Starting Off With Salt And Vinegar
Firstly, youll need to blend the salt and vinegar together. With salt added, the vinegar will become more acidic, allowing it to dissolve already oxidized metal.
The metal underneath and around the metal will remain unharmed. In addition, the salt acts as an abrasive to provide more agitation to really destroy the rust.
Soak your old dish towel in the salt and vinegar solution, then give your rusty grill a good once-over, scrubbing away as much of the surface contamination as possible. You can then try sprinkling some salt over the grill separately, and repeating the process.
This will remove any residual grease and no doubt some of the rust, but to get rid of the rest, well have to take things a step further, but before we move on, rinse your grill off with some water and dry it with some fresh towels.
Wipe The Grates And Racks
Wipe the grates and racks with a damp rag to remove loosened bits, and make sure there are no loose brush bristles left on the grate .
If you have a cast-iron grate, clean it completely, then brush on some vegetable oil with a paper towel to keep your grate in proper shape. Bare cast iron needs to be inspected regularly, because it is more likely to rust.
Eliminate Grime With An Onion
There’ll be no tears when you have a bbq that looks like new. So chop open an onion and get to work. The Allium cepa is great at attacking all sorts of substances found on your barbecue be it food, or bird poop .
‘An unlikely cleaning savior, an onion attached to a fork.’ says Creasey.
‘Whilst there is still heat in the grill, attach half an onion to the end of a fork and use it to rub over the hot bars. The water in the onion steams away any stuck-on food and uses its natural antibacterial properties to remove impurities.’
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Cleaning Your Weber Grill For The First Time
Before you start cooking on your Weber grill you have to make sure it is clean. You canât just toss all your food onto the grates assuming that the grill is clean and safe. You must wipe down the interior and exterior of the grill using a damp cloth.
Now use Weberâs exterior polish or grill cleaner to form a layer that will make it a lot easier to clean later. Wash your grates along with the Flavorizer Bars as well as burners. And to make your next clean easier, burn the grate off at high temperature for about 10 to 15 minutes.
Burn Away Food Scraps
The first step in cleaning your grill gratesis to burn off any food scraps left from cooking by heating it on high for5-10 minutes. Once youve done this, turn off the grill and allow it to cool.Iron grill grates and other heavy-duty grates can hold onto heat for a while,so make sure your grill is completely cool before proceeding.
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Annually Clean All Parts
Alongside removing the ash after every cooking session, you should also make sure you are cleaning the entire grill at least once a year. Grill cleaning should be done systematically, and you should soak each area in hot soapy water before scrubbing with your brush. You should also make sure that you are wiping down the exterior to keep it in the best condition.
Make sure that you thoroughly dry everything to ensure that your grill does not rust.
How To Clean The Inside Of A Bbq Grill
With the grates removed, brush down the inside to clear out any loose particles that have collected in the bottom and around the sides. Scrape off any large peeling flakes of carbon and grease and if yours is a charcoal grill, empty the ash catcher. Dont forget to clean the drip pan and grease cup in warm soapy water and line them with aluminum foil so theyll be easier to clean next time.
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Theres A Fire Risk Too
Firefighters see an increase in residential calls during the summer due to home grill fires caused by grease or fat buildup. These often occur when people place their grill on a deck or too close to their home.
Poor propane grill maintenance also poses a serious fire risk. Clogged gas nozzles cause a dangerous pressure back up in the tank. Rusty attachments or damaged lines can leak propane into the air around the grill.
Fortunately, cleaning a dirty BBQ grill reduces hazards while also improving the flavor and look of your grilled food.
How To Clean A Cast Iron Grill
- Working Time: 1 hr, 30 mins – 2 hrs
- Total Time: 2 hrs – 1 day
- Skill Level: Intermediate
Every good home and professional cook knows that cast iron cookware is essential for creating wonderful food. Its properties of conducting and retaining heat for long periods also make cast iron perfect for outdoor grilling. Unfortunately, cast iron will rust and deteriorate if exposed to too much water, unlike the more maintenance-free stainless steel grills. Learn how to clean even the most crusty cast iron grill to maintain your investment and the grill’s unique qualities.
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Clean The Grill Grates
You should always clean your grills grates immediately after use by rubbing them with a metal scraper before the grate cools off. The grease is still loose at that point and should slip right off.
If you have years of buildup, however, youll probably need a more labor-intensive approach.
Clean The Grills Exterior
Grills that are left uncovered year-round will develop rust spots.
Stainless steel grills: Use a mild abrasive to clean stainless steel grills. This homemade soft scrub cleaner works and so does Bar Keepers Friend. Stainless steel does not rust, so any such spots you see are probably particles of some other substance and will disappear with gentle scrubbing.
Enameled or painted grills: Use plain, soapy water and a soft-bristled brush to wash your grills exterior, then rinse it well. Lightly sand and prime rust spots, then paint them using a matching paint designed to withstand high heat.
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Should You Clean Your Barbecue Grill
The short answer is yes.
For years, my husband and I argued over this. In his view, a crusty barbecue grill was much like a well-used cast iron pan: seasoned with layers of oils that create a polymerized coating after repeated exposure to heat. I maintained that cooking on a dirty grill was dangerous and gross, period.
As with many of our arguments , it turns out Im right.
How To Clean A Gas Grill
Grills take a lot of wear and tear over time.Extreme temperatures, buildups of grease, carbon and food debris, rust andenvironmental factors can all wreak havoc on your grill over time.
Frequently cleaning your grill will improvethe safety of your grill, taste of your food, cut down on extra smoke, and ensure your burners areburning clean and heat is being distributed evenly. It will also give you achance to inspect your grill from top to bottom, and make sure its in goodshape.
An important part to inspect is the grill manifold. The manifold is the pipe that holds the valves. On some grills you may need to remove the control panel to see the manifold. Spray some soapy water around the valves and along the manifold. If you see bubbles you may have a leak. If the steal pipe feels soft or has any holes, you do NOT want to proceed further. This must be replaced. Contact the manufacturer for availability.
Heres how to clean a gas grill in a few easysteps.
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Use A Dedicated Bbq Grate Cleaner Spray
Don’t like DIY cleaning? Use a commercial bbq grate cleaner spray. The benefit of these sprays is that they come in spray bottles with 360-degree nozzles, which means you don’t have to hold the spray in any particular way to get the solution onto your grill. Then, it’s just a case of following the manufacturer’s instructions.
How To Clean A Grill According To An Award
From the grill grates to the exterior of your grill, here is the best way to make sure your grill gets clean, with tips from pitmaster Harry Soo.
Don’t own a grill? Check out our guides to the best charcoal grills, gas grills and pellet grills. Then come back and learn how to clean them.
News flash: You need to clean your grill. Like any other piece of cookware, your grill requires a good, thorough cleaning every so often because when you take care of it, it will take care of you. But cleaning a grill isn’t as intuitive or straightforward as cleaning a regular pan or a stovetop.
As the owner of at least 22 grills, Harry Soo knows how to make delicious barbecue, but he also knows his way around cleaning a grill. Soo an award-winning pitmaster, owner of the barbecue sauce brand Slap Yo’ Daddy BBQ and Youtube grilling personality says that a cleaner grill means you get better-tasting barbecue. Not only that, but a dirty grill is a food safety hazard.
“Number one, you want to be sure that food safety is the priority,” Soo says. “Obviously, you don’t want to cook on a grill that has mold, rancid oil, creosote , leftover food or rust.”
But how exactly does one go about cleaning the grill? Soo let us in on some tips for making sure you properly clean your grill so it can keep pumping out delicious barbecue.
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How To Clean Grill Grates
You dont have to clean every part of yourgrill every time, but you should always clean the grate. Food, grease and watercan build up on it quickly, causing corrosion in some cases. Steel grates canbe particularly vulnerable to damage as their coating wears off, but evenceramic-coated high-quality cast iron grill grates can be damaged byimproper handling, causing the coating to chip, and making the whole gratesusceptible to rust. Frequent cleaning will help ensure that it has a longlife, and keep your food tasting great, every time.
Before you clean your grill, its a good ideato check the manufacturers recommendation for which brush to use. Stainlesssteel and uncoated cast iron grates generally wont be damaged by a wire brush,but any grill grate that is porcelain coated may be vulnerable. If youre unsurewhether your grill might be damaged, use a nylon grill brush rather than asteel one. It may take a bit more elbow grease, but youll still be able to getyour grill sparkling clean.
Not quite sure how to clean your grill grates?Heres the basic process to get you started:
Cleaning Your Heat Shields Orceramic Briquettes
Depending on the model, your grill may use heat shields or ceramic briquettes. A heatshield or heat deflector is a piece of metal that sits over the burner todistribute heat. Ceramic briquettes look like little tiles, or stylized piecesof charcoal, all the same size and shape.
Its also possible that your grill has lavarocks little clumps of volcanic rock that look like charcoal. Lava rocks arehard to clean. Their porous surface absorbs grease, and theyll fall apart ifyou try to scrub them. If you have lava rocks, we recommend replacing them withceramic briquettes.
Ceramic briquettes are easy to clean with awire brush. Remove them, and scrub until any debris falls off. If you have a heatshield, spray it with a degreaser, then clean it with a wire brush or brillopad and wipe it clean with a cloth. Do not use water or degreaser on briquettes as they will crumble.
Both heat shields and ceramic briquettes willwear out eventually, so you should inspect them carefully as you clean. If yourbriquettes are starting to crumble when you clean them, its probably time toreplace them. However, cracks or nicks on a few briquettes shouldnt be aproblem. As long as theyre mostly intact, they should work fine.
Heat shields, on the other hand, are often thefirst thing to wear out on a grill. If your heat shields are rusty or warped,they cant disperse heat evenly, and may not protect the burner from drippingheat. That means its probably time to replace them.
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Use A Pumice Stone To Clean Your Bbq
Did you know that the same stuff many people use to exfoliate their feet works magic on a dirty grill? Pumice stone is naturally anti-bacterial and removes stuck-on food very effectively. And you can get ones especially for cleaning charcoal grills.
We found that the long-handled pumice stone from IMPRESA, available from Amazon works on your barbie surfaces, and, seeing as they come in a 2-pack, you can use the other to clean a toilet just make sure they’re clearly labeled so you don’t mix them up.
How To Clean The Exterior Of A Bbq Grill
Mix up another bath of warm sudsy dish liquid and water and wipe down the exterior, handle, side trays and any bottom doors with a sponge or cloth or use a grease-cutting all-purpose cleaner, like Mr. Clean Clean Freak Deep Cleaning Mist.
In our GH tests, it cut grease on contact, plus it cleans stainless steel without streaking. Rinse and wipe dry. Finally, light the grill to make sure that none of the burner holes are clogged and all the gas lines and tubes are well connected and in good condition.
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Clean All Parts Once A Year
Clean everything elseincluding the burners themselves, the side walls, the bottom of the cooking compartment, and the drip panat least once a year, using warm, soapy water. This seasonal or annual cleaning requires some simple disassembly so you can clean each part separately let and dry it thoroughly before reassembling the grill. Make sure to disconnect the gas hookups before removing the burners.
The burners require special attention. Makes sure the jets are free of debris. A thin wire or small nail can help to open up any holes that are plugged.
Conclude by wiping down the outside of the grill, using warm water. Wipe dry to prevent rust.
Insert Them Into Your Grill
Pro Tip: Now that youre done cleaning, oil the grill grates with canola oil before you cook. This will help prevent food from sticking to the grill in the future and make cleaning much easier.
Canola oil, peanut oil, and avocado oil are all great due to their high smoke points.
Olive oil and extra virgin olive oil are not good to use as they have a smoke point. They will burn at around 400º which is too low for grilling.
Now lets continue with the rest of our grill grate cleaning methods.
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How Often Should You Clean Your Grill
Give dirty grill grates a good scraping every time youre done using the grill, and again after preheating it but before adding your food. Be sure you dont use a wire brush to do this the bristles can break off and get embedded in food.
Deep clean your grill at the start of barbeque season and again once the season is over. Animals and insects like to hang out in grills over the winter, so you need to make sure their droppings are gone before you start cooking. At the seasons end, you dont want to give them any reason to make a home in your grill, either.
Donts Of Bbq Cleaning
- DONT remove all the greaseWhile you might want to clean your BBQ, you also wouldnt want to remove all the grease and leave it like that. Oils protect the BBQ from rust and prevent dirt from sticking.
- DONT use harsh chemicals for cleaning a BBQHarsh chemicals will affect the taste of the food afterwards and can harm the finish of the BBQ and its components.
- DONT use abrasive scrubbers BBQs with stainless steel finishTo preserve the perfect finish of a stainless steel BBQ, avoid abrasive materials when cleaning. A detergent or a wool cloth will scratch the surface, and it will never look as new. Cleaning in circular motions is a no-no. Test on one little spot before you continue cleaning the whole BBQ.
- DONT disassemble gas componentsWe strongly suggest you dont try to disassemble the gas components of a BBQ because its a safety hazard. If not assembled right, you might have a trip to the hospital instead of having a BBQ party. So its best to leave the gas components as they are.
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Cover Your Outdoor Grill
It may seem obvious, but covering your grill is a must if you’re keeping it outdoors. Without a cover, all the dust, dirt, pollen, cobwebs, and insect mess that covers your deck or patio during the off-season will equally cover your grill. Also, grills stay dryer under a cover, which helps reduce corrosion of the metal parts.
Learn How To Clean Grill Grates The Right Way Follow These Tips And Your Grilled Food Will Taste Better And Be Saferjust In Time For Burger And Brat Season
Its grilling season! Whether youre a grill master or a newbie to outdoor cooking, all grillers need to know how to clean grill grates the right way. Dirty grills arent just a health hazard, they also change the flavor of your food and can slow down your cooking time! To avoid carcinogens we provided four easy ways to remove even the toughest of grime. And while youre at it, be sure to follow these tips on how to get your grill ready for grilling season, too.
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