Cleaning grill grates with an onion.

I have recently started to grill outdoors, mostly for parties in order to keep the house at a reasonable temperature especially in the warm months.

I read some horror stories on wire grill brushes leaving behind wire flakes so I was looking for a better alternative. I have tried this out several times and have found it to be a decent method.



Your first step is that you are going to get your hands on an onion. You want something with a little size. I generally use any that are starting to turn or perhaps sprouted. You then are going to cut the onion in half. Have your grill on, coals lit or burners on, and use the cut onion face to scrub your grates. Some folks use a fork skewered into the onion but I use my hand with good success. The juices and friction will loosen the crud on your bars as well as fill the air with a delicious onion scent. I have received compliments before and I just tell them its only an onion. I might put a little olive oil on the onion to grease the bars a little but that might cause your fire to kick up if you are not careful with the amount of oil.

Do you have any grill cleaning tricks?

If you live somewhere where citrus grows, lemon can be utilized in the same way. One report stated dipping a cut lemon in kosher salt was an excellent grill scrub combo.

Good to know the lemon/salt works on grills - I've used that combination to remove rust from the reed of my loom.  Now I have the onion alternative too.
Not for grills, but molasses(sourced from a feed store, which will still have sulfur in it) mixed with water makes a good soak for removing rust from other things!

Onions are too precious to waste. What about sketchy potatoes that are otherwise headed for the compost?

P.S., I understand your concern about brushes. The big issue is  stainless steel brushes -- they are brittle and crack off a bunch of stiff "hypodermic needles" that people can accidentally ingest. These are horrific because unlike carbon steel they do not dissolve in human tissues and they keep moving internally. Yikes.

I still use brass or old-school carbon steel wire brushes. Lots of folks are just using a chunk of scrap 1x4 wood which works fine. You can buy a fancy one made of cedar if your really want to.