DIY Network

Cleaning Your Grill Learn how to clean your grill properly. From "Home Made Easy" episode DHME-111

Linda Cobb, the Queen of Clean®, joins host Stephanie Lydecker and explains how to clean your grill properly. She demonstrates different ways to remove the tough, caked-on food and residue from the grill rack and shows how to clean the outside of the grill as well as the bottoms of pots and pans used on the grill.

She also shares a great tip for maintaining a clean grill.

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	Linda shares tips that make cleaning your grill much easier.
	Figure A
	Figure B

Materials:

grill rack
aluminum foil
cloth or rag
GOJO Creme Hand Cleaner
paper towels
non-stick cooking spray
soap
saute pan

Cleaning Your Grill

• Cleaning your grill rack with aluminum foil is a snap. All you need to do is crumble up a few pieces of aluminum foil and use it in place of a scrub brush when the grill is still warm. This trick is great because it eliminates a nasty grill brush, cleans immediately and eliminates the need to deep clean the grill so often. If you have more time, and need a deeper clean, completely cover the rack with aluminum foil, the shiny side to the grill (figure A), and place it on a hot grill for 30 minutes with the lid on. The grill acts like a self-cleaning oven and essentially cooks off the grit and grim.

• To clean the outside of your grill, dip a cloth into a canister of waterless hand cleaner (such as GOJO Creme Waterless Hand Cleaner). Rub the cleaner onto the outside of a cool grill with the cloth. Work it into the metal well, paying special attention to any grease or barbecue sauce spots. Do not rinse; instead take paper towels and buff the grill surface. The dirt will be replaced by a great shine.

• In order to keep the grill rack clean simply spray non-stick cooking spray on the clean grill to prevent build up and make future cleanings faster and easier. This works great on gas and charcoal grills.

• To clean the cook pan bottoms, use this simple tip: before setting a pan or pot on the grill rack to warm barbecue sauce or cook additional food, rub the bottom of the pan with a bar of soap (figure B). Once you have finished cooking, the soap layer will help to remove the soot on the bottom of the pan.

• Another way to clean the grill is to take the rack and wrap it in paper towels. Spray it with ammonia, and place the grill in a large garbage bag. Leave the grill overnight, and then the next day, carefully open the garbage bag (there will be a lot of fumes) and wipe the grill off with the paper towels you wrapped around it. Hose the grill off and place it on a hot grill and let it cook for five minutes before you place the food on the grill in order to bake off any residue.

• One last quick tip: if the rack is really dirty, throw a cool grill on the grass upside down over night. The dew will soak the dirt right off the grill!

Next: Cleaning and Sealing Decks

Linda Cobb
The Queen of Clean®
Website: www.queenofclean.com