How best to clean the grill.

[Themodernuriahheep]

Ok, I'm a slut, I confess it. I have not been able to face cleaning the grill for ages. . Obv the grill pan gets done, but the grill itself? Once in a blue moon. And Lent coming up is making me twitchy about unclean stuff, must be an atavistic genetic throwback I think.

Prob is, it's not an overhead one but within the stove and over an oven, iyswim, so it's difficult to see what's going on and it's electric so you have to try to clean between the element. Deep, dark and disgusting.

Have just spent some time and got done if the worst off but then realised that there will be experts on here who know what products to use and how best to clean it so that one is neither asphyxiated nor electrocuted. The switch is behind the cooker and realistically I can't get behind it to turn it off ( see saucepan lid saga now resolved , thankfully).

[Seeyounearertime]

weird suggestion.
Malt vinegar (the brown sort, not the white sort) half and half with water in a spray bottle. Spray onto where you want to clean (dont worry too much about the element but be careful of electrics etc) leave for a few minutes. then use a bottle brush to get behind bits, around edges etc. Once done wipe what you can with a wet sponge. then, put the grill on a very low heat and leave for a few minutes to dry everything up.

(im moving house soon and this is what did to clean the oven here, the oven i haven't cleaned since we moved in... 3 years ago... [ashamed emoticon] )

[Themodernuriahheep]

Brilliant, thanks so much. Why the brown not the white, just out of interest? And does it stink the place out?

Does this also work on the grill pan that I see to my even greater shame has archaeologically encrusted one thing in one corner?

[wowfudge]

I use Oven Pride on the grill pan - works a treat. I got a grill pan a tenant hadn't cleaned for five years looking as good as new after leaving it over night in the bag with the oven shelves.

[Themodernuriahheep]

Right. Tomorrow's campaign..

[SnuffleGruntSnorter]

Oven pride all the way. Open the windows and put on some rubber gloves first, splash cystic chemicals over everything and come back to a shiny grill.

[Seeyounearertime]

I used the brown simply because the oven is brown so i figure it doesn't matter if it turns the surface a bit brown... weird logic i guess but it worked really really well. I use white vinegar on things that i don't want to turn brown (doest that make sense?)
just make sure you dilute it half and half with the water, i don't know how pure vinegar would work because it's an acid.