grease, and food debris during baking and roasting. Also known as baking trays or roasting pans, they’re the first thing to show wear—and the hardest to keep clean without the right approach. Most people ignore them until grease builds up into a sticky, burnt-on layer that smells like last Thanksgiving’s turkey. But oven trays aren’t just dirty—they’re a hidden source of smoke, uneven cooking, and even fire risk if left unchecked.

What makes oven trays so tough to clean isn’t just the grease—it’s the baked-on oven grease, a hardened residue formed when oils and food particles are exposed to high heat over time. This isn’t surface dirt. It’s chemical bonding at work. Regular dish soap won’t touch it. Even some commercial oven cleaners, chemical sprays designed to break down carbonized grease, can damage non-stick coatings or leave toxic fumes. That’s why so many people turn to natural oven cleaning, methods using household items like baking soda, vinegar, and salt to dissolve grease without harsh chemicals. These aren’t just trendy—they’re backed by decades of practical use in homes across the UK.

And it’s not just about cleaning. Choosing the right oven tray matters too. Thick, heavy-gauge steel lasts longer and resists warping. Non-stick coatings make cleanup easier, but they scratch. Glass trays look nice but can crack under sudden temperature changes. You need to know what works for your oven type, your cooking habits, and your tolerance for scrubbing. That’s why the posts below cover everything: from the one trick that dissolves baked-on grease in under an hour, to the cleaning mistakes that ruin trays faster than you think, to the DIY mix that professional cleaners actually use. No fluff. No overpriced gadgets. Just what works—tested, repeated, and proven.