Tips from the pros for cleaning a grill and getting ready for summer grilling season.
While many die-hard BBQ fanatics (and those who live in more comfortable climates) have been grilling through the winter, the Memorial Day weekend signifies the unofficial start of grilling season for most of us. If your grill has been sitting under its cover all winter—or even worse, no cover at all—then there’s a few things to keep in mind before firing it up for the first time. Besides ensuring you’ve got ample charcoal or LP to cook for all of your guests, it’s a good idea to give your grill a nice cleaning. Especially if you didn’t thoroughly clean it at the end of last season.
We collected a few videos from the grill experts at Weber Grill that will help you easily and effectively clean both a gas and charcoal grill, in preparation for a summer full of trouble-free backyard cooking. A clean grill not only works better, it will keep your food tasting better and it will give you many years of service. Check out the videos below:
Cleaning a Charcoal Grill:
Cleaning a Gas Grill:
Additional Gas Grill Cleaning Techniques:
That didn’t look too difficult, did it? The truth is, keeping your grill clean can actually be a relatively painless affair, if you commit to just one simple, regular task: clean the grates off after every use. Every time you grill, remnants of food, grease and marinade linger on the grates, building up into a thick coating. It’s grimy, but it doesn’t become a major problem unless you let it cool down, when it stiffens into a rock-hard substance you’ll later have to chip away. Instead, while the grates are still hot, scrub them clean with a bristle-brush. It will be much easier than waiting till after all the buildup hardens. Also, rubbing a little olive or vegetable oil on the grates before every grilling can help prevent food from getting stuck to them.
Many grilling gurus suggest slicing a large white onion in half, poking the round end of it onto a BBQ fork, and using that to scrub your grates after an initial pass with a bristle brush. The combination of the onion’s moisture and its acidity act like a natural cleanser, helping remove the really caked-on grease remnants. Another tip, handy if you don’t have a grill brush, is to ball up a piece of aluminum foil and use that to scrub the grates. We know it’s no fun thinking about cleaning while you’re concentrating on perfecting the grill marks on your porterhouse, but keep in mind how much easier the next cookout will be when you start with clean grates. Plus, your food will cook and taste better as a result.
Two safety tips to keep in mind during and after your grill cleaning:
1.) Cleaning the grill while hot requires extra care. It can be easy to forget how hot the grill is while you’re brushing grates, but please BE CAREFUL around the hot surfaces.
2.) Before each use, give the grates a quick visual inspection to make sure no brush bristles have broken off and stuck to the grates. A stainless steel bristle can be a nasty surprise if it gets stuck to a steak.
If you decide that your grill is so dirty it’s beyond salvation, have a look at our large selection of outdoor cooking products, including Weber Grills, Big Green Egg Smoker Grills, and more.
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