Get oil out of oven?

[blairhoney]

I spilled a tray of veggies and chicken that were tossed in olive oil when I was putting it in the oven, and while I've wiped down the oven with hot soapy water, I seem to have still missed some oil because when I turned the oven on again, it started smoking quite a bit. I think some of it must have dripped down near the heating elements, which are not really reachable.

What do I do? Just let it smoke until the oil's all burned off? My smoke detector keeps going off, and I'm afraid my neighbors will kill me (we're in an apartment). It's an older smoke alarm and I can't figure out how to disable it either.

[elsie]

Can you wait until you try to burn it off - like during a week day when people are less likely to be around? If you can't reach the elements. you can only burn it off. You also run the risk of creating a hot spot on the element and having it burn out. Does your oven have a self clean setting? I'd try that first

[hibana]

Definitely run the self-clean setting if it has one.

[blairhoney]

Thanks - no self-cleaning cycle but I saran-wrapped the smoke detector and got the oil burned off pretty quickly!