Easy ways to clean a roasting rack?

If you can find a pot big enough to immerse all of it or part of it, fill that pot with water, and dump in a teaspoon or more of automatic dishwasher detergent. bring the pot to a simmer and let it sit there for maybe 30 minutes. Pull out the rack and scrub away at it with an SOS pad, and then if necessary, repeat.

I’ve also had similar results with wash off paint remover.

Wet it, sprinkle baking soda all over it, leave it for a few hours. Work for me.

The EASIEST way, (well, not convenience wise, but you will get the best clean) is to clean it while it is still hot:

1. Be careful not to burn yourself.

2. Rely mostly on scrubbing power and not water, b/c a fast transition in temperature from hot to cold can warp the metal.

This is how I clean my Weber grill, right after the food comes off, and it’s truly the easiest way. . . the hard part is handling the heat, but it truly gets it cleaner, and requires less elbow grease.

I saw a tip on tv one time that involved wrapping aluminum foil all around the rack, heating it to high temperatures or something like that… Then again, I’m not sure if this is practical for you because I have no idea what a “roasting rack” is.

Hmm, all this talk about a wet, dirty tack…

I agree with @snowberry

You will probably need to get yourself a big plastic tub, like the ones they use for bussing tables. It needs to be big enough so that the whole rack can be completely submerged. Then fill it with hot water, get the rack wet and generously cover each bit of it with baking soda. Pour more baking soda into the tub an swish it around. I would let this whole stew sit over night. Then you can get a couple of different scrub brushes, one that’s about 2 inches wide by 4 inches long and also get a brand new tooth brush which will only be used for this purpose, to get into the smaller areas. After the rack has sat in the soda water over night, most of the crud will have loosened up or come off and will be floating in the water. Put on a pair of rubber gloves and just start scrubbing and rinsing, scrubbing and rinsing. After you’ve got all of the crud off, lay the rack on a big dish towel or two on your counter to let it air dry.

If that doesn’t get everything off, you can also set the rack into the tub (without water) and take it outside and spray oven cleaner all over the rack. Let it set, or as long as the can suggests. Then you can use rags and the toothbrush to scrub the crud off of it. This would not be my first choice.

Easiest way? Take it outside, lay it over a storm drain and blast that sucker with a pressure washer.

Note that this may be prohibitively expensive, and could be illegal in your area.

It’s fun, though!

If you have a self-cleaning oven, you can put it on for a 2 hour setting with the rack in it. It works the way it works on the oven itself. Cremates the residue and then it ashes off and you just rinse it.

spray the hell out of that bad boy with Easy Off then use your oven’s self clean cycle [if you have one]

Get one of the grill cleaning bricks they use in short order cafes and scrub it with that, while hot.

I usually grease the roasting rack before using it. After roasting, while the rack is hot, I get an old toothbrush and wash the rack by brushing under running hot water from the faucet. It works for me.

Apparently, bathroom-grade hydrogen peroxide (applied while the rack is still warm) is a good solvent. Leastways the clowns who order my cleaning chemicals seem to think so. Give it a bath in the stuff, see if that helps.

Short of hiring someone else to do it, there is going to be some scrubbing involved.
I find letting it sit in vinegar for at least an hour. Vinegar will desolve or at least soften the grease on the rack.
If you really want to avoid all that head ache in the future, you can try to remember to put foil over your food as it cooks.
I know this isn’t practical with baking stuff but you can also put foil over your rack and pop a few holes in it so the heat can still circulate.
If you don’t want to do that then at least pull the rack out while it is still warm and wipe it down with some soap and water before the grease sticks.

So how are you going to take care of this? Just wondering. You have some good ideas, and some not so good ones. For example, using the self clean cycle to clean oven racks might damage the oven and/or the racks unless they are designed for it.

See if taping it with a piece of metal shakes off some of the crust before you wet it. See if you have a expired mayo or oil and slather it on.

I’m going to try using liquid dishwasher detergent on it. That works for my oven racks.

Thanks for all the tips folks :-)

Either put it in the dishwasher or put Easy Off oven cleaner on it and leave it for a few hours. It will just wipe clean! I did that with the racks in my barbecue grill and they were like new!