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Surgeons urge people to throw out bristle BBQ brushes (2016)

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Re: Surgeons urge people to throw out bristle BBQ brushes (2016)

#91
post #51

Why do you clean a grill? Let the carbon build up. It's seasoning and food doesn't stick to it. Just preheat the grill to burn off any remains from the prior use. If there's really heavy buildup, use a straight edge scraper like a paint scraper or heavy spatula. Cleaning a grill down to shiny bare metal is a sure way to have all your food stick to it every time.

From Meathead at amazingribs.com:

Grease and oils get rancid, particularly in hot weather, and rancid grease on the grates can make your food taste bad. Rancid grease on the bottom of the grates can vaporize and flavor the food, too.

The black crust on the grates is mostly carbon. It tastes bad. In addition carbon insulates the grates and can stick to food. So it is vital that your food go on clean grates.

Re: Surgeons urge people to throw out bristle BBQ brushes (2016)

#92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So do you think Home Depot should close down? They sell hammers.

I wonder if he was making the opposite point. That enforcing safety at a society level is not productive.

I don't think so. Its a common argument that generally available products should be safe by default, not safe because of training. The reply is a bit of a straw man, there's obviously nuances to that stance. In this case, expecting _everyone_ to know exactly how a wire brush is unsafe is not realistic. If there weren't alternatives, well, there wouldn't be much to do. But in this case, there's plenty of safe alternatives to wire brushes, thus a strong argument can be made that they should simply be banned.

Re: Surgeons urge people to throw out bristle BBQ brushes (2016)

#93
post #81
post #51

Why do you clean a grill? Let the carbon build up. It's seasoning and food doesn't stick to it. Just preheat the grill to burn off any remains from the prior use. If there's really heavy buildup, use a straight edge scraper like a paint scraper or heavy spatula. Cleaning a grill down to shiny bare metal is a sure way to have all your food stick to it every time.

Cheese dripping from cheeseburgers or heavily sauced ribs can leave a mess, which can smoke/flameup and give newly cooked food a bad taste. Normally I just brush enough to get the big stuff off the grate.

Yep its the same way you season a cast iron grill pan - lightly rinse and brush of the big bits but don't scrub it hard.

Re: Surgeons urge people to throw out bristle BBQ brushes (2016)

#94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was just thinking about this. I’m thinking of laying a wet towel over it and scrubbing it furiously with this mallet looking smashy thingie my wife hasn’t used once in 20 years. Edit: I’ve been thrown out of the kitchen. I will look into some other peoples suggestions.

A meat tenderizer?

Moments like this are exactly why I came out of my shell and started communicating with people again. I googled that, confirmed you are right, confronted my wife, and now I own a brand new (very old) meat tenderizer in the garage.

Re: Surgeons urge people to throw out bristle BBQ brushes (2016)

#95
post #88
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a terrible policy and doesn't get at the root cause of the problem.

Yes they should bake and throw away two waffles to be extra sure that they get all of the bristles

"Just another put another if statement in there, you know, just in case." -Anonymous

Re: Surgeons urge people to throw out bristle BBQ brushes (2016)

#96

The easiest way to clean it is: 1. Let the grill get hot, simple by waiting some minutes with the charcoal on fire 2. Rub with something to clean old grit, with paper, half of an onion, piece of fat from some meat and any sponge slightly wet being good.

half of a potato works well too.

Re: Surgeons urge people to throw out bristle BBQ brushes (2016)

#98
post #88
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a terrible policy and doesn't get at the root cause of the problem.

Yes they should bake and throw away two waffles to be extra sure that they get all of the bristles

Excelent suggestion for process improvement, please submit a full TPS report by tomorrow EOB.

Re: Surgeons urge people to throw out bristle BBQ brushes (2016)

#99
post #51

Why do you clean a grill? Let the carbon build up. It's seasoning and food doesn't stick to it. Just preheat the grill to burn off any remains from the prior use. If there's really heavy buildup, use a straight edge scraper like a paint scraper or heavy spatula. Cleaning a grill down to shiny bare metal is a sure way to have all your food stick to it every time.

I have also always subscribed to the "Al Bundy" school of grill-cleaning.

The loose carbon also makes it easier to make the "grill marks" that prove "this item was cooked on a hot grill" without actually burning them in too far. This is important if you actually cooked the food by some other means and only used the grill for Maillard, caramelization, drying, and the cosmetic grill lines.

If I'm in there to actually cook something, there's usually a foil packet involved, because otherwise one needs a humidity reservoir, or some other means of retaining moisture in the food, and the tasty fats still drip out.

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