Caring For Your Grill

Cleaning and Oiling a Grill Grate

To clean the grate, preheat the grill and, when it's hot, brush the grate with a long-handled stiff-wire grill brush. If you don't have a grill brush, use a ball of crumpled foil held in long-handled tongs.

To oil the grate, fold a paper towel into a small pad, dip it in a bowl of vegetable or olive oil, and rub it over the bars of the grate using long-handled tongs. Do this carefully to prevent oil from falling onto the coals.

You can also oil the grate with a chunk of bacon or steak fat.

Spring Clean Your Barbecue
If ashes remain from last season, get rid of them. Wash the lid and firebox with detergent and warm water, using a steel-wool soap pad for stuck-on stains. Rinse and dry.

Before your first cookout, light a fire and heat the grate for about 30 minutes. Then scrape it with a long brass-wire brush, like the 18-inch grill brush and scraper. During the rest of the season, brush right before and after cooking. A little residual grease is good — it helps give grilled food its smoky flavor.

At the end of the season, dump the ashes and close the lid. Leave the grease on the grate until spring; it will help prevent the metal from rusting.

Grilling-Grate Tips
When the cooking grate is very hot and clean, food is less likely to stick. Put the grate in place over the coals early on and let it heat up (and burn off all those bits left over from the last cookout). Use a wire brush to clean the surface. Most grilling tool kits include a brush. You can also lightly oil the grill for extra protection (use a basting brush), but do this just before you put the food on — too early and the oil will burn off.

For those professional grill marks, use a cast-iron grate. Cast iron gets much hotter than standard-issue aluminum. After the first two or three minutes over the fire, lift the food with a spatula, turn it 45 degrees (don't flip it), and place it back down to finish cooking. Never flip and flop randomly. And turn food only once.