You’re Probably Cleaning Your Grill Wrong, According to a Chef

Have you been at someone’s house when they were grilling and watched them throw stunning steak, perfectly shaped burgers, or fresh, seasonal veggies onto a dirty grate? Maybe you’ve even done that once or twice. It can be an enticing option, especially if you forgot to bring your cleaning tools outside and you’ve already settled in with a cold beverage and some good tunes. You might think that since high heat kills most bacteria, your grate would be good to go without any further attention, but you’d be very wrong. Cleaning your grill is essential to achieving those delicious, smoky flavors from your charcoal grill, gas grill, or whatever you use — if you don’t, you’re unknowingly sabotaging your food’s flavor.

“It’s imperative to keep a clean grill, otherwise all of those high-end meats you buy will be wasted, and the flavor won’t be high quality,” said Mike Saperstein, chef at premium meat purveyor Sunshine Provisions. “My go-to gadget is a really good grill brush.” As it turns out, the one he recommended happens to be my personal favorite as well.

Grillart Grill Brush and Scraper

This phenomenal brush from Grillart is made of durable twisted wire and stainless steel, which, unlike dangerous metal bristles, won’t come off in your grill and potentially get into your food. It’s the No. 1 bestselling grill brush on Amazon, with over 20,000 shoppers picking one up in just the past month. Its steel helix shape lets you reach deep between the grates, ensuring you’re cleaning as much surface area as possible. It's really a phenomenal brush — I know, because I use the same one every time I grill.

But it’s not just a matter of doing a quick scrape, says Chef Saperstein, who says you should thoroughly clean and oil your grate when you grill. Dirty grates can hold dried food, carbonized grease, and possibly even some recent pieces of food or drips of oil that could have gone rotten. This can cause health issues, but it also deeply affects the flavor of what you’re cooking. You might like to think that all that gunk and grease just “cooks off,” but it doesn’t, and it’ll wind up annihilating the finer flavors of the dish you’ve thoughtfully planned. 

Chef Saperstein’s recommendations for successfully using this brush are simple. After igniting your grill and letting it heat up a bit, scrub it with the brush. “Using a wet rag or paper towel, wipe off the carbon,” he explained. “Repeat the scrubbing and wiping three times total. There should be no carbon residue left on the wet rag.” Then, spray or wipe the grate once over with vegetable oil. This may sound cumbersome, especially if you aren’t in the habit of cleaning your grill, but this entire process can be executed in a minute or two. Then, you can get to the fun part.

Clean up your grilling game and test out the Grillart grill brush today. 

Shop More Grill Cleaning Tools at Amazon

Grillart Grill Brush

Goo Gone Grill and Grate Cleaner

Grillart Grill Brush with Scraper

Grill Rescue Grill Brush

At the time of publishing, the price was $25.