[DeTomaso] Cleaning valve cover gasket cork off the heads?

[Mike Thomas]

I've pulled my valve covers to resecure the baffles (were making contact
with the new roller rockers), and when I pulled the covers, there is quite a
lot of cork left stuck to the edges of the head.  How do I clean this off
without letting it fall into the head and subsequently into my oiling
system?

I tried putting a piece of masking tape over it to give it something to
stick to, then scraping with a chisel, but that doesn't work so well.  The
only other think I can think of is scraping the best I can, then getting in
and vacuuming out the bits that fall in.

Any other ideas are welcome.  Thanks in advance.

Mike Thomas