The answer: self-cleaning oven.
I don't now if this has already been covered here but I didn't find it in my search.
I had a snow peak titanium bowl which I've been using over a wood stove. I used it for several months over the first half of a pct hike. It was disgusting. The outside was caked with about 1/4" of tar like gunk. Scrubbing was pointless and I didn't want to use chemicals.
So I decided to throw it in my self-cleaning oven. I put the pot on the top rack upside down and put a piece of aluminum foil on the lower rack to catch the dust. Set the clean cycle for 2 hours and prayed the pot wouldn't melt or catch on fire.
What it did was smoke a good bit for the first 10-15 minutes. I had to open the doors or the smoke alarm would have triggered. After that it was fine. Woke up this morning and it was totally clean. Just a little ash on the top of the pot which rinsed off under the faucet and a bunch of ash on the aluminum foil.
The heat did change the color of the pot though. The outside is now purple and the inside blue. Actually looks kind of cool.
I wish I would have taken a before picture, but it was so gross looking that other thru-hikers hesitated to eat from it even though the inside was clean and the food free. So you can be sure it was pretty bad.
