The sun is shining, birds are singing, and the weather itself whispers that it’s time again for a picnic or at least a little backyard BBQ party. You call your friends, plan your rest, and start packing things. Take out your dusty charcoal grill, realize that you have forgotten to wash it well last time, and start to search for effective ways to clean it. Attempts to wipe off all the soot and grease often end in failure, but you need that meat grilled! Therefore, we will figure out how to get everything in order.
It’s like a vicious circle, the more often you clean your grill, the easier it gets. Food gets even more delicious, and the clean grate leaves beautiful grill marks on the meat. Whereas, food remains stuck in the grate or on the walls, spoil, smell, and may cause serious problems for your health (soot contains toxins that cause cancer).
According to BobsR website, your charcoal grills can be cleaned with various household chemicals or traditional remedies. Here are a few tips to remember right away.
- Soda, vinegar, and soap are used to remove grease and soot. You can put a grate or rotisserie in the growing grass at night so that the dew can clean up the dew.
- After removing the grate from the bottom of your grill, and clean the latter (and the lid) with mild dish soap and a regular brush with a long handle.
- You can clean the exterior (as the outside of the lid) and cook a box with soap and water or a special grill spray. Wipe dry and cover your grill until next time to help prevent rust.
- Use a moisture/heat-resistant grill cover between cookings to preserve its look.
- Be extremely careful about using metal brushes to clean your charcoal grill. I once heard about a woman that has swallowed some metal wires from such a brush. And despite several surgeries, a little wire remained in her throat. So pay attention. If it’s a rusty, old, unreliable brush, you’ll forget to check the grate after cleaning, and even a few metal shavings are enough to spoil the food you’ll be eating. Needless to say, swallowed wires can cause serious consequences.
- Use a sturdy metal scraper, paint scraper or spatula to remove soot from the grill.
- There are specialized convenient tools for cleaning grills, e.g. stainless steel CharGon. Tools like this one can make it a little harder to work on the edges of the grate, but you will not have to worry about randomly swallowed wire and other random debris.
Mechanical method
To get rid of grilled food remains, a good scraper will be your best friend. Try to use it as soon as you remove the food from the grill, where the temperature will help you to clean it. Remains of ash and food can simply be swept away from the inside. If you use birch coals, fuel briquettes, charcoal, there will be little or no debris left, birch charcoal is also less toxic than artificial analogs. Charcoal is also easier to remove before the grill cools down. Do not forget to get rid of all the ash leftovers, as too much of it may clog the vents at the bottom of your grill and cause problems with controlling the temperature during the cooking process.
If you still have problems cleaning the grill after scraping off leftovers, take out the grill and soak it in hot, soapy water. This solution will help to eliminate food residues that cannot be cleaned in other ways. This method is also suitable for the bottom of the grill, which is difficult to achieve while the grate is still in the place.
After you make the grate clean, apply vegetable oil using paper towels or a rag, so that next time you grill food, it does not stick to the grate. This will also help prevent rust formation.
Vinegar
Another tip that will help you to limit yourself to natural products while cleaning the grill is the 1 x 1 solution of vinegar and water. Many people actively use a combination of vinegar and water to clean different things in their homes, and you can use it to clean the grill. All you have to do is spray the mixture on the grill and leave it for a few minutes, then remove any food leftovers from the grill.
You can also use a ball of aluminum foil (hold it with long-handled tongs) soaked in vinegar to clean the grate.
Soda
Put all the skewers (if any) and the grate in the most common polyethylene bag and pour a mixture of one glass of vinegar and the same amount of soda. Once everything is ready, tie the bag tightly and leave it for a couple of hours, preferably overnight. In the morning, just wipe with a damp sponge.
Coke
This drink is used not only to quench thirst (which, by the way, is absolutely useless in this way) but also to clean various surfaces, e.g. the soot from burned pots and even remove lime deposits from showerheads. It is also perfect for removing rust and dirt.
Put your dirty grill accessories in a large plastic container or bag. Shake the coke well, pour it into a container and leave for 12-15 minutes. After that, check whether the dirt can be wiped off, and if not, leave it for a few more minutes. Then wipe it with a dish brush and rinse with water.
Ammonia
Put all the accessories in a large, dense bag and fill in the ammonia (a few bottles will be enough). Before tying the cellophane, remove all the air. Shake slightly to cover the entire surface and leave it overnight. Wash the grill well in the morning.
Soap
A good cleaning method is boiling out of soap solution.
Pour water into a large pot and add finely chopped soap (you can also grate it). Then put the pot on the fire and let the water boil. As soon as you can the bubbles appear, put in the grate or skewers in it. Now all you have to do is wait for about half an hour.
After a while, turn off the fire and let the water cool down a little. Then take out the utensils and rinse well in warm water, wipe with a dry towel, and enjoy the result.
Fire
This cleaning method will remove any onion, meat or grease residue really well.
The first thing you need to do is to light up the fire and put your grill on it. All food remains will turn into corners and fall off themselves, remove the leftovers with a brush or piece of foil.
Those who often use a barbecue grate know it’s best to clean it up right away. If you leave it, all the fat will dry up and it will be very difficult to clean it up.
Once the meat is removed, just put the grill back on the fire. You can throw in some firewood so that the fire ignites again. Hold for a few minutes on each side and wipe it with a good quality grill brush.
If you don’t have a special brush, you can use a regular dish brush.
Dew
Everybody has fun, sings songs, and enjoys delicious meat. But the grill is waiting to be cleaned, and nobody seems to care about that at the moment.
So that you don’t have to make any extra effort to clean it in the morning, just put all the appliances in the grass after cooking. At night, the dew will appear, and the grease will soak easily, and you will just have to sponge the grate and skewers.
Dishwasher
Those with dishwashers are lucky. Simply load the grate into it and turn on the machine itself, if, of course, the device fits in there.
At the end of the cycle, you will get the grill washed away from the blackness and greasy residue. The shine can be achieved by means of a usual towel.
In most cases, it is possible to clean the surface without leaving a chance for grease. But if the accessories for kebabs for a very long time lay idle, they begin to rust and darken. In such cases, professional household chemicals for cleaning surfaces can help. But before using any chemistry, read the instructions to use it correctly and avoid any harmful effects to yourself.
Household chemicals
Conventional detergents (Fairy) can clean light dirt or only a small fraction of it. Better use strong gels or sprays, e.g. Amway, Top House, Magic Power, Dr.Beckmann, Cif or Shumanit. The advantages of such means are efficiency and time-saving. The cost may bite though.
After washing with chemicals, the grate should be washed thoroughly in pure water, if you do not want to serve your friends or family detergent-flavored meat and cause intestinal problems.
Oven cleaners
If you want to clean the grill or its grate carefully, use oven cleaners. Apply them to all corners of the grill’s bottom. It may be quite challenging, but the reward is totally worth it. Make sure you have your protective goggles o. Put the grate on a piece of cardboard, spray some oven cleaner on it and rub with a plastic brush. Wash the grid thoroughly before cooking on it.
There are many ways to clean a dirty charcoal grill, from a simple scrubber to natural cleaners and heavy commercial analogs. The best part of cleaning, of course, is a great time with friends in nature, not without hot and delicious meat.
The best option is not to forget about your charcoal grill and remove all the coals from it after each cooking and clean with special brushes. In this case, you will be able to avoid corrosion for a long time.
Wipe the grate with vegetable oil before each use. This way, the meat will not burn too much and will be easily removed at the end of cooking. You don’t have to clean it with a lot of effort.
Regular cleanings will make your charcoal grill live longer.
