With the sun making a more regular appearance and temperatures rising, BBQ season is well and truly upon us!
If your BBQ has been sitting around gathering dust during the colder months and you want to get it spotlessly clean ready for the next grill-off, or you’ve been using it already and need to get rid of charred food remains, here are 11 useful tips for doing exactly that:
- Use steam
By covering the BBQ grill with newspaper soaked in water (ideally when still a little warm), and closing the lid for up to half an hour, you can help to steam off any food debris.
- Throw the grill in the dishwasher
Most BBQ hotplates will fit perfectly well into a regular sized dishwasher, saving you the hassle and energy of scrubbing them by hand – which can also make a mess of your sink.
- Grab an onion
Yep, you read it right – an onion! While your BBQ grill is still warm, prick an onion with a fork and rub it over the hot wires. Magically, the water contained naturally within onions, helps to steam the grills or hotplates, and eliminate stubborn food debris.
- Reach for the trusty vinegar
Vinegar is great for cleaning so many household items and surfaces, and it’s no different when it comes to BBQs. By simply combining 500ml of white vinegar with equal parts water in a spray bottle, you can create an environmentally friendly cleaning solution. Spray the mixture onto the grill, leave it for around 10 minutes, and give it a light scrub to remove food debris and get the grill gleaming again.
- Try coffee
Did you know that the acid in coffee is great for loosening up stubborn, stuck-on dirt and food debris? Simply soak your grill and any grubby utensils in coffee to help eliminate food debris and get your BBQ clean and ready for the next grilling session!
- Good old baking soda
As with vinegar, baking soda has many practical uses around the home, and by sprinkling a generous amount onto your grubby BBQ grill and soaking it in warm water, you should be able to scrub it lightly with a scouring pad to get it gleaming again.
- Beer anyone?
If you can spare it, pour around half of a bottle of beer onto a recently used grill before scrubbing it lightly with some old newspaper or a wire brush to get it clean.
- Foil and hot water
For those without a brush designed for cleaning BBQ grills, you can use aluminum foil instead. Simply scrunch some up, and scrub the grills while they’re immersed in hot, soapy water.
- Remove old ash and coals
This should always be done in between uses, and you can tip the ashes or coals into a bucket and use kitchen paper dipped in water to gather up any remains. Once you’ve done that, wash the base with warm, soapy water.
- Don’t neglect the BBQs exterior
Once you’ve used the tips above to clean the inside of your BBQ, you can turn your attentions to the exterior. Hot soapy water and a little elbow grease is likely all it will take to get it looking clean and ready for use.
- Heat the BBQ after cleaning
When you’re done cleaning the BBQ, heat it up for around 15 minutes (no less) to help get rid of any remnants of cleaning product or food debris that might linger and compromise the taste of the food the next time you use it.
Love BBQs but hate cleaning them? Simply ask the professional cleaning service you’ve hired to add it to their list of duties.
