tony b Posted September 5, 2015 Report Posted September 5, 2015 Just go for it, MacKenzie. Here's a secret - OxyClean powdered stain remover is a great substitute for PBW. But, I'm totally shocked a brew supply store doesn't carry PBW??
ckreef Posted September 5, 2015 Report Posted September 5, 2015 (edited) I'm in the camp - if your grates and drip pan still looks shinney and new you just haven't used them enough. Enjoy that look for now, soon enough they too will have that patina tony b mentioned. Edited September 5, 2015 by ckreef
CeramicChef Posted September 5, 2015 Report Posted September 5, 2015 Bad news, I bought ribs so I could do a messy cook, then went to the brew store and no PBW:( MacKenzie - this is no big deal. Cook your ribs dry, a la Memphis style. And sauce your ribs (if you must) at the table. All ribs here at ChezChef are served dry and my guests never complain! Of course, all the beer consumed waiting for the ribs to be done may have something to do with that! All the best on your rib cook this weekend!
kjs Posted September 5, 2015 Report Posted September 5, 2015 Yes Memphis style ribs are excellent and not as messy. Talk about messy, I'll be cooking pork shoulder tomorrow for pulled pork sandwiches on Monday's Labor Day get together. I am anxious to try PBW, to clean my grates afterward.
CeramicChef Posted September 5, 2015 Report Posted September 5, 2015 Ken - I love pulled pork sammies! All the best for a great cook! Enjoy.
tony b Posted September 5, 2015 Report Posted September 5, 2015 Just to be clear, kjs, the PBW goes onto the grate AFTER the cooking, NOT into the pulled pork!!
kjs Posted September 5, 2015 Report Posted September 5, 2015 Just to be clear, kjs, the PBW goes onto the grate AFTER the cooking, NOT into the pulled pork!! Yes I know, but I appreciate your concern. I should have been more clear with my post, so I went back and added an edit.
tony b Posted September 5, 2015 Report Posted September 5, 2015 Just teasing, as it did read funny the first time, but I knew you weren't really planning to put PBW on your pork butt!
MacKenzie Posted September 5, 2015 Report Posted September 5, 2015 Memphis style ribs - I guess that is what I did, I just didn't know that is what that technique is called. My cook is done and my grates are clean as a whistle:)
tony b Posted September 6, 2015 Report Posted September 6, 2015 Yes, they were! Nice ribs, MacKenzie! You know, eventually you're gonna make a mess on that new grill.
bosco Posted September 6, 2015 Author Report Posted September 6, 2015 I saw the bun cook and the grill looks perfect still. I need your techniques!!!
kjs Posted September 22, 2015 Report Posted September 22, 2015 Couple of thoughts here. Grill floss is da shizzle! (That's a good thing!) No metal wires. MacKenzie, I have the chain mail scrubber for my cast iron and carbon steel pans in the kitchen. It's excellent. I've never thought to use it on the grill grates, hmmmm?? Might have to experiment., too. If you want maintain pristine looking grates (I'm far too lazy to care), use this product that I use in my brewing room - Powdered Brewery Wash (PBW). It was developed by Coors Brewing to clean their brewing equipment. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0064O7XBA/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=1944687522&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B001D6IVZG&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0VBKZ4ZPTWSB1YAN25BS It works great! I use it to clean my cooktop when it starts to get gunky. You might have to soak your grates in it overnight, but it will cut through proteins (and other sundry junk) like crazy! Think OxyClean on steroids! It's food safe, but needs to be rinsed off well. Tony B., I purchased some PBW and cleaned my grates. They were very soiled with charred on residue, after soaking two days everything, which was baked/burnt on came right off and my grates look like new. This is really good stuff. Wish I had taken before and after pics.
tony b Posted September 24, 2015 Report Posted September 24, 2015 Great news, Ken! Glad to hear it worked out well for you.
bosco Posted September 24, 2015 Author Report Posted September 24, 2015 Looks like I will be ordering some pbw!!
kjs Posted September 24, 2015 Report Posted September 24, 2015 Great news, Ken! Glad to hear it worked out well for you. It worked out very well, thanks for the tip.
mguerra Posted October 18, 2015 Report Posted October 18, 2015 I never clean my grates. Unless there are great hunks of fish skin or big wads of fat cap, I will scrape those off.
Syzygies Posted October 18, 2015 Report Posted October 18, 2015 I never clean my grates. And your interpretation of low and slow is hotter than many of us; you report great results for example with brisket. If I always went that hot, I might not clean my grates either. I am most concerned about cleaning my grates for the second of two low and slow cooks in a row. Even if the rancidity didn't make me sick, I believe that I would taste it. And beliefs are hard to shake. This is a matter of taste. Backyard Weber chicken wouldn't be the same without that flavor of burning fat. And attempts to replicate duck confit using sous vide methods fall short because they fail to produce the characteristic rancidity of French farmhouse duck confit.
bryan Posted October 18, 2015 Report Posted October 18, 2015 And your interpretation of low and slow is hotter than many of us; you report great results for example with brisket. If I always went that hot, I might not clean my grates either. I am most concerned about cleaning my grates for the second of two low and slow cooks in a row. Even if the rancidity didn't make me sick, I believe that I would taste it. And beliefs are hard to shake. This is a matter of taste. Backyard Weber chicken wouldn't be the same without that flavor of burning fat. And attempts to replicate duck confit using sous vide methods fall short because they fail to produce the characteristic rancidity of French farmhouse duck confit. And the point is?
mguerra Posted October 18, 2015 Report Posted October 18, 2015 Ground meats and poultry are safe to eat at 165ºF. My grates always get hotter than that. I never taste any off flavors. I never clean my grates.
Syzygies Posted October 19, 2015 Report Posted October 19, 2015 I can smell my old grease, and I can taste other people's old grease. I never let the experiment get far enough to personally know for sure if I can taste my old grease, because I clean my grates. Chess taught me never to assume limitations in the other player. Here, I always imagine that I'm cooking for a supertaster. (In the case of a smoke pot, that supertaster is my wife.) The paradigm of rejecting the null hypothesis was devised when a scientist complained to a few peers that she preferred pouring milk into her cup before the tea. They were dumfounded, but she could pick out blind the four samples out of eight poured her way. Here the null hypothesis is that cleaning grates doesn't matter. I wouldn't bet on it. And the point is? An off flavor to some can be a desired flavor to others. Some might be able to taste a grill that wasn't cleaned, and prefer the effect. How far to take a paella socarrat is perhaps the most divisive question of this form that I know.
