We’ve seen all the memes and the evidence in our kitchens. Baking sheets inevitably get nasty over time. We can either live with stained baking sheets or buy new ones that quickly get dirty. What if there’s a magic formula of household chemicals that can fix the otherwise inevitable fate of our cookware? I don’t believe it either but Southern Living claims to have the answer. They say that combining different products with baking soda can create a paste that’s strong enough to cut through years of baked on grease. Here’s part of their writeup with three methods to clean, with more at the source. They don’t recommend using steel wool pads or oven cleaner.
How To Clean Baking Sheets
Method 1: Baking Soda and Hydrogen Peroxide Paste
Step 1: Rinse the baking sheet with water to remove any loose food particles.
Step 2: Dry off the baking sheet with a clean towel or paper towel.
Step 3: In a small bowl, mix ½ cup of baking soda with 2-3 tablespoons of hydrogen peroxide. If the paste isn’t a similar consistency to toothpaste, add more hydrogen peroxide until you get the right consistency.
Step 4: Spread the paste evenly over the surface of the baking sheet. You can use your hands (with gloves) or a spoon to apply it.
Step 5: Behar recommends letting this sit for at least 15-20 minutes to soften up the debris and make scrubbing easier.
Step 6: Use a scour pad to scrub the baking sheet.
Step 7: After you’ve fully scrubbed the entire baking sheet, rinse it under warm water.
Step 8: Dry the baking sheet with a clean towel or paper towel.Method 2: Baking Soda and Vinegar
Step 1: Rinse the baking sheet with water to remove any loose food particles.
Step 2: Dry off the baking sheet with a clean towel or paper towel.
Step 3: Sprinkle baking soda over the surface of the baking sheet.
Step 4: Pour or spray (using a spray bottle) white vinegar over the baking soda. Don’t be alarmed when the vinegar reacts with the baking soda. It will create a fizzy action that’ll help lift the grime from the baking sheet.
Step 5: Behar recommends letting this sit for at least 15-20 minutes to soften up the debris and make scrubbing easier.
Step 6: Use a scour pad to scrub the baking sheet.
Step 7: After you’ve fully scrubbed the entire baking sheet, rinse it under warm water.
Step 8: Dry the baking sheet with a clean towel or paper towel.Method 3: Baking Soda and Dish Soap
Step 1: Rinse the baking sheet with water to remove any loose food particles.
Step 2: Dry off the baking sheet with a clean towel or paper towel.
Step 3: Sprinkle baking soda over the surface of the baking sheet.
Step 4: Pour a small amount of dish soap directly onto the baking soda-covered areas. Another way to do this is to mix dish soap and baking soda together in a small bowl to create a paste. Then, apply that paste directly to the baking sheet.
Step 5: Behar recommends letting this sit for at least 15-20 minutes to soften up the debris and make scrubbing easier.
Step 6: Use a scour pad to scrub the baking sheet.
Step 7: After you’ve fully scrubbed the entire baking sheet, rinse it under warm water.
Step 8: Dry the baking sheet with a clean towel or paper towel.
Social media has been around for 20 years and this is a universal problem. If this really worked we would have heard about it by now. I was willing to give it a try though. (I bake about twice a week on two baking pans that are about a year old. I always use silicon baking mats but they still get stained.) At first I used the baking soda and vinegar. (Shout out to my mom, who bought me a five pound bag of baking soda on Amazon after I mentioned as an aside that I’d run out.) I let it sit overnight and it formed a strong-ish paste that cleaned somewhat. Of course it didn’t work to get out most of the grease, but the middle part without grease stains was shiny. It also caused a mess as the baking soda ran down the sink and onto my pants. I then tried baking soda and hydrogen peroxide, although my peroxide was admittedly flat. This worked about the same. It got off the surface level stains but not the baked in stuff at the edges.
The best method, by far, was the third. The baking soda and Dawn dish soap got about 60% of the stains out (image above), but I had to scrub hard. I used a Scrub Daddy Scour Daddy. The baking pans did not look like new and were still stained at the edges, but they were a lot cleaner.
Also I found this Better Homes and Gardens video (below) that claims you can get stains out with boiling water and baking soda. They make it look like alchemy so I tried it. The baking soda fizzed up in the boiling water like it did with vinegar, but it didn’t work much better. Plus my baking sheets were so much dirtier than the one they showed.
This experiment used up most of the five pound bag of baking soda. That was around $19 and I could have bought a new baking sheet at that cost. You could probably do this for about $5 in dish soap and baking soda, but the only reason I tried was for this story. I’ve never cared that my baking sheets are grimy.
Your baking sheet has seen some things
This pan has been through every holiday cookie disaster, late-night nacho emergency, and ‘I’ll just broil it real quick’ regret since 2012.
Seasoned by actual fire, seasoned by actual tears.
She’s not dirty… she’s battle-worn. A… pic.twitter.com/ZawdLB5wgk— 𝐿𝒶𝒹𝓎 𝒱
(@V_Lady2024) March 6, 2026
Baking Sheet Has Seen Some Shit: https://t.co/IKmR0PaA6z pic.twitter.com/nTwZ5PqrTD
— Reductress (@Reductress) April 29, 2020