The Grill Cleaning Hack That Uses Only A Common Pantry Ingredient

If you are a master of the art of barbeque and when push comes to shove would choose a grill over any other cooking appliance, then you need to know how to take care of your vessel. Proper upkeep and sanitization will ensure that you retain a safe and clean grill cooking surface. This will make certain that each meal you prepare doesn't have the crusty remnants of your previous creations.

Not only can maintaining your grill's cleanliness help to not stand in the way of your culinary delights, but it is also better for your health. Grease and burnt food left on the grill after cooking causes more smoke than you may want. This smoke carries harmful polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which can cause respiratory cancers, according to Medical News Today. This smoke is harmful when breathed into the lungs, however, it can be just as dangerous when absorbed through the skin as well. It's for this reason that it is crucial you stick to a tight cleaning routine when preparing your grill for another feast. Although the last thing you want to do is scrub your grill with chemical cleaners, which may taint your food and cause more harm than good, there could be a perfectly safe and natural solution, right in your own kitchen.

When it comes to using natural ingredients to help you clean around the house, you may already be familiar with the benefits of vinegar, baking soda, and lemon to bust stains and kill bacteria. However, for degreasing your grill, your best bet might be to use an onion. Onions have naturally acidic properties, which can be incredibly useful when you are trying to break down the hard-to-remove fat, char, and food remnants from the last time you fired up your barbeque, according to Southern Living.

For best results, turn your barbeque to a high temperature first. This will help to burn away any of the previous food bits, plus melt any leftover grease. Then take a large onion — it doesn't matter what kind — and cut it in half. With a pair of cooking tongs or a grilling fork, grab or stab the back of the onion and rub it along the hot grill with the sliced part facing the grill. The immense heat will help to get those onion juices flowing, which will start to break up the grease remaining on the cooking surface of your barbeque. Once you have finished, you should be left with a nice clean grill ready for you to use. The leftover onion can then be tossed into the composter once it has been used.

With onions and other natural cleaning products being able to do such a wonderful job of keeping your grill clean, it saves you from the dangers of other products and tools. Harsh chemicals like those found in oven/grill cleaners can be harmful to your health and need some time to burn off before you are able to start your barbeque again. Instead, you can have the same results utilizing vinegar or a little mixture of water and dish soap.

As far as cleaning tools go, wire bristle brushes have long been used to scrub away grease and grime from your outdoor grill. However, these tiny metallic bristles can sometimes break off the apparatus and stay on the surface. Without noticing, you could then go through the whole process of cooking your food, only to have these little bristles stick to it. According to Consumer Reports, many Americans have been hospitalized for ingesting these bristles. That's why if you need an alternative tool to help scrape remnants off the cooking surface of your barbeque, it's best to use a wooden grill scraper or even a bunched-up wad of tinfoil instead. With these options, you won't have to worry about leaving harmful byproducts after you clean.