Do you love to barbecue on warm, sunny summer evenings as much as we do? It’s a great way to spend quality time with family and friends outdoors, and is a low- to no-effort way of cooking for lots of people. Cleaning the barbecue grill grates afterward is less fun, though. We have tested various DIY solutions and will tell you how to best tackle this tiresome task.
The Internet has so many DIY solutions to make cleaning products for the best way to clean grill grates. We’ve gathered some of the best here. You’ll read a lot about a “miracle cleaner” in the form of baking soda. If you mix baking soda with water in equal parts, you’ll get a paste. Grease the grill with it. Wait until the paste has dried and wipe the grill clean.
Coffee grounds are also a popular choice for cleaning grill grates. Put some coffee grounds on a sponge and scrub the grill with it. The fine coffee grains act like an exfoliator. Rinse the grill off with warm water afterward.
Spraying a crusty grill grate with vinegar or soaking it in water with a shot of vinegar is another household remedy for cleaning your grill grates. Another method is to wrap the grate in wet newspaper. The next day, remove the paper and rinse the grill.
These household remedies work in most cases, but can be a bit unreliable. If you do not want to experiment when you’re cleaning, we’d advise you to use a commercially available product. After all, there are special grill and oven cleaners for exactly this purpose.
The easiest way to clean a barbecue grill is to prevent the dirt from drying on it in the first place – but cleaning while you’re barbecuing or right after is not appealing to anyone—certainly not us! So we’ve got some tips to clean the grill grate the next day—or whenever you like. The safest bet is to use a commercially available cleaner. Shake the can well before use and spray the grill from about 8 inches away, then wait 10 minutes. Wait longer if the dirt is really encrusted. Simply wipe off the cleaning agent with a wet sponge or cloth—that's it!
Enamel is really popular at the moment, and a stylish option for your barbecue. You’ll know that you need to take extra care when cleaning it, and we’ve got some tips to help with that, too! When cleaning an enamel grill grate, it is advisable to put the grate back on the grill and simply let everything that’s baked on burn off. After about 10 minutes, turn the grill off again, wait until the grill grate has cooled down and carefully wipe it with paper towels. If all the dirt does not come off, use water with very little detergent to clean the grill. Too much detergent can damage enamel, and if the enamel layer is damaged, small pieces of it can come off and land on your food the next time you grill.
Of course, the less dirty the grill is, the easier it is to clean. It is helpful to use a grill mat that catches most dirt. Since you can reuse it, it is an environmentally friendly alternative to aluminum foil. You can also rub a little cooking oil on the grill before use. This way, meat will be easier to turn and your food won’t stick to the grill as much.
It may be that your barbecue accessories are dirty after barbecuing, too. Our tip is to rinse barbecue cutlery and accessories right after use. If you’ve got a fleck of tomato sauce on your shirt from some of your delicious barbecue food, don’t worry—we’ve got a guide for removing tomato stains from clothes, too.