Barbecue season

Finally it’s June. The spring cleaning is all done, and you can focus on more pleasant things like going to the park, sitting in your garden or on a terrace of your house. You can put your feet up, read a nice book and drink cold beverages. Since it gets dark really late these days, and it doesn’t rain so much, you can make yourself a dinner outside too. Oh wait, maybe you’re not all ready with your Spring cleaning yet! If that’s the case, don’t worry about it anymore. It’s not the right weather to do it now. Instead, take a look at Services tab on our website, and choose what you need to get done. There’s six precisely described offers, and if you find something we missed in the list, you will deserve a discount! Go on, pick your choice and let us know when would it be best to stop by http://www.agcleaningservices.co.uk/services/spring-cleaning-service/

This month, we need to take a closer look on your barbecue equipment. You probably know that the word “barbecue” has different meanings in different countries. What we usually call a barbecue in the UK is grilling any kind of food outside, or as they say ‘au plain air’, or ‘al fresco’. Some people call it barbecue only if the meat is covered with the special barbecue sauce, whereas other people call it barbecue only if you cook the meat under a closed barbecue kettle at a low temperature for a very long time. Some people only barbecue pork ribs, shoulders or brisket, while chicken and sausages would always only be grilled. No matter how you call the outside cooking, you will need to clean it after the food is done and after the dinner is over.

Ideally, all the parts of the grill should be cleaned soon after you finish cooking. After you take out the last part of your food from the barbecue, take the grate out of the heat and let it cool down a little bit. Bear in mind that all parts may be hot and very dirty, so you need to wear heat resistant gloves. The first thing you do when it’s still warm is to take away the grease from the grate and the hood with a disposable paper cloth. Once you let it cool down too much, the grease stiffens and it is more difficult to remove it. Some grease can contain salts, mainly if you grilled sausages. Salt may react with the surface of the grate or the hood and develop cracks on the paint if left unclean for too long. Barbecue hoods and grills are made to last longer than one summer, but if you just got one of the more expensive ones, we recommend to take care of it well. Not only will it look like new when you clean it, but you will also be able to cook healthier food when all parts are nice and clean.

Nutrition specialists and scientists warn us that meat roasted on a grill may be dangerous and can cause cancer. The oil that drops off the meat burns on the charcoal and becomes a carcinogenic fume. The fume then sticks to the meat and then we eat it. It is better to have the hood open rather than closed, because the fresh air will take the fumes away. What also helps, if you didn’t buy your barbecue yet, is choosing the kind where the grate is far enough from the burning parts. The next thing the nutritionists suggest is not to consume the burned parts of any meat. It has never been healthy to eat the ashes, and even though some of us like the crunchy parts for its special taste, it is not good for your health.

Now go back to the cleaning. We got rid of the fresh grease, and it’s time to get rid of the burnt parts and remaining food between the bars of the grate. The best way to do this is to run a good wire brush over the grate from both sides. Some people use a whisk broom, but we don’t recommend that because you can burn the hair or the plastic parts of broom and it will stick to the grate. We also don’t like to use the whisk broom because it gets very dirty and then you spend too much time cleaning it. After you cleared off the hard parts and most of the grease, it’s time to spray on the cleaning liquid for ovens and grills. If you don’t have one of those, you can make your own solution. Water with dish soap and a little bit of baking soda will do it. Put it on the grate and other dirty parts with a disposable cloth, sponge or a cleaning brush and rinse thoroughly with a garden hose or in a sink. Don’t forget the soap will release a lot of dirt that may slosh around when you rinse it with water. Getting the grease dirt on your clothes would require even more cleaning. Make the water run slowly.

If you don’t go the ideal way and you don’t clean your barbecue right after cooking, never mind. What you need to do the next day is to get a big plastic bag where you can put the grate. Mix a cleaning solution – put one cup of white vinegar, and half a cup of baking soda to a bucket with warm water, and pour it in the plastic bag. Leave it for at least ten minutes until the hard parts and grease dissolve, then take it out and clean it with soap water and brush. Then rinse thoroughly.

In the end, when you know all these cleaning tricks, barbecue can become your favourite way of cooking. And if this article didn’t make you want to do the cleaning yourself, just give A.G. Cleaning Services a ring.

Enjoy the barbecue season!

• Share

• twitter
• googleplus
• facebook