Many of us like throwing a barbeque party with our friends and family. To make barbeque, the most common thing is a charcoal grill. At the beginning of a grilling season, it’s always wise to keep the charcoal grill neat and clean.
Since coal is used for grilling in a charcoal grill, more gunk, grease, and debris are piled by a charcoal grill compared to a small gas grill. A thorough cleaning will not only ensure the best flavor of your grilled food but also expand the life of your grill parts.
To clean a charcoal grill in the most appropriate way, you must know the technique and procedure well. Here’s a step by step procedure of how to clean a charcoal grill.
Best Way to Clean a Charcoal Grill
What You’ll Need
To cleaning the charcoal grill, First of all, you need to gather all the required materials/equipment listed below.
- A long-handled stiff grill brush.
- Foil paper or plastic bag.
- An old sponge.
- An ash catcher.
- A steel wool pad and sometimes a fork or knife.
Instructions
- Now you will have to take off the lid and sweep it with a washy and soapy sponge. When you use the grill frequently and regularly, too much grease and smoke will be accumulated in the lid. To get rid of this, you should wipe it down with a complete wash.
- After cleaning the lid, it’s time to clean the charcoal grill grate. So now, you have to remove the grate from the inside of the grill. Since it’s one of the main parts of the grill over which the food is grilled, it is very important to scrub it properly.
For this, use the grill brush applying enough force and thus you can sweep off the gunk. You must make sure to clean both the top and bottom sides of the grates thoroughly. In case of not having a brush, you can also use a ball of aluminum foil which works superbly as a scrubber. Sometimes debris may not come off easily but by using a water solution, and spraying it you can soften it up. Once you finish cleaning the grate, apply vegetable oil using a rag or paper towel. - The bowl is the part of your charcoal grill which gathers all dirty gunk build-ups, grimes, ashes, drippings, etc. Since any gunk build-up is quite hard and sticky to remove, you will need a steel wool pad to eliminate them. So take your steel wool pad and give a thorough scrub on the bowl.
Thus you can ensure that the entire unwanted gunk build-ups have been washed off. Apart from this, lemon is a good alternative for cleaning stubborn gunk and grease in your charcoal grill. Having removed the gunk, take the sponge to rub off meat or grease drippings.
- If there is excessive ash build-up in the grill, it impedes the vents and makes it quite difficult to control the temperature while cooking. That’s why, it’s necessary to dislodge any leftover ash from the base of the grill and in case of having an ash catcher, you should also vacate it.
Keep in Mind
While cleaning the charcoal grill, you should keep several things in mind. First of all, it’s better to clean your charcoal grill every now and then otherwise it will be more difficult to remove the sticky grease and gunk. However, in this case you can use baking soda solution.
Secondly, it’s wise to rinse the grates immediately after each use of the grill. To prevent food from sticking, you should oil the grate before grilling. Since the grill machine is a metal object, it tends to be affected by rust. To prevent rust, you should cover it with grill cover. After cleaning the charcoal grill machine with soapy water, use a dry paper towel or rag to wipe and dry it.
Bottom Line
By knowing how to clean a charcoal grill, you will not only be able to prolong the lifespan of your machine but also preserve its look. It’s not a tough job at all. It is rather easy if you follow the step-by-step procedure to clean a charcoal grill.