Kiwis hoping to roll out the barbecue as the weather warms are being advised to give their outdoor grill a thorough clean to avoid a “cooking disaster”.
Consumer New Zealand’s James le Page told Breakfast that cleaning and maintaining the outdoor grill was “a very good way” to avoid starting fires or enduring bad-tasting barbecue.
He shared some of his top tips to keep your barbecue in the best shape possible:
Crank the heat before turning it off
Before turning the barbecue off after using it, le Page cranked the temperature up to burn off any bits of food or fat.
“Just before I turn it off [the last time], I leave it on high for about 10-15 minutes and that carbonises everything on the top.
“And then when I come to it the next time and open it up, I just give it a quick brush with a steel brush.”
Replace the steel brush yearly
The steel brush could drop bristles as it aged, and should be replaced, le Page advised.
“Get rid of those [steel brush] every year, throw out your old one. Because they can drop bristles over time and you don’t want that ending up in your food.”
He said the top plate didn’t have to be “surgically clean” but should be regularly brushed to ensure food buildup wouldn’t catch fire.
Regularly clean underneath the grill plates
“It drops grease, it drops fat and all kinds of things like your marinade gets under there.”
He had a close call with a roast chicken, when a fire began under the bottom plates due to buildup of grease.
“If I’d kept that clean underneath the barbecue, I never would have had that problem.
“Fire and Emergency would say you should probably have a proper fire extinguisher on hand that to deal with proper fat fire.
“Because that could have been the end of the house as well, so it was a really stupid move,” he said.
Check the gas bottle
When firing up the grill for the first summer cook-up, le Page recommended checking the gas bottle, hose and connection for any leaks.
“When you first connect it up, turn on the gas, get it running through it then just check with a squeegee bottle of soap and water to spray over the line.
“If it starts bubbling up through the water, you know you have a leak in the line.
“Maybe check your connections, do it again or you might need to replace the hose and regulator there and you’ll be safe barbecuing moving forward.”