Come Memorial Day, Americans light up - our grills, that is.
Before you light that match or turn on the gas this spring, stop and think.
It's been sitting out in the yard for six or seven months accumulating dirt, insects, and rust.
Just as you wouldn't fry an egg in a dirty frying pan, you wouldn't throw a juicy steak of a dirty grate. Would you?
Here's how to get your charcoal cooker ready to glow:
1 Clean the cooking grate with a stiff-bristle brush and warm, soapy water.
If you meet resistance, try rubbing it lightly with steel wool. Rinse and dry. (Lightly coat cast-iron grates with cooking oil.)
Never use oven cleaner on your cooker. It can damage the finish, plus it's a bad idea to put a caustic substance on the grates where food's going to go.
2 Remove last year's ashes.
Then clean inside and out with a stiff-bristle brush and warm, soapy water. Rinse and wipe dry.
3 Keep it clean.
Now that it's clean, treat it just like you would any other cooking surface.
If you wipe up spills immediately - before they get cooked on - cleanup will be much easier. (The grill will look nicer, too.)
After each use, while the grates are still warm, clean them with that stiff-bristle brush.
If you have cast-iron grates, oil them lightly after cleaning. Remove the ashes.
