May is National BBQ Month

The weather is finally turning nice and with May being National BBQ Month -- it is time to turn your attention to your grill and get it ready for the season.

South Dakota State University Extension Meat Specialist Dr. Keith Underwood shares some tips on preparing your gas or charcoal grill.

Underwood: “It is pretty easy to pull off the grates or cooking surfaces and make sure and scrub those down with a wire brush. That they are clean. If you want to do a more in-depth cleaning that can be done with hot, soapy water and a scrub brush to get everything clean that way and make sure you don’t have flaming up issues. You won’t have issues with some of the grease left over from your last grilling season. So we don’t have problems when you fire the grill up.”

Underwood says it is also important to check the propane tank and hoses to ensure they are not leaking or cracked.

He adds?
Underwood: “We also recommend that you let your grills -- whether it be gas or charcoal or anything like that -- warm up. So you turn your grill on, lit it, you let it warm up for for five to 10 minutes on medium to high heat. Or if you have a charcoal grill, you let your charcoal burn down then we recommend that you cover it up and heat it up for five to 10 minutes that will just sanitize all the cooking grates. Make sure that they are sanitized and pasturized so that there were any bacteria or anything you didn’t want there that they are basically killed off with heat. ”