The Cheapest Way To Clean Your Grill Is With Half An Onion
It's a common misconception that grills are self-cleaning. True, the high heat should be enough to kill most potentially harmful food-borne pathogens, but there is a lot more to proper grill maintenance than that. Each time you use your grill, you leave little bits of food debris burnt onto the grates. As debris builds up, it can block the flow of hot air through the grates, which means the grill will take longer to heat up and your food might not cook properly. A dirty grill is also a fire hazard, as the caked-on bits of grease can ignite and cause flare-ups while you're cooking.
Fortunately, cleaning your grill is easy, and it doesn't take any special equipment. You can buy wire grill brushes, but they can scratch the finish of the grates and even worse, loose brush bristles can fall off and get into your food. Instead of this or chemical cleaning solutions, you can clean your grill with an onion. Just grab one from the pantry (any kind will do, but a big white onion will cover the most area), cut it in half, stick a long grill fork through it, and wipe down the grates. It's cheaper, less risky, and it can even improve the flavor of the food you grill, all thanks to a few special properties of onion juice.
Why onion juice is so good for cleaning
The trick to cleaning a grill with an onion is to do it while the grill is hot. Preheat your grill to around 400–450 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes, then start scrubbing the grates with the cut side of the onion half. Onions are packed with water, and the high heat of the grill will turn that water into steam, loosening charred debris from the grates. Onion juice is also acidic, and acids are very effective at dissolving stains. (It's why you can clean a kettle by boiling vinegar.)
Water and acid are important for cleaning, but what really makes onion juice so remarkably useful is a chemical called allicin. Allicin is the pungent stuff that makes you cry while slicing onions, but it also has antibacterial properties, helping to sanitize your grill grates as you clean.
If onion juice is such an amazing cleaning agent, you might wonder why we don't use all over the house. The main reason onion juice isn't use more widely is that it smells like onions. You might not want that pungent smell on your kitchen counters or dishes, but this is actually a good thing when you're cleaning a grill. As you wipe them down, the oils from the onion form a thin film on the grill grates. This infuses a little bit of onion flavor into the foods you grill, and it also helps to prevent foods from sticking to the grates. It's a simple trick, but one that will help you on your way to grilling like a master.