What do you guys use to clean the dark brown gunk that builds up on the glass of the TO? I've tried all my household cleaners and they don't really do much. When the roaster is hot the cleaners do better but I have yet to find anything to completely (and easily) remove the gunk.
[Mad Scientist]
If you really want to get it clean, make a base bath.
THIS CAN BE DANGEROUS - FLAMMABLE - CAUSTIC - IF YOU ARE A KLUTZ, YOU MIGHT HURT YOURSELF - I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYTHING RESULTING FROM YOUR ATTEMPTS TO USE THIS METHOD OF CLEANING Wear heavy rubber gloves and goggles or a face shield. First, make a concentrated solution of Red Devil Lye (Sodium Hydroxide), about 25% by weight (use a 14 oz can to make half a gallon). Add the lye to the water slowly, it might even boil the reaction is so exothermic. I do this in a 5 gallon bucket with a lid so that I can reuse over and over. After this cools to room temperature, dump in half a gallon of isopropyl alcohol. This needs to be at least 70% alcohol, preferably 99%. If you can't get it this strong, only use a quart of water to make the lye solution, and use an additional quart of alcohol. Carefully mix this together. You should see a phase separation, the lower layer will be the aqueous layer and the upper layer will be alcohol. If you don't see this, your alcohol was probably too dilute. It will still work, just not as good. The lower layer is a powerful sodium isopropoxide solution, and it will chew up baked-on organic gunkus very well.
The best way to clean the glass is to remove the oven from the glass lid so that you can soak the lid, 4-6 hours will do it. If you have to paint the liquid on, make sure you are using the isopropoxide, and not the alcohol, and keep it wet - it will dry up rather quickly. This solution will corrode metal over time - some metals will get eaten up fairly quickly. When you rinse the solution off after 4-6 hours (this will keep your drain clean, as well), the glass will look like new...
[/Mad Scientist]