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Comment by dguaraglia | Hacker News Reader

The Argentinian trick is basically:

1. let the grill get hot 2. rub with something to clean old grit 3. rub again with a chunk of fat (from the meat) for flavor

The "something" in step #2 has varied over the years. Back in the day, my grandpa used to use old newspapers... which of course we know today it's not such a great idea, heh. Onions, half a potato, a corn stalk, even a chunk of brick will do the trick. You just want to make sure you don't have old chunks of stuff clinging from the grill.

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> old newspapers... which of course we know today it's not such a great idea, heh

Why is it a bad idea? The newspaper thing is common in Oz, and a quick Google turned up nothing.

The ink in newspapers is often 'not good' to 'bad' for your health, which makes rubbing it onto your cookwares a slightly dubious choice.

That used to be true, these days most newspaper inks are soy based, so its probably safe.

But metaphorically, do you want the ink of news running through your blood... Maybe!

My favorite vector for consuming the news!

Why use paper as a moderator? I go with direct ink IV, to cut out the middleman.

Ah, so this is why print is dying as a medium.

Gotta say, nothing beats the smell of burning newspaper when you first start making a barbecue. I feel better about the ink being soy based now.

Not even bacon drops falling on the embers?

What mattashii said: newspaper ink has (or at least used to have) lots of lead. I'm not sure how bad it is, but I'd imagine that long-term you might want to avoid it. Specially when something as easy to find as a potato or a bunch of leaves will do the same job without the risk :)

> but I'd imagine that long-term you might want to avoid it.

It's safe now. People use it for compost all the time.

The real danger from a BBQ is smoke.

The whole point of barbecue is indirect cooking with smoke.

Unless y'all mean grilling when you say BBQ.

is this for real ? I've always meant grilling and assumed anyone else meant the same :(

EDIT: might be a linguistic issue, wikipedia has different meanings of BBQ in different languages.

Yea, if you hear "BBQ" and think "grilling", then you might be missing out on the phenomenon that is real southern BBQ, which is a significantly different culinary phenomenon.

Growing up in the northeast US, I didn't learn about the existence of BBQ until I was 23.

Sadly this was the case for me until Dinosaur BBQ made their way into the local scene.

Now I smoke my own pork shoulders, ribs and chicken. And its much cheaper this way :)

That's just one of the many words that have different meanings in different countries. We Australians take our barbecueing very seriously and it rarely involves indirect cooking. :-) The most common form of barbecueing here involves cooking on a flat hotplate over direct heat.

I noticed this difference when I moved in Australia a couple of years ago. My first guess would be that hot plates are safer than fires from a wild fire point of view (which are quite a concern in Australia), and this is now engrained in the culture. However, I could be wrong and it has always been like this. Any thoughts?

The tragic thing about this is that it prevents people in places like the northeastern US from realising that the phenomenon of real BBQ exists. I know that until met my wife at age 23, I had never even seen actual slow-cooked collagen-has-turned-to-gelatin BBQ.

This isn't an instance of the Scotsman fallacy, it is a genuine category error.

Exactly. I'm originally from Texas, where they have a pretty serious idea about what the label "BBQ" means. And it absolutely does not mean grilling burgers over charcoal.

I remember on one of those restaurant impossible/kitchen nightmare type shows where the restaurant was a BBQ place.

Host: do you know BBQ actually is?

Restaurant owner: the sauce?

Right. My wife grew up in Houston.

Then you Australians aren't actually barbecuing, are you? ;)

I believe in the UK the old ink that came off on your hands was made from soot and old engine oil. That's why you see people in PG Wodehouse and Downton Abbey getting their newspapers ironed - so it doesn't rub off on your hands.

A former colleague of mine, a man in his seventies, told us a story from when he served in the Soviet army as a young man. He served with a guy who used to wipe his individual plate and utensils with the newspaper they got. Others warned him about the lead but he dismissed the warnings. After a while, he ended up with lead poisoning.

I don't think I heard how long it took for him to get it or how severe it was.

Could have been ammo related too.

Quite possible! I understand that they thought the lead in the newspaper ink was the culprit because nobody else in their unit did the same and nobody else got lead poisoning, but obviously, it could have been coincidental. I've tried researching just how much lead one could consume this way but never found anything conclusive.

I would guess that the old-school lead type probably also had some bearing on that. Modern press plates are usually aluminum (or sometimes even polymers).

I heard if you eat enough you will start to lean to the left.

what do you do about rust? The chrome coating on my grill comes off and the iron underneath rusts. The wire bristle was the only thing working.

you "treat" the metal much like you would a cast iron skillet.

After using, clean the grill, rub a thin coat of oil (I use canola different oils provide different seal quantity) then heat to smoking point. Wipe down and repeat a few times. This will coat the metal.

Most importantly DON'T use detergents it'll ruin the seal

Not sure if you mean this, but the detergent thing is called a myth here: http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/11/the-truth-about-cast-iron...

Happy washing-upping!

It is always an after thought, you finish cooking and the grill is super hot from the charcoal. Its late at night, you want to eat and relax. By the time the grill cools, you are sound asleep.

Well there's your problem, iron is fine, it's the iron oxide you want to avoid.

Iron oxide isn't particularly bad for your health, either. Your steak is already filled with rusted iron. Your body is filled with rusted iron.

Chrome, on the other hand... that shit is nasty.

Actually trivalent chromium is an essential nutrient (trace amounts). Hexavalent chromium is the "bad" chromium. Chromium metal is not considered a health hazard.

Chromium salts (chromates) can cause allergic skin reactions.

Yup, what everyone else said: rust is fine. At least it's preferable to chunks of chrome coating :)

Argentine grills are not coated. If you want to keep them from rusting, you just grease them a bit with the remains of the meat (you usually don't even need to do that) and clean them up next time around. If you are really concerned about the rust, you can always coat the grill with vegetable oil (just take a paper napkin, soak it in vegetable oil and lightly rub the grill with it.)

BTW, the biggest unrelated tip: when you are seasoning meat, use kosher salt instead of fine salt. It works much better!

I use a coarse sea salt that is a little larger than kosher salt. It works out better with fish and meat.

True, but is a lot more costly so you may want to save the fancy stuff for at-table seasoning instead of pre-prep!

http://www.seriouseats.com/2013/03/ask-the-food-lab-do-i-nee...

Use Maldon you heathens

Buy a grill with a cast-iron grate. Then, you season it with oil, just as you would a cast-iron pan/dutch oven.

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