Changed my mind about cleaning my grill grates

I always used to soak my grill grates in soapy water and scrub them with a wire brush after every cookout. It was a huge pain and took forever. Last month, my brother-in-law was over and saw me doing it. He told me to just heat the grill on high for 15 minutes after cooking, then use a ball of crumpled aluminum foil to scrape the grates while they're hot. I tried it the next time I grilled some burgers, and wow. The old grease and bits just turned to ash and wiped right off. It took maybe 5 minutes total, and the grates looked cleaner than my old method ever got them. I feel kind of dumb for not knowing this trick sooner. Has anyone else found a simple hack that saved them a ton of time on a regular chore?

3 comments

3 Comments

jackson.matthew8d ago

My uncle showed me that exact foil trick about ten years ago when I was struggling to clean my old charcoal grill. I was using a putty knife and a bucket of water like some kind of pioneer. It felt like a revelation, like I'd been doing everything the hard way for no reason. I still do it after every single cook now, and it saves so much time and mess. I totally get feeling like you missed out before learning it.

kevinrivera6d ago

Right? Why do we all default to the hard way first? I had the same thing with my cast iron pan, scrubbing it raw before someone told me to just use coarse salt and a paper towel.

susan1307d ago

Oh man, @jackson.matthew, that putty knife image is killing me. I had a similar "duh" moment with my oven. I used to avoid cleaning it for months because it was such a nightmare, scrubbing for hours. Then I just started putting a drip pan lined with foil on the rack below whatever I'm roasting. Catches all the grease and you just toss it. Life changing.