I’m having a BBQ tonight. You’re invited, if you can make it within the hour. Just turn right from Europe.
We just realized that the grill is very rusted.
Questions:
Is this a hazard ? Would it be a BadThing[sup]TM[/sup] if we cooked the chicken on a rusted grill ?
Can we unrust the grill enough for this not to be a hazard ? How? We’ve already oiled it.
What are the alternatives ? Someone suggested putting a layer of silver foil on top of the grill. Is this a sensible solution, w.r.t. safety and taste ?
I prefer a clean grill. Best cleaned after use and coated with vegetable oil.
Brush vigorously with stiff wire brush to rebmove all loose rust. Then vegetable oil.
Aluminum," aka “silver” foil is used in cooking with no ill effects. Cover grill area where food is placed to cook and enjoy.
You didn’t mention whether you use gas or charcoal but if you are using charcoal, I would recommend covering the grate in foil and putting slits in the foil so you don’t lose any of that lovely char-grilled flavor.
If you turn the grill on very hot for a while today, most of the rust will turn black and you can take a wire brush to clean most of it off. That is what I did to mine a few weeks ago.
I work in a dermatology office, and one of our doctors uses “Monsels”, ferrous oxide I think it is, to stop bleeding during biopsies. This is basically rust. There is only one thing that will remove Monsels… not soap, not bleach, nothing but Lysol Toilet Bowl Cleaner. It’s a blue liquid. You might try that, if you can find it where you are.
Providing you clean the grill well after working on it, I’d recommend letting it sit in a goopy bath of Naval Jelly, available at hardware stores. Slop some on, let it sit as long as you can, then scrape as much off as you can - using aluminum foil or one of those specially made grill brushes. Then, clean it VERY WELL with soapy water, rinse it, dry it, and then when you start to cook, after it’s a bit warm, spray a bit of Pam or other oil on it. And - when you’re done, after you take the food off, take a couple extra minutes to use the brush to get rid of some of the cooked on food. It will make the next cleaning (without the Naval Jelly, by the way) much easier. Just use the brush. BTW, I don’t recommend using aluminum foil to cook because the point is for the food to be in the way of the flames and the smoke. At some point, you can protect the food enough that you might as well just do it in your oven. It’s not particularly good for anyone to eat rust, by the way, mainly because you also tend to take in little flakes of the metal with it. xo C.