Ahhh, smell that fresh air? See those flowers? Hear those birds outside?

It can only mean one thing… BBQ SEASON!

There is nothing more divine than a delicious meal cooked over the grill. It signifies the start of warmer weather and better food!

But after the long, harsh winter sometimes your grill needs a little TLC before you can start flipping those burgers and smoking those haunches of tasty meats.

Does your grill look less like a paragon of fiery grilling prowess and more like a pit of despair?

 

Don’t worry. Here are a few simple steps you can take to give your grill a good once-over before you jump into the season. These instructions are for a run-of-the-mill propane BBQ but can easily be adjusted to a charcoal one as well. You can easily use cleaners and solvents and fancy tools, but then it’s just a lot of work just to see the grill mucked up again the next time you use it. Why fight it’s nature?

Step One

Find your BBQ. Sometimes they like to hide in strange places over the winter.

Step Two

Assemble a kit of rubber gloves, old clothes or apron, BBQ grill brush and small dust brush & pan. Optional: a bucket to catch the four years of charred crap that you will unearth.

Step Three

Use the stiff BBQ brush to rub the burnt on burger leavings and rust off the grill. Lift it out and do the backside, too. Be amazed at the amount of mystery crap adhered to the underside. Set grills aside. Complain about grease marks on your gloves.

Step Four

Using the same brush, spend an ungodly amount of time brushing the fire-hardened crap off of the briquettes below. Set them aside, pray that this step ends soon. Marvel at the amount of dust you are producing.

Step Five

Clean the grill underneath the briquettes the same way you did the top grills. Wonder why it’s so damn rusty and if it will disintegrate on contact. Sigh in relief when it doesn’t. Set aside.

Step Six

Using the BBQ brush of power, scrape the sides of the BBQ and lid so that a rain of charred animal flesh and singed veggies occurs. Notice that the inside of the BBQ was originally NOT BLACK. Woah. All the junk will accumulate in piles of ash and mystery chunks at the bottom.

Step Seven

Using your small dust brush and dustpan, clean out all the remains at the bottom. Depending on how long it was since your BBQ was last cleaned, this may take some time. Take a moment to imagine what some of those charred things are at the bottom. Is that really a bottle cap?

Work around the burners and scrape them if needed. Pray to the Gods of fire that the burners will work after this! Sigh copiously and spit churned up dust out of your mouth as you proceed. Wonder why you decided to do this on a windy day.

Step Eight

Replace all grills & briquettes and admire your almost-ready grill.

Step Nine

Carefully light up the barbie, with burners on high, lid closed and CREMATE THAT F*CKER! For about 10 minutes.

 

Enjoy!