I just bake a pan of water for a while to soften anything baked on and clean it out manually with Ajax or such if it does not wipe up easily. I usually do that after cooking something when the oven is already hot.
I put down foil in the bottom of our new oven, so have not had to do that so far... I just whisk out the dirty foil and put down new as needed. The sides rarely get anything on them.

Ajax got caught in the surface texture on my oven.
I followed the same steps, but use one of those mesh scrubbies on the hard stuff.

Oddly enough, on the bottom and in pans that have hard, caked on stuff? This is weird: I put vegetable oil on them, reheat, and the stuff scrapes right off. It's amazing.

I put down foil in the bottom of our new oven

Yikes! That is an absolute no-no in new ovens.

our cleaning lady knows how to do this. I'll ask her and post the procedure later.

I believe it is tin foil on the bottom of convection ovens, or ovens with the hidden heating element and gas ovens. IF you can see the heating element on the bottom of the oven--i.e. you have to lift it to put the foil down, then it is probably OK. I would check the manual first.

In a convection oven, I know that is a giant no-no!

Baking soda and hot water.

desertsteph, let me clarify a bit.

I was making BBQ sauce, simmering, and forgot about it. I went shopping.
Needless to say when I got home, I had nothing but a burned on, black crust in a spackleware pot. I almost threw it away.

A camper friend said, "No, just coat it with vegetable oil, put it on low and cover it. Every so often poke it with a wooden spoon. The crust should crack off."

Lo and behold, he was absolutely right. So I tried it with my oven. Voila!

Christine

wanted to bump this up to get the lemon/water recipe!

aocat--it's probably similar to the lemon/water recipe for cleaning the microwave. I use 3 1/2 cups water + 1/2 cup lemon juice in a 2 cup measuring cup. Place in microwave and run it on high for 3-5 minutes. Leave door closed for another 3-5 minutes after. Then open the door and wipe everything down. The steam generated from the water & lemon juice softens any dried on debris and it wipes right off.

In the oven, I would think you'd put the water/lemon juice mixture in a glass oven-safe baking dish and turn the oven on until the water gets hot & it steams up a bit--if you have a proof setting, that may work as well. Turn the oven off and allow it to sit with the door closed for ~5-10 minutes, then wipe clean. If you have a microwave, I would think it would work just as well (and save electricity) to get the water/lemon juice mixture hot in the microwave first, then place it in the oven. While you're waiting on the oven, you could wipe the microwave down.

Hope this helps!