How to Make Sure Your Grill Is Ready for Spring

There are so many wonderful things about spring, when the dark and cold weather of winter is replaced by sun and warmth and greenery coming back to lawns all over. But best of all, it signals the return of grilling season.

For some, grilling season runs year-round regardless of weather. For most of us, though, freezing temperatures and early sunsets don’t make for a great grilling experience. But the return of spring changes all that. Now that the time is officially here (according to the calendar, at least), it’s high time you do some spring grilling prep in Wausau, WI.

Whether your grill is gas or charcoal powered, whether it’s one year old or 10 years old, there are several things you need to do to get it ready for a season of cooking meat and veggies over an open flame. Here are some grill maintenance tips every backyard chef in Wausau, WI should know.

Clean everything

Keeping your grill in the garage or under a grill cover in the off-season might protect it from major damage, but your grill still needs to be thoroughly cleaned before you fire it up for a cookout. That means everything from the grates that touch your food to the hood that covers it.

Cleaning the grates will likely be the toughest task here. If you’ve got rusty or baked-on nastiness on the grates, it is still possible to clean them without having to use too much elbow grease.

The trick to cleaning particularly dirty grates is to soak them in a food-safe cleaning solution for a few hours, or even overnight. Do not use chemical cleaners like oven cleaner or anything like that, just put some water and vinegar (or baking soda) in a bucket and let them soak for a while. This can help loosen baked-on grease and even rust.

Once they’ve soaked for the appropriate length of time, take them out and give them a scrub with a wire brush. Remember that the caked-on bits will fleck off when you do this, so it’s best to scrub them outside, away from anything you don’t want to get dirty.

Dry the grates, and then you can cure them to get them ready for the grilling season. To do this, rub them with vegetable oil and stick them in the oven at 450 degrees for a couple hours. This will help avoid too much sticking when you’re ready to grill.

Proper spring grilling prep in Wausau, WI includes cleaning the rest of your grill, too. Don’t skip this part, as a good cleaning at the start and end of grilling season can extend the life of your grill for years to come. Clean off any leftover bits in the bottom of the grill, too, as well as the grease tray.

For more grill maintenance tips in Wausau, WI, come see us at Marcell’s Specialties today. We carry a wide range of products for your outdoor cooking needs, and look forward to assisting you!

Categorised in: Grills

This post was written by Writer