Cleaning And Maintaining Your Grill Or Smoker
"It's hard to be funny when you have to be clean." Mae West
By
Meathead Goldwyn
Contrary to what your neighbor says, greasy grill grates and carbon buildup on the lid do not improve the flavor of your food. Rancid grease garnished with scale is not something I see on restaurant menus very often. When grease burns, it makes acrid smoke that can ruin a meal. And
grease buildup has caused many an inferno. A clean grill is a good grill.
Before each cook you need to do a little light cleanup to keep your grill or smoker performing optimally, to prevent off flavors, and to prolong your cooker's life. Then, once a year your device needs a more thorough cleanup and maintenance. If you use it a lot, do a thorough cleaning two or three times a year and before you store it for winter.
Before you start, check your grill's manual for any special instructions. If you can't find it, it may be available on the manufacturer's website for download.
Remember: A clean grill is a good grill.
Cleaning your cooking grates
Grease and oils get rancid, particularly in hot weather, and rancid grease on the grates can make your food taste bad. Rancid grease on the bottom of the grates can vaporize and flavor the food, too.
The black crust on the grates is mostly carbon. It tastes bad. In addition carbon insulates the grates and can stick to food. So it is vital that your food go on clean grates.
Click here to read my article discussing how to clean grill grates.
The interior of the cooking chamber
Many websites and books tell you to cover the grates with foil and crank up the burners. They reason that the reflected heat will carbonize everything. This blocks ventilation, forces hot air out through the knob holes and that could melt plastic dials and flexible hoses, warp metal, and crack ceramics. Don't do it.
Scale is a buildup of carbon, soot, creosote, combustion by-products, and schmutz, usually on the hood and sides.
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Scale can drop from the hood onto your meal. Scale also decreases the reflectivity of the inner surfaces and that can reduce heat. I don't worry about a thin coat of carbon, but when it starts to crack and curl, I scrape it off and vacuum it up. A plastic putty knife and a good vacuum cleaner with a hose attachment are handy for cleaning the interior of a grill.
