Barbecue season is back—but so is the reality of whatever’s been lurking inside your grill since last summer. If you opened the lid and immediately regretted it, same. Did I let out an audible yelp when I cracked open my Coleman the first time I used it this year? I sure did. So I went straight to the source for grill-cleaning tips: a Texas barbecue pitmaster.
Barrett Black, fourth-generation pitmaster at Texas’s oldest barbecue joint, The Original Black’s Barbecue, knows how to keep his grill tidy. According to him, it’s not about scrubbing harder—it’s scrubbing smarter (and more often than you think). “Cleaning should be a habit, not a chore. Something you do at the end [of your cook] so the next cook is easy,” he says. “It’s about controlling flavor. If your grill is dirty, you’re not tasting your food, you’re tasting your last mistake.”
If you’re like me and tired of tasting your last mistakes, you’ve come to the right place. Black breaks down the cleaning routine he uses every time he gets into the pit, so that you can copy at home. Follow a Texas pitmaster’s easy tips below for a better grill session every time.
For Stubborn Buildup, Grab a Good Scrubber
Black says you don’t need a ton of gadgets to keep your grates glistening. If they are in desperate need of some TLC, he recommends using a chainmail grill brush, ideally with a long, sturdy handle to get in there and safely clean the hard-to-reach places.
“It’s abrasive enough to get the job done without tearing up your grates, holds up to high heat, and it’s easy to clean,” says Black. “When it’s backed with something flexible like silicone, it helps it form to the grates and lets you put pressure where you need it.”
It can be tempting to pick up the first bristly grill brush you see at your local hardware store, but Black says to avoid cheap wire or nylon grill brushes at all costs. “They’re hard to keep clean, the bristles bend, they wear out fast, and they can come loose and end up on your grates,” he says. “That’s not something you want anywhere near your food, or in it.” You’re actually better off just pushing around some aluminum foil with a pair of tongs to get debris off.
