How to Clean Your Barbecue
If you have no idea how to clean your barbecue, our step-by-step guide will help you. Follow our advice and your BBQ will sparkle and be ready to use.
It’s important to thoroughly clean your barbecue after each use. The reason? The accumulation of carbon on the grill, and the hood mix traces of fat and food debris that eventually evolve into bacteria. This affects the food that you continue to cook.
Equally, burning this type of waste creates a bad smell. You’ve probably noticed this before if you forget to clean your barbeque between uses.
How to clean your barbecue? Follow our guide!
Clean your barbecue using the following steps in this guide. You’ll notice that our tips don’t require any special products, although cleaning does require some effort and dedication on your part. Here we go!
1. Gather the necessary elements and products to clean your barbecue
When you go to a specialized store, you’ll find a number of special items and products to clean your barbecue. However, there are some basic and inevitable must-haves. Among them, are the long-handled wire brush, a wire brush for bottles, a 20-liter container or bucket, and some grease.
You’ll notice in the store, there are several products of chemical origin. You should actually avoid using these products. Asides from the environmental issues of using chemicals, if you don’t thoroughly rinse your barbecue after cleaning, the chemicals can transfer to food. As such, it’s best to choose natural or homemade alternatives such as white vinegar and baking soda.
To take care of your hands, wear protective gloves and add some scouring pads and cotton cloths to your shopping list.
2. Let the heat be your ally
If your barbecue is gas, light it with the lid closed. After half an hour, the heat should’ve burned off any remaining food debris, sauces, or fats, and you can turn it off.
While the barbecue is heating, prepare a mixture of liquid soap with hot water in the bucket. After turning off the barbecue, dip the wire brush into the bowl and scrub the inside to remove any burnt debris.
3. Clean your barbecue: soak the racks
After the previous step, and only when the racks have cooled, take them out of the barbecue and submerge them in a bathtub or large container with hot soapy water. Leave them submerged for 30 minutes to soften any burnt-on food debris.
You can do the same with any other removable barbecue parts, such as burners, trays, and burner tubes. The latter are usually removable, you may need to loosen a screw to do this.
After half an hour, take your brush and clean each of the pieces. For extremely stubborn food debris, create a paste of vinegar, baking soda, and water. Apply this to any remaining food debris that hasn’t disappeared after soaking and scrubbing.
Use the wire bottle brush to clean inside the tubes between the burner ports. This will unblock them and allow for proper gas flow when you’re operating the barbeque.
4. Vacuum inside your barbecue
After removing the aforementioned parts, the combustion chamber of the barbecue will be exposed, making it easier to clean. As such, you should place an empty container or bucket under the chamber, just where the trays are located to collect the fat.
Immediately afterward, with the help of a plastic spatula, begin to scrape the remains that are attached to the walls of the chamber. Use a vacuum to pick up any accumulated debris, this will mostly consist of black greasy particles. After this, use soap and water to complete the cleaning. The dirty water will accumulate in the container or bucket that you placed below.
5. Clean your barbecue: don’t forget the exterior
After putting all the pieces back and securely in place, empty the bucket with the dirty water. Refill it with hot water and don’t forget to add some liquid soap. Then, use a large, soft kitchen sponge to clean the exterior.
It’s important that you don’t use an abrasive sponge, especially if the surface is stainless steel. Otherwise, you’ll have a very clean barbecue with scratches. Finish with microfiber towels to clean and dry. If you’ve noticed that grease and grime have a tendency to stick to the surface, wipe it over with white vinegar, which acts as a natural degreaser.
Test your clean barbecue and dazzle your guests
After you’ve finished cleaning your barbecue and assembling all the pieces, it’s time to test it. Connect the gas tank, close the lid, and turn on your BBQ, wait 15 minutes and turn it off. By doing this, any water residue and product will burn off.
Thats it! Your barbecue is ready to use. So welcome your guests and enjoy a barbecue to outshine all the rest.