Let us unlock a fear for you as grilling season commences this summer.
There are hidden dangers in some common tools used to clean grills. Stainless steel or brass wire brushes are intended to remove residual food from grills. While they do the job and leave behind clean grates, they can also leave behind something else—wire bristles. Those bristles can then latch onto food the next time you’re grilling. And if ingested, you can find yourself in the emergency room with mouth, throat, stomach, or even intestinal injuries. That’s where hundreds of Americans have reportedly found themselves after enduring this little-known grilling accident, according to Consumer Reports.
The onion hack
But there’s an alternative cleaning tool you can use that ensures your grilling party won’t end in this type of disaster. TikToker @kmfbee777 demonstrated on May 24 how to clean your grill using an onion. So far, her video has received over 3.3 million views.
“Word on the street is you supposed to clean a grill with an onion,” she says. She notes she found out about this cleaning hack after discovering that the brushes can leave bristles behind.
She’s holding a grill fork that has half an onion affixed to it. She rubs the cut side of the onion back and forth on the grill grates while the grill is turned on. The results are pretty immediate.
“I see what they talking about. Look how clean that … is,” she says.
She then gestures to the side she hasn’t attempted to clean yet, saying, “Look at how dirty this is clean, man.”
She notes how the onion may leave behind an onion flavor on the grill but that she doesn’t mind. “It’s just burnt onion. Like, a little onion-flavored on the hot dogs, on the burgers,” she says.
@kmfbee777 ♬ original sound – KB 🕷️
What else can you use to clean a grill?
Several outlets have reported on the efficacy of this onion hack.
Southern Living recommends kicking it up a notch by first putting lemon juice or white vinegar on either the cut side of the onion or the grill grates. “The extra acidity helps boost the cleaning power of the onion and loosens the stuck-on food,” the magazine reports.
Southern Living also notes that your grill should be on high heat and that if you don’t have an onion on hand, you can also use another well-known cleaning agent, half a lemon.
It says, “The lemon’s acidity provides cleaning power, which you can add to by coating the cut end of the lemon with coarse salt for heavier scrubbing.”
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