How To Clean Your Grill – It is a highlight in the garden: the grill. The grill should also be clean so that meat, satay and vegetables always taste delicious. With these secret weapons you can clean your grill thoroughly, quickly and easily.
Whether on the terrace or on the balcony: the sunnier it gets, the more often the grill is fired up. But before you start it up again after a long break, it’s worth giving it a good cleaning.
Basic
- When cleaning your grill, always wait until it has completely cooled down.
- Make sure the embers are cool, the gas connection is closed and the power supply is disconnected.
- Only then can you start cleaning your grill and disassembling it.
Simple cleaning agents or household remedies are sufficient for most soiling of a conventional grill grate. But how much effort is required to clean the grill depends on the type of grill. Gas and electric grills are much easier to care for than charcoal grills. They usually have drip trays for the fat that are easier to wash off.
Tip
If you oil the grill grate well beforehand, you will have to scrub less afterwards.
How To Clean Your Grill
Cleaning the electric and gas grill
The drip pan and the grid can be cleaned with warm water and a little washing-up liquid or in the dishwasher getting cleaned. However, the cast iron grill surfaces popular with gas grills should not be cleaned in this way. Here you should rely on warm water.
If the grill grate and drip pan are not completely clean in the dishwasher, pre-rinsing is at least a help the cleaning supplies loosen the dirt particles that are still on the grid, so that they can be removed more easily in the subsequent hand wash.
If the incrustations are too stubborn, you can loosen them with a washing-up brush. Do not use a steel brush!
Wipe all other parts that are dirty with a soft, damp cloth and a little washing-up liquid.
Charcoal grill cleaning
Cleaning in the dishwasher is not suitable for components of charcoal grills. You can clean them with warm water and washing-up liquid and a brush. It is best to let all the components soak in the soapy water overnight.
Burn out residues?
If that flesh grilled directly over an open fire, the mixture of fat, spices and ash particles burns to form a black crust. This should be thoroughly removed after grilling, otherwise it will leave unwanted marks on the next steak and reduce the taste – it’s also unhygienic.
Many grill fans remove the incrustations by letting the grill burn out. Then loosen the encrustations and grill residues with a grill brush. The loosened dirt is then simply wiped off with a damp cloth.
Newspaper as a soaking aid
A very simple but effective way to get the grill clean later without much effort is to wrap the grate in damp newspaper after it has cooled. After a few hours of exposure, the encrustations are so soft that they can be cleaned with a sponge and detergent can remove well. When barbecuing, a meadow or lawn is usually not far away. Then you can lay the grill grate in the wet grass overnight. Dew and moisture soften the incrustations so that they can be easily removed the next day.
Ash as a cleaning aid
If charcoal was used, you can ash then use it for cleaning. You dip an old damp cloth in some fine ash from the grill and rub the grill grate with it. The ash mash sands away the encrustations and looks like one soap. Then rinse the rust off with water. A positive side effect: the rinsed off ash mixture even acts as a fertilizer in the garden.
Old and encrusted grill residue is particularly difficult to remove. If all else fails, oven cleaner may come to the rescue. Spray the grate with oven cleaner and place in a large plastic bag to soak for a few hours. After that, even stubborn residues can be washed off with washing-up liquid and a sponge.
This way the rust collects less dirt
If you rub the grate with oil or fat before grilling, you will save yourself a lot of work later because not so many residues will settle on the grill grate. To make it easier to clean the charcoal container, the bottom is lined with aluminum foil. This also improves heat development as the film reflects the heat. For the necessary air circulation, however, a few holes have to be worked into the film.
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Home remedies for cleaning grill
Aluminum foil
It is about aluminum foil, for example from the lettuce cover or the grilled potato, can use it to rub off the burned-on meat and fat residue from the grill grate. However, none of the methods eliminate the need for cleaning entirely.
Baking powder
The raising agent, baking powder removes burnt-on food on the grill grate as well as on the cast iron grill surfaces or the drip tray. Fill your kitchen sink or large bucket with warm water. Then place the grill grate in it and add two sachets of baking soda in the warm water. Now let everything soak overnight. The next day you can easily remove the burnt residue with a brush, warm water and washing-up liquid.
Vinegar and sugar
Apple cider vinegar effortlessly removes grease and burnt-in residue. Mix 200 milliliters of apple cider vinegar with two tablespoons of sugar. Put this mixture in a spray bottle and spray it onto the grill while it is still hot. Now the household remedy is worked into the incrustations with a sponge or brush. After the grill grate has cooled down, you can wash everything under warm water with a little washing-up liquid and a cloth.
Disposable barbecues: do they make sense?
Disposable grills are a tempting alternative without the need for cleaning. The cheap disposable grills are usually included as an all-round carefree package charcoal and grill lighters, making them great for festivals and spontaneous BBQs at the beach or in the park. However, you will hardly experience any culinary delights with the disposable grills. The grilling performance decreases after a short time and you cannot regulate the heat well.
If the aluminum shells are placed directly on the floor, the risk of fire is also high. For real grilling pleasure, it is better to use a full-blown charcoal or gas grill. And with our practical Tips for cleaning the grill grate even cleaning is effortless.
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