When barbecuing, cleanliness and maintenance are just as important as food and technique. Adequately clean and maintain your grill to protect yourself (and your food) from unwanted containments.
There are a lot of reasons why you need to clean your grill every time you use it. The reality is that unclean surfaces like dirty BBQ grills can impact the taste of your food and transfer unwanted contaminants.
The good news is that cleaning your BBQ isn’t as labour intensive as you may think. Once you’re equipped with the right knowledge, resources and habits, you’ll be able to keep your BBQ clean and your food fresh tasting easily.
With the help of our BBQ cleaning tips, you’ll be able to keep your BBQ spotless with minimal effort.
Clean with Steam
An effective (and easy) way to clean your BBQ after you’re finished grilling is to give it a steam clean. Cover your grill with a water-soaked material like newspaper, close the BBQ for half an hour, then just let the steam do its thing.
Run Hot Plates Through the Dishwasher
If your BBQ’s hot plates can fit into your dishwasher, nothing is keeping you from tossing them in. That said, if you choose to do this, make sure you set your dishwasher to pot wash cycle to make sure it comes out shiny and clean.
Soak Your Grill in Coffee
If you’re struggling to get the remains of dinner off of your BBQ’s grill, try giving the grill a coffee bath. Soaking your grill in coffee will help to make it easier to clean because coffee’s acidic properties will help loosen any stubborn dirt or caked-on food so that you can just wipe it off.
Or Soak it in Vinegar
If you’d rather not waste your coffee, you can make a vinegar spray to clean your grill grates. Like coffee, vinegar is very acidic — and it’s this acid that helps to rid BBQ grills of built-up dirt and food. You can make a vinegar spray with vinegar and baking soda or put it on aluminum foil to apply the solution
Scrub it With Half an Onion
Instead of using a chemical-packed cleaner to clean your BBQ, use natural products like the ones in your pantry. Onions, for one, actually act as a great grill cleaner.
Southern Living suggests cutting an onion in half, then scrubbing it against a heated grate to remove any built-up remnants. You’ll probably want to give your BBQ a rinse (with soap) to clean the loosened remnants and ensure your grates aren’t left smelling like an onion.
Apply Heat
The biggest culprit of dirt when it comes to a BBQ is caked on food remnants. After you clean your BBQ, you can leave it on for an extra 15 minutes so that it burns off any leftover food.
This will also help you make sure that whatever you cleaned with (onion, lemon, vinegar – you name it) is also burnt off. This way, your fresh food won’t taste like leftovers from last month, or like a cleaning agent.
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