Live In The D – Never underestimate the power of a good ol’ grill deep cleaning. And by grill I don’t mean your smile, although 4 out of 5 dentists would approve of cleaning your teefers, too. I’m talking about grates, grease traps and elbow grease.
It’s therapy amid these tumultuous times.
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My grill, a Broil King by Regal, has been on my patio since 2016 and was overdue for a brushing/cleaning/polishing. It also seemed… lesser? Not so much a Broil King and more of a Broil Duke, royal but not quite sitting on the throne. So I sounded the trumpets, put up the drawbridge, and went to work restoring the barbecue monarchy.
And what I discovered in the course of all that wire brushing down to the heat plates, diffusers and burners was that some of the burner tubes’ pinholes, where the propane gas comes out ignited as blue flames, were caked either with debris or corrosion, or a combination of both. So I brushed and scraped them until every pinhole on every burner was producing its share of flameage.
After putting it all back together and polishing the stainless steel body, I turned on the gas, pushed the ignition button and I swear the whoosh that happened when those burners kicked on was more Broil Emperor than King. Incidentally that sound, the whoosh that also has a sub-wooferish thump, is music to the ears of every self-styled grilling aficionado. I know some of you are loyal to charcoal and/or hickory chips but nothing beats propane.
Whoo boy does it burn hot! I had forgotten the Broil King when new burned with the heat of a thousand suns. Newly rechristened Broil Emperor is like that-- if those thousand suns got together and fused into a heat singularity. The built-in thermometer on the lid goes to 700 degrees but who’s to say that’s the limit? Besides, I have eyebrows, eyelashes and facial hair. Let’s keep it that way.
Jason’s blog originally appeared in The Buzz newsletter from Live In The D which is delivered to your inbox every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Click here to sign up.