Easily Clean Your Grill With A Few Common Kitchen Ingredients

It's never a bad idea to clean your grill before using it for the first time at the beginning of the grill season. For starters, a dirty grill can be a health hazard. Old food particles can harbor bacteria, which can contaminate fresh, raw food. What's more, caked-on grease and other gunk can lead to a flare-up, which is a hazard. Who doesn't want to keep their grill safe and clean?

Sure, cleaning a grill may sound like a tedious undertaking; scraping and scrubbing with a grill brush can take a long time and be a pain. In some cases, the grime and stuck-on particles of food won't budge no matter how hard you scrub. However, you don't need to wear yourself completely out to get a squeaky clean grill. It's also not necessary to purchase an expensive specialty grill cleaner that's full of chemicals. Instead, you can use a few common ingredients to get your grill back into cookin' shape. We've got not one, but two ways to tackle your grill cleaning project. You just need lemons, onions, and salt. 

First, turn on your grill and allow it to heat up. Next, cut a large onion in half. Place the onion on the end of a grill fork. Once the grates are fairly hot, wipe them down really well with the onion and let the enzymes work their magic. As Megan Day of Burnt Finger BBQ explained to Today, "The onion's juices will release and produce steam to remove the bits and charred on debris." Finally, scrub the grates well with a grill brush to loosen any remaining bits of food that are stuck on the grill. Once you have finished cleaning your grill, toss out the onion half.

Another option for cleaning your grill only requires a lemon and some salt. First, heat your grill. Then, grab a large lemon and cut it in half. Dip the open side of the lemon into a plate of coarse salt. To keep your hands off the hot grill, you'll want to put the lemon on the end of a grill fork before you rub the citrus on the grate. The abrasiveness of the salt will help loosen cooked-on food particles, and the acid in the lemon helps eliminate grease. Finally, use the grill brush to remove any remaining bits. Once you are finished, simply toss the used lemon half away. And for the other half? You can always pair the rest of the lemon with some more salt to clean your cutting board.