5 sneaky hacks for a sparkling clean barbecue grill
Planning a family get-together at your place or throwing a weekend party for your friends, is incomplete without a barbecue. You can easily set it up in your balcony, backyard, or lawn hassle-free, and cook delicious food for your guests.
As fun as it sounds, there is a downside to barbecuing and grilling. It accumulates a thick layer of burned fat, oil, and grime, so the scrubbing and cleaning become very difficult. This needs to be done every time you grill food in it. If not, when you light your dirty grill, the burned bits produce smoke that can cause irritation in the eye and throat that can lead to breathing problems.
To add, a dirty grill can also be a major fire hazard. The excess amount of grease and leftover charred meat inside it can easily catch fire, especially if you are using a gas grill. Whatever scenario you find yourself in, we all want to know the best way to clean and remove all the grease and grime, right? Luckily for you, many items in your kitchen will act as the perfect cleaning agents. Whether you have a freestanding BBQ or a mini portable one, read on to find out how to clean a gas grill with minimal effort and other clever cleaning hacks to have a sparkling clean BBQ grill in just a snap.
- Heat the grill
If you are using your BBQ grill for the first time in a while, it is important that you spend some time heating the grill properly. Grease the grill by applying a bit of vegetable oil as it will prevent the food from sticking. As a result, it will stay clean for a longer time. Once you are done using it, the excess heat will burn the leftover food debris, and scraping them would be easier.
To clean the grill, fire up and heat the grill and close the lid or hood for at least 15 minutes until it reaches a high temperature. The high temperature will cause the excess food bits to be carbonized, making them easier to remove and scrub. Finally, let the grill cool and fully clean all the parts of the grill. For additional tips on barbecuing, smoking, or grilling meat, you can see more from this page.
- Apply Mixture of Vinegar and Water
Vinegar and water solution is a well-known effective method in cleaning different materials, surfaces, and other household appliances. The acetic acid content of vinegar makes it a good cleaning agent and disinfectant. Water is added to vinegar to balance the acidity level of the solution. The acidity of the vinegar helps dissolve dirt, grease, and grime. This is why the vinegar-water solution is widely used for cleaning, aside from its use in cooking. It is commonly used in cleaning window glass, countertops, shower walls, bathtubs, patio furniture, surfaces, and many others.
Aside from the low cost of vinegar, it has also a very long shelf-life which makes it one of the best cleaning products. Sometimes, vinegar is also mixed with baking soda to create a scrub that would help clean tough grimes.
- Scrunch Up Foil Sheets and Scrub
When cleaning hardened dirt and grime from the grill, it is sometimes necessary to resort to brushing with hard materials. The most common choice for this task is the steel wool brush which can be found at local grocery and hardware stores. But in case this is not available, a sheet of foil can do the trick. The foil sheets used in food preparation and storage are made out of aluminum. These aluminum sheets are soft enough to be crumpled and can be used to brush out dirt from the grill since this material is made out of soft metal, this can withstand scrubbing against hardened dirt and yet it is not hard enough to scratch the surfaces of the grill which is mostly made out of steel.
It is also more common in households due to its usefulness in food storage so you can resort to this method when cleaning the grill. Add some liquid soap or any type of cleaning agent when scrubbing the grill with some scrunched-up aluminum foil and watch as the dirt comes off easily after a few minutes of scrubbing.
- Soak the Stains with Beer
A handy tip that some people have tried is using beer to clean the stains and built-up dirt in their grills. By soaking rusted parts of the grill in beer, the stains and rust caused by leftover food, moisture, and oils will now come off easily with the help of some scrubbing with a wire brush. Many people would wonder how beer can cause this effect and the answer lies in the acidity of the beer.
Beer is an acidic solution and it is a well-known fact that acidic solutions are good for removing stains and discolorations in most metals. Since beer is present most of the time when there are barbecue parties, it is also a good idea to use leftover beer to clean the grill after cooking. After cleaning the grill with bear and scrubbing out the dirt, rinse the grill well with water and dry it out with a towel or rag to avoid any discoloration caused by rust or excess moisture.
- Cut an Onion in Half and Scrub on Dirt
Onions are a common ingredient in any kitchen and, in fact, these are also great for cleaning up stains and dirt. Onions contain enzymes that break down dirt and grease when applied to dirty areas and rusted surfaces. These enzymes are also the ones responsible for breaking down and tenderizing meat, so these would also do the same for built-up dirt and rust on the surfaces of the grill.
To clean up the grill using onions, simply cut the onions in half and scrub these against the grill. Make sure to apply some pressure to release the juices from inside the onion slices. After applying the onion juices against the grill, scrub out the affected areas with a hard brush and rinse afterward with clean water. After this, you will see that the enzymes in the onions did their job and you will be left with a sparkly, clean grill.
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