Knowing that you will have to clean the grill afterward detracts from the enjoyment of an evening spent grilling succulent desserts, juicy meats, or soft veggies. The majority of conventional grill cleaners are poisonous and foul-smelling, and the process is messy and time-consuming.
What if we told you that you already had a low-cost, non-toxic substitute in your kitchen? An average onion can clean that ugly grill in a matter of minutes, saving both your back and your Brillo pads. Here’s how you use an onion to clean a dirty grill.
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Why Clean Your Grill With An Onion?
Like glue on a school art project, grease and food particles stick to grill grates. Don’t give up on those dirty grill grates just yet, even if it’s almost hard to separate them. In just a few minutes, the natural acidity and fluids of an onion can remove grease, grime, and food residue, leaving your grill looking almost brand new. In addition to sanitizing the grates, the natural liquids contain antimicrobial qualities that can give your food a little taste.
Additionally, cleaning a grill with an onion may be a safer option than using chemical cleaners. To safely cook on the grates again after using a chemical grill cleaner, you must allow it to burn off.
Wire brushes are also dangerous because they can leave behind tiny pieces of metal, and if you’re not careful, those sharp bristles could get into the food you’re cooking.
How To Clean A Grill With An Onion
Spray the onion or the grates with lemon juice or white vinegar first to increase the cleaning power of the onion and loosen the food that’s stuck on it. Then, do the following to clean your grill with an onion:
- Preheat the grill to high, or stoke the charcoals for more intense heat, and allow the flames or high temperatures to burn away as much debris as you can.
- Cut an onion in half, leaving the skin on. Make use of a long grilling fork to skewer the onion half.
- On the grill grates, rub the onion’s sliced side. By activating the onion’s natural juices, the heat will aid in the removal of the debris and fragments of burnt food.
Once the onion is used up, you can discard it. When cooking with charcoal, however, you can toss it directly into the embers to add flavor to whatever you’re grilling. You might still need to use your grill brush to remove any remaining residue if the food is extremely adhered.
No onion? Try a Lemon
If you don’t have extra onions on hand and would want to keep them for your supper, you can clean your grill using half a lemon. By adding coarse salt to the cut end of the lemon for more intense scrubbing, you can enhance the cleaning power of the lemon’s acidity.
Balled-up aluminum foil is another tried-and-true method for cleaning grill grates of oily dirt. To scrape the foil back and forth across the grates, use grilling tongs or work gloves to protect your hands. The foil behaves similarly to steel wool.
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