This $12 Tool Protects Your Oven from the Most Annoying Messes (and It Has Over 14,000 5-Star Ratings)
While you may be able to better appreciate the joy of a sparkly clean oven after you’ve scrubbed grease and burnt food off the inside of your own, I would never recommend oven cleaning as an activity. It’s annoying, uncomfortable, and takes far too long. Plus, when you’re finally done and shut the oven door, you can’t even have the satisfaction of stepping back to admire your hard work — it’s all hidden away inside!
Rather than scrubbing your oven to 100-percent cleanliness once a year or so, your time and money are better spent by investing in some protective gear that simply maintains your oven at 80-percent cleanliness. One of the best solutions are oven liners, and this $12 set from Amazon will last you for years. They lie on the bottom of your oven and prevent any food bits or sauce spills from getting baked onto your appliance. And when you need to wash them, they go right in the dishwasher — truly the easiest way to keep your oven clean.
Every liner in this 3-pack bundle is made of BPA- and PFOA-free Teflon, which means they’re super durable and completely nonstick. They’re built to withstand your oven’s highest heat setting and can even be used directly on top of outdoor grills if you want to use them as a griddle. Any foods that fall or drip onto them — including melted cheese and syrupy pie fillings — can be scraped and washed off later, so you’ll get many uses out of each mat. They’re your safest bet against the worst cooking catastrophes.
If you’re wondering whether these are the right size for your oven, don’t worry — they’re customizable. Using scissors, you can easily cut the mats to fit wherever you need them to, including inside your microwave, toaster oven, or air fryer. And if the floor of your oven is larger than the mat’s 23-inch by 16-inch dimensions, you can use two mats and trim one down to fill in the extra space.
Amazon shoppers clearly love these liners: over 14,000 customers rated them five stars. Many reviewers appreciate them for specific personal reasons, such as not getting pushed around by convection fans or protecting their ovens from exploding potatoes, so no matter what kind of food you cook, you’ll be safeguarded from messy cleanups. “I bought it after a lengthy time spent cleaning the oven floor from a casserole that overflowed,” one reviewer wrote. “Talk about improving life. Definitely less time cleaning and more time doing other things.”
One pack of these liners will be the saving grace for your oven, as well as any countertop cooking appliances. They’re a breeze to install and keep clean, and because they’re so affordable, if you ever do need to replace one, buying more isn’t the end of the world.
Buy: FitFabHome Oven Liners, $11.99 (normally $13.99)
This post originally appeared on Kitchn. See it here: This $12 Tool Protects Your Oven from the Most Annoying Messes (and It Has 14,000 5-Star Ratings)