My buddy Craig swore I could clean my grill with an onion half and nothing else

So last Saturday I'm at a cookout at my place and the grill grates are absolutely caked. Like a year of buildup caked. Craig, who claims to be a grill master, grabs a white onion, cuts it in half, stabs it with a fork, and says 'just rub this on the hot grates for a few minutes and it'll look brand new.' I was skeptical but hey, free advice. I tried it. All that happened was the onion turned black and fell apart, leaving little burnt onion bits stuck to the gunk. Then I had to scrape everything off anyway with a wire brush which took twenty minutes. Has anyone else fallen for this? Or does this actually work on some grills and not others?

2 comments

2 Comments

ruby_murphy6d ago

I've definitely been the guy with the half-assed onion technique and a grill that looks worse than when I started." My neighbor sold me on this too, said it was some kind of magical chemical reaction. I ended up with a sticky, black mess that smelled like a burnt salad for a week. Guess some of us have to learn the hard way that wire brushes actually work.

park.tara6d ago

Oh man, that onion trick gets passed around way too much. The thing is, it's not meant to be a standalone cleaner, it's more of a seasoning thing if anything. Like the heat and the onion juice can help lift some grime if you're doing it on a hot grill, but you're supposed to still hit it with a brush afterwards. Craig left out the whole "this is just a first step" part. I've seen people swear by it for adding flavor back to the grates too, not really for deep cleaning. Either way, you're not alone in thinking it's a bust for actual crusty buildup.