oldertruckguy-9225

Question for the Grill Masters

36 posts in this topic

For the past couple of weeks a friend and I have engaged in an on going discussion, friendly and fun,  about how often, how extensive, how detailed one should clean a BBQ grill.

I have never made an effort to "clean" my grill. Never, honestly, never. I usually let it go  7 to 10 minutes after I have removed whatever I have grilled then use a wire brush to "clean" the grids. When I fire it up again, I let it heat up for several minutes, use a wire brush again, and then proceed to BBQ.

I have never, disassembled it as he does. I have never scraped the bottom or top. 

My friend insists the grill must be thoroughly cleaned after each use. He means; all racks removed and cleaned. All grids removed and cleaned. The bottom of the grill and top lid of grill cleaned..

I have enjoyed many a meal off his grill. Um, Um Good!!  He has enjoyed many a meal off mine. Both of us consider ourselves, "Masters". Of course beer is involved.

Now, please understand, both of us are "old farts" set in our ways. I am not changing his mind. I just thought it might be fun to get various opinions and thoughts from all of our grilling "coinsures".

   

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I'd give it a solid cleaning every 2 years or so maybe?

Of course I roll with a Blackstone griddle now, so much easier to clean and use than a grill.

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I clean the grids about every three times I BBQ. Just starts to gunk up with BBQ sauce and stuck on meat. I use a stainless steel bristle free brush. Heat up my grill. Dip it in water and get all the debris off. I use bristle free as I've heard the stories of people accidentally ingesting a loose bristle.

I will completely clean everything yearly. Just not cool with all the remnants(BBQ sauce, grease, meat)collecting on the middle and bottom of my BBQ! I usually roll my BBQ into the garage in winter time. It's covered up outside during the other times. Yes I baby my BBQ!  

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The racks are cleaned every time. I clean the bottom if there are charred remains of grease or whatever from the last time I grilled, especially if I'm grilling something different. I really don't want the flavor of grilled chicken mixing with the flavor of a good steak.

But, I'm anal about that. 

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3 hours ago, oldertruckguy-9225 said:

My friend insists the grill must be thoroughly cleaned after each use. He means; all racks removed and cleaned. All grids removed and cleaned. The bottom of the grill and top lid of grill cleaned..

 

   

a bit OCD if you ask me. The caveman has certainly (overly) evolved.

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I don’t see a need to disassemble completely after every use, but to each his own.

After I’m done grilling, I will turn the gas up to maximum and basically char whatever sauce or fat that was left on the grates and then use a stainless steel non-bristle brush (resembles a Brillo Las with a handle) and brush off all the leftover charred crap. About every 2 years I will disassemble and try to clean completely.

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5 hours ago, oldertruckguy-9225 said:

For the past couple of weeks a friend and I have engaged in an on going discussion, friendly and fun,  about how often, how extensive, how detailed one should clean a BBQ grill.

I have never made an effort to "clean" my grill. Never, honestly, never. I usually let it go  7 to 10 minutes after I have removed whatever I have grilled then use a wire brush to "clean" the grids. When I fire it up again, I let it heat up for several minutes, use a wire brush again, and then proceed to BBQ.

I have never, disassembled it as he does. I have never scraped the bottom or top. 

My friend insists the grill must be thoroughly cleaned after each use. He means; all racks removed and cleaned. All grids removed and cleaned. The bottom of the grill and top lid of grill cleaned..

I have enjoyed many a meal off his grill. Um, Um Good!!  He has enjoyed many a meal off mine. Both of us consider ourselves, "Masters". Of course beer is involved.

Now, please understand, both of us are "old farts" set in our ways. I am not changing his mind. I just thought it might be fun to get various opinions and thoughts from all of our grilling "coinsures".

   

Whenever I grill, I scrape off the grill when it comes up to temp. Other than that I clean the underside once or twice a month.

Perfect steaks. Perfect burgers, perfect chicken. Everything is great!

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20 hours ago, sparkey600 said:

Whenever I grill, I scrape off the grill when it comes up to temp. Other than that I clean the underside once or twice a month.

Perfect steaks. Perfect burgers, perfect chicken. Everything is great!

EXACTLY!!! 👍🏻 If fire can’t kill it, don’t eat it! 

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My question per the Burger::

Lets say you want a medium-well burger off the grill (still nice & juicy). Minimally or on average, how many flips to the burger do you do?

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29 minutes ago, Kaduk said:

My question per the Burger::

Lets say you want a medium-well burger off the grill (still nice & juicy). Minimally or on average, how many flips to the burger do you do?

The old saying of don’t play with your meat applies to grilling. 1 flip.  Control temperature and time.

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All I ever do is turn it on high fire to heat up the grill to temp before cooking. Then I take my brush and clean any left over carbon off the racks. When I am done, I leave it on for a few minutes to cook off anything left from the meat( fats, juices or any meat stuck to the racks). I cover it up after it cools down. I only use it maybe once a month at most. I never disassemble it. It stays outside year in and year out. 

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2 hours ago, Kaduk said:

My question per the Burger::

Lets say you want a medium-well burger off the grill (still nice & juicy). Minimally or on average, how many flips to the burger do you do?

Wait till the burger in question seems to "bleed" while you are cooking it on top of the burger....Then flip it over and cook it for 2 minutes maximum.

You should get a medium well burger most of the time.

Steaks are another story. Searing them on both sides is the key here. Add something like "Chicago Steak Seasoning" and some Mesquite wood chips that have been soaking in water for a half of an hour or so, add them to the grill 5 minutes or so before you add the steaks to the grill and you won't be sorry.

Cook up some mushrooms as well....One package of mushrooms with one table spoon of real butter, one clove of fresh crushed garlic, one shot of good whiskey like Jack Daniels or Maker's Mark and fry until they are carmelidesed  (sorry not sure of the spelling here)

But I'm sure you will like it very much!

 

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1 hour ago, Alex Majors said:

All I ever do is turn it on high fire to heat up the grill to temp before cooking. Then I take my brush and clean any left over carbon off the racks. When I am done, I leave it on for a few minutes to cook off anything left from the meat( fats, juices or any meat stuck to the racks). I cover it up after it cools down. I only use it maybe once a month at most. I never disassemble it. It stays outside year in and year out. 

Dude, you are missing out. See my latest post. Get your GRILL ON! haha.

Hope I might have helped you!

Any further grill questions, feel free to hit me up!

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Now you got me hungry! I love a BBQ including all the great summer smells. 

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2 hours ago, Kaduk said:

My question per the Burger::

Lets say you want a medium-well burger off the grill (still nice & juicy). Minimally or on average, how many flips to the burger do you do?

2 hours ago, ilovewomen said:

The old saying of don’t play with your meat applies to grilling. 1 flip.  Control temperature and time.

 

15 minutes ago, sparkey600 said:

Wait till the burger in question seems to "bleed" while you are cooking it on top of the burger....Then flip it over and cook it for 2 minutes maximum.

You should get a medium well burger most of the time.

Steaks are another story. Searing them on both sides is the key here. Add something like "Chicago Steak Seasoning" and some Mesquite wood chips that have been soaking in water for a half of an hour or so, add them to the grill 5 minutes or so before you add the steaks to the grill and you won't be sorry.

Cook up some mushrooms as well....One package of **mushrooms with one table spoon of real butter, one clove of fresh crushed garlic, one shot of good whiskey like Jack Daniels or Maker's Mark and fry until they are carmelidesed  (sorry not sure of the spelling here)

But I'm sure you will like it very much!

 

My next thought to make it a cheese burger, one should have the cheese sliced and at the ready so when the burger is flipped the timing of the cheese to burger to get that perfect melt is critical. 

So right now I'm thinking a great as prescribed above **Mushroom~~> to ~~~>Swiss cheese to burger would be the order for the day....

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Scrape?  Clean?  Polish?  No way!  I crank the sucker up to full blast (all five burners) for ten minutes before each session, which vaporizes any crud from the last cook, turn it down to cook temperature, wipe the grill off with a paper towel wetted with olive oil, and toss on the meat.  Perfect grill lines every time, 3-4 days a week, year round.

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You guys and these gas grills! I do have to spend more time on my beastly charcoal but the flavor can’t be beat regardless of what Hank Hill says. 

With that being said it does require more in terms of cleaning. For a good cleaning I take the same approach as everyone else with the high heat but instead I coat the entire inside of my grill with oil and essentially set that bitch on fire. All the excess build up pours out and the grill is left nice and seasoned.

 

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One point about cooking burgers on the grill.........

If you want it super juicy buy higher fat content meat.

80/20 works great!

I like even more sometime maybe 70/30.
 

Just my .02

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4 hours ago, Seeker5280 said:

One point about cooking burgers on the grill.........

If you want it super juicy buy higher fat content meat.

80/20 works great!

I like even more sometime maybe 70/30.
 

Just my .02

Nope, you got it  Anything more than 80% gives burgers that aren't great.  70/30 is the way to go, about 3-4 minutes on side on on the heat, then 2-4 minutes on the second, usually.  Add cheese or anything else about 3 minutes before your'e done.  Bingo.

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3 hours ago, Seeker5280 said:

I must say.........

fat rules in burgers!

I remember making butter burgers, where you literally add butter to the meat while it cooks so it gets even more fat content and flavor.

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I thought all the junk on there is what makes the food so yummy.🤷‍♀️

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Amen!!! That is why I don't "clean" it. A thought for all of the juicy burger, steak guys. I learned a trick years ago; put a pat of butter on your burger, steak or an ice cube when you first put it on the grill. I am sure there are lots of others out there. I would love to hear them.

4 hours ago, Audrey Astor said:

I thought all the junk on there is what makes the food so yummy.🤷‍♀️

 

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I'm nowhere near a grill master.

I prefer charcoal to gas, but use gas for the convenience of starting, being ready immediately to grill and the ease of clean up.

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I usually do a 'burn off' on high heat, scrub the top of the grates with a good steel brush after every grill session.  I take the grates out to clean both sides maybe once a year, sometimes twice.

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On 9/13/2020 at 11:57 PM, Kaduk said:

My next thought to make it a cheese burger, one should have the cheese sliced and at the ready so when the burger is flipped the timing of the cheese to burger to get that perfect melt is critical. 

So right now I'm thinking a great as prescribed above **Mushroom~~> to ~~~>Swiss cheese to burger would be the order for the day....

Good for you. Happy hunting.

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On 9/17/2020 at 8:31 AM, ilovewomen said:

I'm nowhere near a grill master.

I prefer charcoal to gas, but use gas for the convenience of starting, being ready immediately to grill and the ease of clean up.

I have a pellet smoker/grill combo, and we get the smoky yummy taste with convenience, temperature control, and ease. Yummmmmm 🥩 🍗 🍔 🌭 

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On 9/18/2020 at 9:44 AM, Audrey Astor said:

I have a pellet smoker/grill combo, and we get the smoky yummy taste with convenience, temperature control, and ease. Yummmmmm 🥩 🍗 🍔 🌭 

Are you using a Traeger?

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6 hours ago, ilovewomen said:

Are you using a Traeger?

ICR the brand. The reviews were as high as Traeger, but about $300 less on Amazon. It’s easy to use and everything has been yummy, even hamburgers are better on there.😃

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4 hours ago, Audrey Astor said:

ICR the brand. The reviews were as high as Traeger, but about $300 less on Amazon. It’s easy to use and everything has been yummy, even hamburgers are better on there.😃

I’ll check it out 

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