Cleaning Your Outdoor Grill

Your outdoor grill is the center of your outdoor kitchen during the summer months. If your grill has a side burner or two you can use your outdoor grill as a substitute for your indoor oven and stove and move all the heat and odor of indoor food preparation outside. You can bake and roast in your outdoor grill as easily as in the kitchen oven.

Cleaning your grill after each use is important because it will greatly extend the life of the grill and, perhaps even more importantly, it will ensure that you get consistent performance out of it. If the perfect 1 inch porterhouse is five minutes on each side in April you will need it to be the same five minutes in August to keep your barbecue champ title.

The outside cleans easily with normal household cleaners. Dish-washing detergent is an excellent grease cutter and when mixed with warm water will probably be adequate to keep the exterior of even your stainless steel grill looking like new. Do not hesitate to hose it off for a good rinsing. Water will not hurt the grill unless it is allowed to accumulate so if you cannot leave it in the sun to dry thoroughly give it a wipe down with an absorbent towel.

After each use, and after the grill has cooled, remove the cast iron grates and give them a brushing with a grill cleaning brush. You want to remove the grates before brushing because you do not want debris falling onto the burners or accumulating in the bottom of the grill pan. Wash them down with your dish washing detergent solution, give them a good rinse, dry, and as a finishing touch spray them lightly on both sides with cooking oil. If you do this diligently after each use the grates will never rust. Food will not stick to them either.

While the Grill Grates are removed spray the burners lightly with a grease cutting cleaner and gently brush them and wipe them off until the original color shines through. Give them a very light spray of vegetable oil too but wipe off any excess. Drippings and debris can rust through the thin metal burners in just one season without continuous maintenance. This is the best way to avoid the replacement cost of new burners and to keep them performing consistently. Some grills will require you to remove a lava rock grate or drip shield before you can get to the burners. In these situations there should be substantially less drippings and debris on the burners after a few uses so you will just have to monitor the build up.