How to Clean and Maintain Rock Grates

  • Inspect rock grates periodically
  • Rock grates are subject to very high temperatures and will weaken and deteriorate over time.
  • Knock off loose rust and scale with a wire brush.

  • If grate is very thin, or sags excessively, replace with a new grate sized to your grill.

September 20th, 2010

Posted In: BBQ Maintenance

How to Maintain your Rocks and Briquettes

Rocks or briquettes? The fundamental difference is lava rocks need to be replaced every season or two (depending how long you use them). Briquettes, while more expensive can be turned over and reused. You can buy lava rocks or briquettes here.

Rock & Briquette Maintenance:

  • Remove the rock and rock grate they rest on

  • Lightly brush residue off with a wire brush

  • An easy way to clean briquettes on an ongoing basis is to periodically turn them upside down and cook on the opposite side, which will gradually burn off and clean the underside of the rock
  • Reinstall the rocks, make sure they are distributed evenly across the Rock Grate surface. This will help the grill cook at an overall even temperature

  • When replacing uniformly shaped briquettes, arrange the rock to have a minimum amount of space between them.
    – This will reduce the grease drippings directly onto the burner flame and help reduce flare-ups

What do I need to know about Lava rocks?

  • If your grill uses lava rocks, you should replace them every season or two
  • Lava rocks absorb grease over time and can cause flare ups if they become saturated
  • Make sure you buy a quality rock that won’t fall through the rock grate opening
  • Purchasing a high quality briquette may be better value for money, it’s important to know that briquettes do not normally need to be replaced as regularly as lava rocks do.

Heat Plates:

  • Heat Plates can also work in place of briquettes. It’s important to buy a high quality cast iron flare guard if you decide to take this route, as the cheap thin porcelain metal alternative will burn out quickly, and provide a hot and uncontrollable heat source.

September 5th, 2010

Posted In: BBQ Maintenance

How to Maintain and Clean your Cooking Grid

Cooking Grid General Maintenance:

Cooking grids, when properly maintained, should last for many years. It’s a quick job to maintain it, and should be part of your normal grilling routine.

Ultra-Fast Grid Maintenance Routine:

  1. Preheat gas grill on high for 10 minutes before each use
  2. Scrub with a brass bristle brush
  3. Carefully wipe grids with a paper towel before use

Cooking Grid Cleaning

  • Remove and inspect the cooking grid(s)
    – Most grills have either chrome or porcelain coated cooking grids
  • If the chrome grid is not excessively rusted, soak in a hot soapy water solution to loosen the accumulated grease
  • Scrub with a steel wool pad or a stiff nylon pad

  • Rinse thoroughly and lightly coat with cooking oil before use
    – Porcelain grids may be cleaned in the same manner, special porcelain cleaning brushes are ideal for this job, as they will minimize chipping and other damage

If you find broken welds, cannot adequately remove rust, or have excessively chipped or missing porcelain, you may opt to replace the cooking grid

August 16th, 2010

Posted In: BBQ Maintenance

Maintaining and Replacing your Grill Hoses

This is always an interesting topic.. You’re all ready to fry up some juicy looking steaks on the BBQ, when you discover your hose has been chewed up due to one hungry animal or another trying to get the tasty fat drippings from your grill.
Repairing or replacing specific parts of your hose assembly will depend on your grill, you may want to browse our hoses and fittings section. If you are still  not sure you may always contact us for help.


A damaged LP gas hose can be easily replaced yourself:

  • Remove LP hose from your valve assembly
  • If permanently attached to the valve, you will need to remove the assembly
  • The regulator may have to be replaced if you are experiencing spurts or no gas flowing to the burners. Sometimes these can be removed independently from the hose while in other cases, the hose and regulator must be removed and replaced as one unit
  • You may want to install hose protectors which fit around the outside of your LP hose
Pressure regulators have been manufactured with bleed holes on the side. If gas is leaking out of these holes, you will need to replace your regulator. Again these can possibly be replaced separately or in combination with hose, and valve depending on your grill.

August 1st, 2010

Posted In: BBQ Maintenance

How to Maintain and Clean your Grill Valves

Valve knobs

  • Valve knobs should depress, turn and pop up freely
  • If they are a bit sluggish, remove knobs and carefully spray a small amount of WD40 or similar lubricant onto the valve stem area (Fig. 1)

  • Work knobs a few times to distribute the lubricant
    – Valves that bind severely should be replaced

Valves:
Spiders have a habit of spinning webs inside the gas jets (also called orifices) which will restrict gas flow. Debris in the lines may also clog these tiny holes. Here are some guidelines to maintain your valves.

  • Check the hose connection at the valve for tightness (Fig 2). This can be checked with a soapy solution if needed

  • Remove the hex head from the gas jets (orifices) with the appropriate size wrench, and make sure the hole is completely clean
  • Check the inner portion of the valve from where the gas jets (orifices) was removed.
  • Webs can be removed with a small piece of wire or toothpick (Fig. 3)

  • Reinstall the gas jets (orifices) and tighten

July 11th, 2010

Posted In: BBQ Maintenance

How to Maintain your Grill Ignitors

Ignitors have heavy wear inside a gas-grill. Because these miniature “spark plugs” must be located on or at the burner they are in the fire when the gas-grill is in operation.

As the grounding surface of the burner becomes coated with grease and residue, the porcelain insulator on the electrode can crack from the heat.

If this occurs, the spark being transferred through the insulator will “bleed” from the crack, and ignition will occur only after a build-up of gas or not at all.

For safety reason, ignitors should be replaced when this occurs, and burner surfaces cleaned up in the ignitor area.

Burner portholes in this area should be kept clean and open. The spark gap between electrode and burner is about 3/16″.

An ignitor sends a high voltage along the wire to the ignitor electrode inside the collector box. The collector box collects gas which sparks the light.

If your grill has an ignitor that no longer works:

  • Check the connections at the push button itself, and at the spark collector box. These connections can become corroded (Fig. 1)

  • Now check the insulator in the collector box for cracks. Cracks collect moisture and reduce the spark, in which case will require replacement

  • Sand electrode tip inside the collector box
  • Clean electrode with alcohol

  • Lightly sand the inner roof of the collector box

If this information did not help you fix your ignitor, replacement will be necessary. Need further assistance? Please contact us.

June 27th, 2010

Posted In: BBQ Maintenance

Memorial Day Menu

Summer feels like it’s finally here, everyone is unpacking their camping gear and revving up their BBQs. It’s a time for family, friends, and good food. With that in mind, we’ve come up with a fantastic menu to kick off this grilling season.

To Start


Quesadillas on the BBQ are so easy and they taste fantastic, I particularly like them with the Cheesy Tomato Dip.

– Grilled Quesadillas

served with Creamy Guacamole and Cheesy Tomato Dip

The Main Course


These hamburgers take a bit longer to prepare than normal, but they are well worth it for something extra special. And I can’t emphasize enough how delicious this potato salad is, please, please try it!

– Ultimate Bacon Wrapped Hamburger

– The Best Potato Salad

– Bacon, Lettuce, Avocado, and Tomato Salad

Dessert


Grilled Pineapple? Yes, it is fabulous. Just thinking about those hot skewers dipped in chocolate makes my mouth water. So yummy.

– Grilled Caramelized Pineapple with Chocolate Sauce

To Drink


Berry Lemonade, drink it as is or spike it with vodka, either way it’s the perfect summer drink. Hmm wait, maybe that title should go to beer…

– Berry Lemonade

– And of course, Beer.

May 29th, 2010

Posted In: Holidays, Recipes

Berry Lemonade

Sweet, sour, and refreshing – the perfect summer drink. Add some vodka if you want a kick.

This recipe is part of our Memorial Day Menu.

Makes: 2 pitchers

Ingredients:

  • 8-10 medium handfuls of berries, frozen or fresh
  • ¾ gallon or 12 cups of lemonade

Step 1: Preparing the Berries


– Puree the berries in a blender with about 1 cup of the lemonade until smooth.

Step 2: Mixing it Together


– Pour the lemonade into your pitchers, top with the pureed berries and stir to combine.

– If you don’t want the berry seeds in your lemonade, strain the lemonade through a fine sieve and put into the pitchers.

May 29th, 2010

Posted In: Drinks, Recipes

Grilled Quesadillas


Quesadillas on the BBQ? Yes it is as good as it sounds! Crispy on the outside, cheesy and peppery on the inside – it doesn’t get much better. They’re good on their own, but for a real treat try them with our Cheesy Tomato Dip, yum.

If you want to make the recipe even simpler, you could just use salsa and cheese for the filling, it is still delicious.

This recipe is part of our Memorial Day Menu.

Serves: 6-8

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup roasted red peppers, about an 8 ounce jar
  • Either 1 small can of chipotle chile in adobe sauce or salsa of your choice
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • A small bunch of cilantro leaves
  • Salt and black pepper
  • 6 (8 inch) flour tortillas
  • ½ red onion
  • 2 cups cheese, grated, preferably Monterey jack
  • Olive Oil

Step 1: Starting the Grill

– Preheat your grill to medium low heat.

Step 2: Preparing the Filling


– Mince the roasted red peppers, chipotle chiles (if using), garlic cloves, and cilantro.

– Put them all into a small bowl and mix together with some salt and pepper to taste. (If you’re using salsa, add this now)

– Grate your cheese if it’s not already done.

– Slice the red onion into thin half moons and separate the segments.

Step 3: Assembling


– Place on tortilla on a plate and brush the top of it with olive oil.

– Flip the tortilla over and spread a third of the pepper mixture onto it, leaving a border of around 1 inch clean on all sides.

– Place some slices of onion on top of the peppers.

– Top with a third of the grated cheese.

– Put a second tortilla on top and press down slightly. Brush oil onto the top of this tortilla.

– Prepare the rest of the tortillas in the same way.

Step 4: Grilling


– Bring the quesadillas out to the grill on a plate. Also take a heavy frying pan or smilar (without a plastic handle).

– Slide the quesadilla onto the grill (as you can see we could only fit on one quesadilla at a time), and carefully put the frying pan on top of it to weight it down. If you’re cooking more than one quesadilla at a time, just move the frying pan around, it doesn’t have to be on them all the time.

– After a few minutes the bottom tortilla will go crispy, flip the quesadillas over now and brown the other side. Replace the frying pan to make sure they’re nice and flat.

– They’re done when both sides are crispy and the cheese has melted. This should only take a few minutes.

Step 5: Serving

– Cut each tortilla like a pie, into 8 pieces.

– They’re yummy on their own, but even better with a dip. I particularly like them with our Cheesy Tomato Dip and Creamy Guacamole.

May 29th, 2010

Posted In: Appetizers, Recipes

Creamy Guacamole


Makes around 4 cups

This is my favorite guacamole recipe; I love how the cream cheese makes it extra creamy. And paired with the lime juice, I could eat it with a spoon!

This recipe is part of our Memorial Day Menu.

Ingredients:

  • 4 ripe avocados, (Hass are the best)
  • 1 small onion
  • 4-6 garlic cloves
  • 1 cup cream cheese, softened
  • 6 cherry tomatoes or 1 normal tomato (If you can’t find ripe tomatoes, then omit them)
  • 1 lime, or more to taste
  • Crushed red pepper (or cayenne pepper), to taste
  • Salt and pepper, to taste

To serve:

  • 3 Tablespoons fresh chopped cilantro

Step 1: Preparation


– Cut the avocados in half and remove their stones. Then scoop out the flesh and put it in a bowl.

– Finely dice the onion and garlic, add these to the bowl with the avocado.

– Squeeze the juice out of the lime, using either your hand, a fork, or a citrus juicer and add to the bowl.

– Cut the tomatoes up into a small dice and set aside.

Step 2: Mixing it up


– Add a bit of salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper (or cayenne).

– Now add the cream cheese and mix/mash it all up. (Make sure the cream cheese is nice and soft! You can always put it in the microwave for 10-15 seconds at a time to soften it more) You can do this in a food processor or blender if you want, but the thought of having to clean an appliance always motivates me to do it by hand.

– Make sure the cream cheese and avocados are well mixed together, and then stir in the chopped up tomatoes.  (The tomatoes are stirred in after the mashing stage so they don’t get turned to mush)

– Now the most important part, checking the flavors! Don’t skip this part; it is crucial for a well balanced guacamole. Try tasting it with the chips or whatever you’ll be eating it with. Does it need more lime juice? More salt? More red pepper?

Step 3: Serving

Scoop the mixture into a nice bowl and top with chopped cilantro

Of course guacamole is good with chips, but it is also delicious with our Grilled Quesadilla recipe.

May 29th, 2010

Posted In: Dips, Recipes

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