Surgeons urge people to throw out bristle BBQ brushes (2016)
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Wadded up aluminum foil: really does not work well. It gets loose grime off, but anything at all burnt on will take very vigorous scrubbing and possibly result in shredded foil everywhere. Also feels like a huge waste of foil.
Wooden scraper: works ok, since it's not flexible doesn't get between the slats well, need to put a lot of elbow grease in to get stuck-on stuff, and if you leave it outside in my high humidity region - even under a cover - it will get disgusting fast
Abrasive pads/steel wool - work surprisingly well, but need to be replaced constantly and it's fairly disgusting work (you will feel like you need a shower afterwards) because you are basically in the grill
Nylon brush - did literally nothing.
The solution I'm currently on is a wire brush that is continuous spirals of wire rather than bristles. Available from your preferred online merchant, etc. Does not work nearly as well as a traditional wire brush: have to use quite a bit more force, and very awkward to maneuver it between the slats. That said, it gets the job done very well and it's durable.
I usually just burn it off.
1) After done grilling, while you setup the table etc.. and get ready to eat, turn it on the highest setting and cover the grill. Should be done for at least 5-10 minutes.
2) Next time, turn the grill on to the highest setting to warm it up. Again at least 5-10 minutes.
If there's anything at all left it'll quickly be gone with any kind of brush... very easily. or even your spatula.
Source: currently working on an older home with very unique (peach/salmon) brick, need to recover and reuse all I can find.
1: https://www.amazon.com/Pumie-Scouring-Stick-HDW-12T-4PK/dp/B...
(Surgeons are super cocky and for them to explain "man this is tricky to fix" ---> I am out).
https://www.tastingtable.com/cook/national/how-to-clean-a-gr...
Not my top shelf, special occasion onion?
You want to use the GMO round-up ready, depleted soil/less nutritious [0] factory farm, antibiotic, growth horomone, pesticide laced, persistent organic pollutant laden yellow onions.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/soil-depletion-an...
You'll also see a lot of guys using a splash of beer and newspaper on the public grill - depending on what you have on hand.
/s
> Kevin Gallant, of Summerside, P.E.I., had part of his small intestine removed after he swallowed a bristle from a barbecue brush. He still uses a bristle brush, but inspects the barbecue thoroughly after using it.
He still uses a bristle brush.
bristle brush cleaning time + inspection time < alternative cleaning time
Also, I felt like the goal is to avoid having a portion of your intestine removed, not really so much to save time.
I'd suggest these types of scrapers be legislated against since they are incapable of being used safely in reasonable intended usage.
What does manliness have to do with this?
> Unintentional injuries are the #3 leading cause of death among men, but it is #6 for women. This is probably due to the fact that men are much more prone to saying things like, "Hold my beer, and watch this." Also, men tend to work in more dangerous professions where being killed on the job is a possibility.
https://www.acsh.org/news/2017/04/20/top-10-causes-death-are...
Scrubbing just breaks off stuff that's caked on. It doesn't remove them except for the few removed by gravity. Dirt, metal and burnt food particles all need to be removed from the thing they're on. This is done by washing and rinsing. The water doesn't know or care whether it's washing away burnt food or wire bristles that were left there while breaking loose the burnt food. If things are being done properly it all goes down the drain. Simply brushing your grill and nothing else is not an adequate cleaning job. You wouldn't just scrape off a pan and then use it without washing and rinsing it.
The stuff in a commercial kitchen is (for the most part) designed to be quick and easy to clean properly. Most appliances and surfaces are wash down capable. Anything that's loose can be gotten off of them with a properly directed stream of water. Corners and crevices that are hard to clean are kept to a minimum. Designing things so that an overworked food-service worker can still clean them well enough helps a lot.
This isn't a wire brush problem. This is a people too lazy to clean things problem that's aggravated by the fact that the contents of the average consumer kitchen were not designed to quickly and easily cleanable and the average consumer will not be fired if they habitually fail to clean things properly.
I do not understand why some people think adding legislation to that will solve the problem of people who do not clean things properly.
This subject is a big deal is because many people clean their grill by brushing and brushing only, steel wire is not something you expect in your food.
Regarding the article itself, on one hand I expect medical professionals (who also work in an environment where being able to clean things is important) have a more nuanced opinion than "just don't use wire brushes" On the other hand, the kind of cleaning that goes on in a medical environment is different and all the stereotype of surgeons expecting the world to revolve around them.
Edit: meant to reply to parent.
You summed it up right there. Consumers cannot be reasonably expected to clean to the level of a commercial operation.
The thing is with these brushes, they are sold right alongside other scrapers and brushes as if they can be used with exactly the same level of casual concern. There is often, at best, tiny legalese text on the packaging about the bristles being a hazard. There is no commercial kitchen staff training about the dangers of these tiny pieces of wire getting into food. People at home do not have huge liability to customers eating at their house and expect the burden of safety to be on the producer of the products they are using.
I am not necessarily saying ban these things, but they should come with clear and obvious warnings and realistic operating instructions that if followed would result in no chance of harm. That's on the manufacturer surely.
What if I made a skillet that secreted tiny amounts of arsenic that unless scrubbed thoroughly with bleach and then run through an ultra-high temp dishwasher after every use would eventually poison you? This might be fine for a kitchen crew who is educated about the proper usage, but the average home user would just wash it with dish-soap.
I'm all for keeping legislation light, but when there is a known persistent problem that manufacturers ignore and don't self regulate, it's time to step in and apply a mechanism to ensure reasonable responsibility.
"to the level of a commercial operation" just means actually washing it, not just scraping the hard stuff off and calling it good. It is not labor intensive on a per item basis nor is there any special equipment involved.
>There is often, at best, tiny legalese text on the packaging about the bristles being a hazard.
Which is enough as far as I care. The physical characteristics that make the bristles do their job also makes them hazardous to ingest. It's the same as a knife needing to be sharp.
>People at home do not have huge liability to customers eating at their house and expect the burden of safety to be on the producer of the products they are using.
People at home don't have customers to be liable to.
>What if I made a skillet that secreted tiny amounts of arsenic that unless scrubbed thoroughly with bleach and then run through an ultra-high temp dishwasher after every use would eventually poison you? This might be fine for a kitchen crew who is educated about the proper usage, but the average home user would just wash it with dish-soap.
The difference is that the frying pan in that hypothetical example requires expensive specialized equipment that consumers do not typically have in order be used properly.
Are you actually aware of what we are talking about? We are talking about filthy, greasy BBQ grills covered in baked on crap that is really hard to get off, some people use pressure washers. There is special equipment involved, namely special steel bristle brushes that deposit tiny bristles that need to be dealt with in a very specialized way as seen in commercial kitchens where they have stainless easy wipe down surfaces and huge sinks so that everything can be carefully cleaned after each service.
> It's the same as a knife needing to be sharp
Deep down, you know this isn't true. A knife is very well known to be sharp and is obviously a hazard. A wire brush has hidden dangers. Bristles are expected to remain attached, but unknown to many users they come off when cleaning and then even more unknown to them they get into food and can cause trauma in the body and are very hard to get removed.
> Which is enough as far as I care
Well, I am not talking about you, I can see beyond you to the numerous people who have ended up in the ER. This is the problem regardless of how much you scoff at their ignorance, apathy toward sterility, and general lethargy at the family grill on Sunday.
> the contents of the average consumer kitchen were not designed to quickly and easily cleanable
> The difference is that the frying pan in that hypothetical example requires expensive specialized equipment
Erm, isn't this the same? In your examples you are describing specialist commercial equipment, and so in mine I was also.
When cleaned properly reasonably soon after each use is never gets to that point.
There is special equipment involved, namely special steel bristle brushes
A wire brush is not anymore specialize equipment than a shovel is.
>that deposit tiny bristles that need to be dealt with in a very specialized way as seen in commercial kitchens where they have stainless easy wipe down surfaces and huge sinks so that everything can be carefully cleaned after each service.
Things don't get cleaned carefully in a commercial kitchen. Things get cleaned as quickly as possible. Things are designed to be easy to clean so that less man hours are spent cleaning and more are spent on things that make money. There's no reason you can't clean things just as well at home. It will simply take more time and effort. That would be a big pain if you had to clean a stack of sheet pans at home but for one grill it's no big deal.
>Deep down, you know this isn't true. A knife is very well known to be sharp and is obviously a hazard. A wire brush has hidden dangers. Bristles are expected to remain attached, but unknown to many users they come off when cleaning and then even more unknown to them they get into food and can cause trauma in the body and are very hard to get removed.
If you've ever uses a wire brush regularly you know that the bristles come off as a part of normal wear.
>Erm, isn't this the same? In your examples you are describing specialist commercial equipment, and so in mine I was also.
No they're not. The dishwasher was a literal need. The well designed sinks and counters are an efficiency/profitability thing. The job can still be done without them but would require more labor.
https://www.amazon.com/Great-Scrape-Woody-Paddle-Natural/dp/...
Or you can be like me and just get the grill hot and give it a quick once over with a metal spatula to remove any chunks that are sticking up. I mean I'm cooking over an open flame here, it's already carcinogen city.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B018823HZG/
These have the added bonus of not scratching porcelain coated grills.
Being safe is a perfectly good strategy for an individual, but it's asking for trouble on a societal level.
Seems like good fodder for tabloid evening news and then just let it be.
It makes sense to me to make the safe option into the easiest, most obvious path to take. Stop labeling wire brushes as "barbecue brushes", and stop stocking them directly alongside the cooking tools. That's the form I imagine a ban would take.
The danger of hammers is obvious. You know to treat them safely, and so there's comparatively little trouble. The possibility of having an untreatable needle stuck in your throat unless you use your tools in the right order is rather less so.
I didn't say anything about banning unsafe objects, however. I think there's a case to be made for it if they're easily replaceable, but that's not the point I put forward.
Chainsaws, C compilers, C-4 ...
Certain industries would be crippled without these tools. Safety training helps.
Safety features tend to constrain or eliminate various uses, which may be needed in some cases.
Alternatively, safety features may be expensive (e.g., the mechanism that instantly stops a table saw when it touches flesh).
In some cases, great design can improve safety at low cost while retaining utility.
The question shouldn't be "is this safe", but rather "does a much safer alternative exist that works almost as good or even better"
That's literally every product ever.
I challenge you to come up with an example of something that's readily available to the general public that cannot reliably cause harm or death if used in a sufficiently ignorant way.
People intentionally eat Tide Pods. Should we ban all cleaning products that an average person is capable of injecting a lethal amount of?
Steel chainmail is awesome for cast iron, and probably safe for anything steel wool is safe for. For pans with coating (enamel or nonstick) where that's not safe, soap, water, and sponge works (sponges have the same shedding problem as steel wool, but usually higher contrast and harder to miss and fail to rinse out when they do shed.)
But focusing in on the rivets, there are two ways to look at it. The remaining fat that has undergone polymer-type conversion due to heat is seasoning, not dirt. Or if you really want to get in there, probably an ice pick.
Edit: I will additionally add that I also scrub the grill plates on occasion, because as mentioned in other comments, the accumulated crud makes food more likely to stick and can also impart a bad taste.
However, I don't normally clean them except for using a plastic brush when they are cold—mostly to get rid of the big pieces. I rather like the "seasoning" :)
Let the carbon build up. It's seasoning and food doesn't stick to it.
Just preheat the grill to burn off any remains from the prior use. If there's really heavy buildup, use a straight edge scraper like a paint scraper or heavy spatula.
Cleaning a grill down to shiny bare metal is a sure way to have all your food stick to it every time.
Also, a grooved scraper with the right spacing for your grate does a great job of removing large chunks. You don't need to polish it to bare metal, just remove that excess. Scrape after grilling while it's hot, wait a week, wipe with a paper towel dipped in olive oil when it warms up, and it works well enough for me.
Pre-oiling your metal grates should be done to prevent sticking and burning off excess food particles should be done to prevent build-up.
This is generally only possible with a cleaned grill and it would be prudent to clean your grill after it's heated up and before you apply oil.
Grease and oils get rancid, particularly in hot weather, and rancid grease on the grates can make your food taste bad. Rancid grease on the bottom of the grates can vaporize and flavor the food, too.
The black crust on the grates is mostly carbon. It tastes bad. In addition carbon insulates the grates and can stick to food. So it is vital that your food go on clean grates.
The loose carbon also makes it easier to make the "grill marks" that prove "this item was cooked on a hot grill" without actually burning them in too far. This is important if you actually cooked the food by some other means and only used the grill for Maillard, caramelization, drying, and the cosmetic grill lines.
If I'm in there to actually cook something, there's usually a foil packet involved, because otherwise one needs a humidity reservoir, or some other means of retaining moisture in the food, and the tasty fats still drip out.
That burnt gook always tastes bitter to me. The flavor of BBQ is primarily Maillard reactions of proteins and carbs reacting, aromatic phenols from herbs and spices, and polyphenols from wood smoke.
Too bad regulation is bad for business or we could all enjoy our food without fear of wire bristles.
Restaurant-grade grill cleaner (basically industrial-strength oven cleaner) is pretty effective. You don't need to do a lot of heavy scrubbing if you use it properly.
Which in itself references a huge problem. How do you combat conventional wisdom and traditions?
I once pulled a bristle out from between my molars. Thought about it for 5 minutes...realized it was from the grill (was eating a salad made of leftover grilled chicken). Googled “wire grill brush swallow”. Read horror stories. Immediately freaked out. Even used a metal detector like you would use on a beach on my stomach to see if I swallowed more (didn’t work). Spent the week waiting for disaster to strike (it didnt). Immediately threw out all wire grill brushes forever.
Wow - that's an incredible rate - I wonder what the national statistics are like?
Fire the editor.
Alternatives I've seen in this thread are a ball of wadded up aluminum foil, a wooden scraper, abrasive pads, and stiff plastic bristles (EDIT: and an onion). This proves once again that the HN comments section is often better than the article itself.
Seriously!.
Taking the word out to the public is his paramount duty and he did just the same.
Another article on the CBC from last summer has a good list of alternatives that I found helpful: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/bbq-cleaning-alternatives-bris...
Try searching "wooden grill scrapers" on Amazon for example. Or if you don't like Amazon there are some other sites that sell those. I got mine from Canada, made from cedar and in addition to scraping the grill adds a tiny bit of cedar aroma.
The article put the bar on the floor. HN picked it up an inch.
Everyone here is suggesting different things to scrub with that will leave less offensive debris behind. Few are suggesting washing away that debris. You should be able to clean your grill with pretty much whatever you want as long as you wash it properly afterward.
Edit: It appears someone did suggest washing.
There were some good tips on how to avoid the brushes for once.
1. Use a grill with wide slats instead of round steel bars 2. Run the grill on high for ten minutes after cooking to burn everything to a fine ash 3. Use grill mats when possible so I don't have to clean the grill to begin with
I just use damp paper towels to clean up the grill before I use it since I burn everything off after the previous cook session.
1. Let the grill get hot, simple by waiting some minutes with the charcoal on fire
2. Rub with something to clean old grit, with paper, half of an onion, piece of fat from some meat and any sponge slightly wet being good.
Also I don’t recommend a regular sponge for the water cleansing step due to the materials involved not necessarily be heat safe. Soaked paper towels work great.
EDIT: ... and immediately after writing this I googled “paper towel carcinogens” and ruined my day.
We would start our grills at 5-6 AM for breakfast sausage and ham, which did a great job of re-seasoning the grates if youre curious. day shift would take over from there with the station menu from our chefs. Generally we were careful to avoid sticky marinades or mops for the grill to keep things tidy and sane. Ribs were cooked in the oven, then transferred/finalized on the grill station. When this got too cumbersome we leased a commercial smoker for a few years.
speaking from experience though, the sanest way to keep those grates from getting insane was to wipe them down as you go with an oily onion or oily rag in some tongs. Avoid teriyaki or yogurt marinades like the plague and never leave the station "wet." get to things before they set, especially proteins.
Edit: I’ve been thrown out of the kitchen. I will look into some other peoples suggestions.
https://www.konabbqstore.com/products/safe-clean-grill-brush...
So I'd go with the generic versus a label that is knowingly producing a dangerous bristle brush.
I have a small bbq and I just take the grills off and put them in the dishwasher! That has a non-stick coating so I wouldn’t want to use a wire brush anyway. The large bbq just gets a hand wash.
Really, if you go to the grill aisle of Home Depot (or whatever similar store) you'll see plenty of choices.
Not as effective, but safe.
What proportion of these brushes giving up their bristles in sufficient quantities to be on Surgeons' radars were made in China?
Growing up we had zero plastic-handled brush options. They were all well-built, wood-handled beasts and the bristles would be mutilated and disgusting prompting replacement long before they were falling out of the holder.
You can't even buy a manual can-opener that doesn't deform into a useless paperweight on first use at a big-box store anymore. Why expect their grill brushes to be any better?
Edit: To clarify, I've seen many plastic grill brushes on shelves at stores. It has become increasingly difficult to find anything made of wood in the kitchen-related isles of stores like Wal-Mart and Target. There are obvious problems with a plastic-handled grill brush. The tendency is to heat the grill prior to brushing, which softens the plastic, loosening the grip on the bristles over time.
Are they equally bad?
I think that's just as bad. Small enough to be easy to miss, only attached at one end. There's also this kind of wound one, where the wire is a heavier gauge, and is attached at two ends: https://smile.amazon.com/Clean-Grill-Brush-Bristle-Barbecue/...
those are, afaik safer, though I don't think anyone has studied the issue.
Incidentally, our household switched away from brushes a few years ago; we stumbled on a very quick and effective solution after dad got in to reloading. A few of the shorter 2.75" shells loaded with rock salt from the 12ga work wonders on the grill.
It's perfectly ok to use modern soap on cast iron. If that washes off the seasoning, it didn't deserve to be on there anyway.
https://www.amazon.com/Scraper-Natural-Barbecue-Non-bristles...
The bristles are a lot bigger than steel bristles, so if one did come off it would presumably be easier to notice in your food and likely less damaging than the stainless steel needles that come off of metal bristle brushes.
This one looks interesting as well: https://www.konabbqstore.com/products/safe-clean-grill-brush...
I also really like this idea: http://www.instructables.com/id/Quick-Bamboo-Skewer-BBQ-Brus...
But you would probably have to wear an oven mitt if you wanted to clean a really hot grill
IIRC the doctor advised her to eat cotton. She eventually passed the needle in a wad of cotton. Personally I am skeptical of this story. Does anyone feel that this approach might work when a bristle from a BBQ brush is not recoverable by surgery ?
https://www.amazon.com/Ringer-Original-Stainless-Cleaner-Pat... (This is a direct link)
Seriously though, i only buy newspapers now when i need the paper for table coverings for craft activities and such.
I don't cook meats anymore but still use my BGE quite a bit.
https://www.amazon.com/CharGon-PATENTED-PERFORMANCE-CLEANING...
I am not affiliated with the company at all, just like the product and know it's safe
I tried them all, it's so simple and works great. It's reasonable cost / build quality as well. I think it's ~$20.00 on Amazon and it's not flimsy and the wood is quality with decent heft. The leather tie it came with failed quickly, but the tool itself will last forever. I've had mine for over a year and a half now. I'm not affiliated in any way other than wishing I would have thought of it years ago.
I won't eat anything off anyone's grill who uses any wire brushes anymore, there's no reason to risk it.
This does not yield a shiny silver grill, it does however leave a lot of the grill’s seasoning whilst removing charred particles that would stick to the food.
It seems wire brushes for grill cleaning come in various levels of quality, and it’s the lower-quality ones that tend to have this issue. The problem is that you can’t truly know the quality of your brush until you use it. (And either find bristles in your good or not.)
Every cleaning solution that doesn't include a surfactant is worse. It's slower, more labor, intensive, more water-intensive, and it leaves baked-on crud behind. The latter two are both much worse for cast iron than soap.
I rarely clean the grill, it doesn't seem to make much of a difference whether there's any buildup on the bars or not.
I've read about this some months ago, what a nightmare scenario!
It works really well for a "standard" grill.
Maybe just a wet rag would work? I’ve seen hibachi chefs use them on a flat grill along with a scraper.
(Don't try this at home).
if the angle is bad (threatens other structures as it comes out), potentially clip the wire as it emerges.