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Canadian surgeons urge people to throw out bristle BBQ brushes

cbc.ca

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Re: Canadian surgeons urge people to throw out bristle BBQ brushes

#311

Post by amluto »

ghaff wrote: post #113
pyre wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People have suggested a few in other threads.

I'm not sure any fall into the a few swipes on a hot grill that brushes (or some other variant like steel wool) fall into in terms of ease. Still, after reading this, I'll definitely consider alternatives however small the risk.

Something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Heavy-Duty-Steel-Barbecue-Grill-Clean...

works very well, possibly better than a metal brush. The main downside is that they get gunked up quickly.

I have a Williams-Sonoma brush that has one of these on the other side.

Re: Canadian surgeons urge people to throw out bristle BBQ brushes

#312

Post by stevenwiles »

davegardner wrote: post #184
wavefunction wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole point of barbecue is indirect cooking with smoke. Unless y'all mean grilling when you say BBQ.

That's just one of the many words that have different meanings in different countries. We Australians take our barbecueing very seriously and it rarely involves indirect cooking. :-) The most common form of barbecueing here involves cooking on a flat hotplate over direct heat.

Then you Australians aren't actually barbecuing, are you? ;)

Re: Canadian surgeons urge people to throw out bristle BBQ brushes

#313

Post by networked »

0xdeadbeefbabe wrote: post #304
networked wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A former colleague of mine, a man in his seventies, told us a story from when he served in the Soviet army as a young man. He served with a guy who used to wipe his individual plate and utensils with the newspaper they got. Others warned him about the lead but he dismissed the warnings. After a while, he ended up with lead poisoning. I don't think I heard how long it took for him to get it or how severe it was.

Could have been ammo related too.

Quite possible! I understand that they thought the lead in the newspaper ink was the culprit because nobody else in their unit did the same and nobody else got lead poisoning, but obviously, it could have been coincidental. I've tried researching just how much lead one could consume this way but never found anything conclusive.

Re: Canadian surgeons urge people to throw out bristle BBQ brushes

#314

Post by tekni5 »

huherto wrote: post #244
tekni5 wrote: post #146

I use one of these bristle brushes because I didn't know better, I've also even seen a few bristles fall out before & had me a bit concerned. However I always end up microwaving for 30 seconds after, because by the time I've let the meat rest and turned off the grill my food isn't as warm as I want it. So maybe I've been lucky, as I figure there would have been a reaction if there was metal in the microwave. Anyways…

I heat plates where I serve the steak. It helps to keep it hot while you are eating it.

Interesting, how do you heat the plate?

Re: Canadian surgeons urge people to throw out bristle BBQ brushes

#315

Post by agentgt »

euroclydon wrote: post #221

Just use a putty knife to scrape off the grates. It takes a little time. If you want it to go faster, grind a groove in the knife to fit a grill bar.

I do that as well. The other thing is I have cast iron grates which seem to not need as much cleaning as other grates.

Re: Canadian surgeons urge people to throw out bristle BBQ brushes

#316

Post by agentgt »

Slightly off topic but I'm just going to throw it out there. If you are cooking with charcoal I highly recommend a Kamado style grill aka big green egg (BGE). Once you get one of those you will never go back. It is extremely efficient with charcoal.

There is one made by Char-Griller that is dirt cheap and light that I use year round (another advantage of the kamado is it can be freezing out and you can still grill fine).

Re: Canadian surgeons urge people to throw out bristle BBQ brushes

#317

Post by justinclift »

bfuller wrote: post #22

A trick I learned from Argentinian circus people, who make amazing BBQ, is let the grill heat up and then cut an onion in half to rub on the grate. It imparts a nice flavor and cleans the grill very well.

Another approach is to heat up the grill, then throw on some table salt + pour on a bit of white vinegar. Use a flat blade spatula to work it around, then lightly scrape it off.

It strips the hot plate back to metal (not joking).

So, no residue from previous meals is left.

Probably not be a good idea to do this on a hot plate coated with (say) teflon or similar. Did that once on a friends BBQ years ago, which stripped it back to the metal. Oops. Unsure what the coating was though. It definitely "wasn't there" any more afterwards. ;)

Re: Canadian surgeons urge people to throw out bristle BBQ brushes

#318

Post by nommm-nommm »

gumby wrote: post #280
jimktrains2 wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like an insurance nightmare.

My kid went to welding summer camp when he was 8. 12 kids, one instructor; they learnt welding, brazing, soldering, other stuff I don't know the English for. Everyone had a good time and made some amazing things. Nobody suggested there was anything to worry about, but then again those parents wouldn't have signed their kids up. But I never met German parent who were particularly paranoid. German kids videos and books…

I remember welding in shop class in seventh grade in the US. Pretty fun actually. That was more than two decades ago though.

Re: Canadian surgeons urge people to throw out bristle BBQ brushes

#319

Post by dgacmu »

Zancarius wrote: post #186
OrdaGarb wrote: post #70

Related: If you tenderize with a Jaccard-like tool, examine the teeth very closely before you cook your meat. I have had the blades break in half longitudinally where it still looked like a full blade, but had actually "delaminated" toward the end and left a 15mm chunk of pointed metal in my steak. It ended up in my gums. I still use the broken blade set, but simply make sure it has all the parts before moving on. No…

Oh gosh. It almost makes you terrified of using any implements along those lines. Honestly, I would've never looked for a failure mode like that. You're exceedingly lucky. I have a very distantly related story, although one that's much more benign (thankfully!). Years ago, there was a really nice grocery store in town (local chain) that would make fresh flour tortillas. Whenever we'd think about it, we'd usually stop…

Lentils. Always inspect the darn thing for small, lentil-shaped, lentil-colored rocks.

Learned that one the hard way. Luckily (?), it just shattered the one filling I already had in a tooth.

Re: Canadian surgeons urge people to throw out bristle BBQ brushes

#320

Post by nsxwolf »

dsmolovich wrote: post #178
nsxwolf wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never ingested one, but I've spotted and removed bristles on my grills several times. I stopped using them awhile ago. It's only a matter of time before someone swallows one.

The more grill is heat, the higher chance wires come off the melting plastic. I've also noticed this before. Since then I was preheating the grill a bit, shut down the fire, clean up with the brush, heat and cook. I'll probably go with the Argentinian circus people way of cleaning the grill starting from now.

I already do something similar, with a ball of aluminum foil soaked in water and tongs. I will switch to the "Argentinian circus people way" of doing it, and will call it that, and tell all my guests that's what it's called, forever.
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