Here’s a simple way to clean the cooking surface on a barbecue grill using aluminum foil and white vinegar. The acid in the vinegar cuts through grease and cooked on food, while the foil acts as an abrasive to remove the food residue.

  1. Pour white vinegar in a clean spray bottle.
  2. Spray the cooking surface on the grill with the vinegar.
  3. Allow the vinegar to remain on the surface for a few minutes.
  4. Rub the cooking surface with crumpled up aluminum foil.
  5. Dispose of the aluminum foil in a garbage can.

Watch the video above to find out more.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Joe Truini: No outdoor living space is complete without a barbecue grill. The challenge though is, how do you keep them clean? Doesn’t take too long before they look like this. Now, you may have heard of this trick, where you take a big wad of aluminum foil, crumple it up, and use it to scrub the grill clean.

And that works pretty well, but to enhance that trick, here you go with some vinegar. Just get some white vinegar, put it in a spray bottle, and saturate the cooking grate. The vinegar is actually a pretty powerful acid, and you’d be surprised how it can cut through caked on food. Now, it’s best to let that sit for a few minutes, but I’ll show you how, after just spraying it on, scrub it with some foil. Look at that, comes right out.

Now it’s okay if the grill is warm, but you don’t want it to be hot. Now, you don’t have to do this after very single cookout. But, if you do this four to six times in the course of the summer, by the end of the cooking season, your grill will be as good as new.


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Joe Truini

Radio Show Co-Host

Joe Truini is a contractor, author, and the host of “Simple Solutions” on Today’s Homeowner TV and the weekly Today’s Homeowner radio show. He has worked on both large commercial projects and residential remodeling, and has written for national publications such as This Old House and Popular Mechanics. He has also written eight books, including three best-selling shed-building books. Joe lives in Connecticut with his family and enjoys hiking, traveling, and baseball in his spare time.

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