Wire BBQ brushes are back in the news and in front of Health Canada. It’s conducting an investigation after nine injuries were reported to have been caused by the brushes, in the past few years. Sometimes wires come off the brushes and land in the food. They end up in people’s tongues or throats and potentially migrate into the gut. It’s dangerous and sometimes difficult for surgeons to remove. So we set out to find an alternative.Â
Home Depot only had one idea other than a wire brush. It was a block of some sort of substance that resembled hard styrofoam, but it wasn’t. And it crumbled into sand when it was used. It didn’t live up to expectations at all. The grill required a thorough rinsing unless you wanted debris as a topping on your burger. Not practical.
What are people raving about? An oak paddle-shaped scraper. It’s basically a piece of wood that you rub on the grill until it’s clean. It’s probably what they used in the days before wire bristles were invented. A friend has one and says it’s great. If you have another idea, I’d love to know it. I really don’t want to eat wire bristles with my barbecue.
By the way, if you leave a comment and you don’t see it, I have a new spam filter that requires my approval for every comment. It’s either that, or manually remove hundreds of spam every day, so, it’s that!
Curiosity, , but it is my understanding that you use a wired brush prior to turning on the BBQ and after you’ve finished cooking and turned it off. So how are bristles falling into the food? If you want a good wired brush, don’t buy it in the BBQ section of your store, buy it in the tools and hardware side of your store.
You can make cleaning of your BBQ grill a little easier and it helps with bacteria, is give your grill a spray with vinegar and a quick scrub prior to turning it on and cooking and once again after you’ve turn it off giving the grill another quick scrub. And no, it doesn’t leave a vinegar taste.
I also hear, that washing the grills in the dish washer by themselves also does a good job, but I’ve never tried it. Giving the grill a spray with something like Pam also cuts down on cleaning.
Those may be great suggestions but they’re just not going to happen. At least not at my house! There’ll be no messing around with liquid mixtures. Pam in the past has smoked when we tried it and yes, the bristles still come out even if the grill isn’t hot. I’m thinking the paddle might be the way to go. It develops grooves as you use it and doesn’t leave anything behind.
Apparently if you cut an onion in half and rub the racks with that it’s supposed to clean them too. What a terrible thought getting a piece of metal stuck in you……
Didn’t know that!
Another possibility would be to use a hand ice scraper you can pick up in the Automotive department which the last time I looked were available in plastic or metal.