Barbecue season is back—but so is the reality of whatever’s been lurking inside your grill since last summer. If you opened the lid and immediately regretted it, same. Did I let out an audible yelp when I cracked open my Coleman the first time I used it this year? I sure did. So I went straight to the source for grill-cleaning tips: a Texas barbecue pitmaster.
Barrett Black, fourth-generation pitmaster at Texas’s oldest barbecue joint, The Original Black’s Barbecue, knows how to keep his grill tidy. According to him, it’s not about scrubbing harder—it’s scrubbing smarter (and more often than you think). “Cleaning should be a habit, not a chore. Something you do at the end [of your cook] so the next cook is easy,” he says. “It’s about controlling flavor. If your grill is dirty, you’re not tasting your food, you’re tasting your last mistake.”
If you’re like me and tired of tasting your last mistakes, you’ve come to the right place. Black breaks down the cleaning routine he uses every time he gets into the pit, so that you can copy at home. Follow a Texas pitmaster’s easy tips below for a better grill session every time.
Black says you don’t need a ton of gadgets to keep your grates glistening. If they are in desperate need of some TLC, he recommends using a chainmail grill brush, ideally with a long, sturdy handle to get in there and safely clean the hard-to-reach places.
“It’s abrasive enough to get the job done without tearing up your grates, holds up to high heat, and it’s easy to clean,” Black says. “When it’s backed with something flexible like silicone, it helps it form to the grates and lets you put pressure where you need it.”
It can be tempting to pick up the first bristly grill brush you see at your local hardware store, but Black says to avoid cheap wire or nylon grill brushes at all costs. “They’re hard to keep clean, the bristles bend, they wear out fast, and they can come loose and end up on your grates,” he says. “That’s not something you want anywhere near your food, or in it.” You’re actually better off just pushing around some aluminum foil with a pair of tongs to get debris off.
With regular cleaning and care, it’s rare you’ll need to do a total deep clean on your grill. But if your grates are still rock-hard with stuck-on carbon, Black suggests firing up the grill and letting the flames get to work. “I’ll lay a piece of heavy-duty foil over the grates to trap the heat and really drive it in,” he says. “That super-heats the surface and helps burn off just about everything.”
And if that still doesn’t do the trick, you can always coat your grates with a simple paste of baking soda and white vinegar. Avoid chemicals (you don’t want these leaching into your food!) and let the paste’s natural acidity soften gunk up, so you can slough it away.
When I asked Black if you should clean your grill when it’s hot or cold, he told me it’s both, but it depends which part of the grill you’re working on.
Your cooking surface and grill grates should be cleaned when they’re hot, right after you’re done cooking and everything is still malleable. As mentioned above, the heat can actually help you de-gunk fat and food buildup, so get in there with a grill brush when it’s still warm.
“Once the grill has cooled down, that’s when you handle everything underneath,” he says. “Empty out any ash and wipe out grease or food debris.” This is especially important if you’re working with a charcoal grill or pellet smoker. Black notes that it doesn’t have to be spotless: “You just want to remove anything that could create off flavors or restrict airflow on your next cook.”
That includes a grease trap if your grill has one—letting it fill up can lead to flare-ups, weird flavors, and even a fire risk. When the grill is off and cool, take off the trap and dump it into the trash. Scrape off any hardened grease and wash it with soap and water before your next barbecue session.
If you have cast-iron grates (common on many wood and charcoal smokers), you should season them as you would your favorite cast-iron pan. But even if you have stainless-steel grates, regularly oiling them will help keep food from getting stuck to them. The only type of grate that doesn’t take much maintenance in this realm is the enamel-coated ones common on Weber grills.
When you’re seasoning, Black says to do it when they’re still warm (but not so warm you burn yourself) to lock in moisture and protect them from rust. You can buy plant-based grill seasonings, like Caron & Doucet’s BBQ Grill Cleaner Oil, but oils with a high smoke point, like grapeseed or sunflower oil, work just as well too.
No matter how many fancy grill brushes or cleaning products you have, the most important thing you can do for your grill is clean it regularly. Avoid a world where you do it once a season, when you break out the grill at the first sign of spring like I did, or before a holiday when you know you’re going to be batch cooking for a group. Do it every single time.
“The biggest mistake people make is waiting to clean their grill right before, instead of right after they grill. When you’re ready to grill, you should be ready to grill—not standing there scraping grates,” Black says. Another pro tip: Don’t shut down the grill right away. Black says when you’ve taken off your burgers and hot dogs, close the lid and let it keep running for a bit so the heat can burn off stuck gristle and grime. If you’re using a pellet grill, the shutdown cycle should serve that purpose, though.
Don’t let your grates get to the point that they look borderline unusable—invest in a good scrubber, brush gunk away every time you grill, and season your grates regularly. As Black says: “Good habits matter more than the equipment.”