A little fire grate maintenance for the weekend cook

WDE86

I've been taking the time to really tidy up the egg this week in preparation for my first smoke this weekend and my fire grate needed some attention. 



So I first took into work to have built up crust blasted off:



Shiny shiny. But shiny doesn't work so well for cast iron so I had to do a little baking. 

I slathered it in some Crisco and popped it in the oven at 350 for 45 minutes:



Success! No more nasty fire grate! I gave my daisy wheel a similar treatment last weekend. Last order of business is giving a good scrubbing to the stainless grate but that's not typically a highly involved task. 

I don't know how anyone else's cast iron fire grate looks but I didn't like the thought of such a crusty,rusty piece being the foundation for my first smoke. 

Looking forward to sharing some pics of my first attempt at a smoke this weekend. Hope everyone else has something fun lined up as well. 

TN_Sister_State

How is it not warped? Mine looks like a bowl and it's only 3 years old. Nice work btw.

WDE86

TN_Sister_State said:

How is it not warped? Mine looks like a bowl and it's only 3 years old. Nice work btw.

I haven't done a lot of high heat runs on my egg. Rarely get temps up over 400. Maybe that's it? 

Mickey

Don't being a smart ass but why?

Focker

You're wasting time/energy.
The heat that piece will get erases any seasoning you try to build.

Best thing you could do, let it rust in peace.

saluki2007

Weird, I've never done anything to mine and it's just ashy gray. No rust. Had it over three years now. 

dmchicago

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/anal-retentive-chef/n9695?snl=1 http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/anal-retentive-chef/n9695?snl=1

cookingdude555

Mine is usually beneath charcoal, I don't know what it looks like. 

nolaegghead

I've been trying to figure out why my egg-cooked food tastes rusty....thank you so much!

Skiddymarker

Mine looks brand new, because it is. The High-Que went in early in my travel thru Eggland. 

Legume

Man, you all need to cut him some slack.  Great job getting that all cleaned up, it's a much better place to stack the sorted lump on.

Legume

and for what it's worth, if I had access to a sandblaster, I would probably blast everything in sight.

SmokeyPitt

I am going to ship you my nasty looking wooden egg mates so your OCD will force you to strip them and stain them. 

WDE86

Focker said:

You're wasting time/energy.
The heat that piece will get erases any seasoning you try to build.

Best thing you could do, let it rust in peace.

Yeah I know. But I figure doing this every once in a while couldn't hurt. 

WDE86

SmokeyPitt said:

I am going to ship you my nasty looking wooden egg mates so your OCD will force you to strip them and stain them. 

Bring it on. 

WDE86

Legume said:

Man, you all need to cut him some slack.  Great job getting that all cleaned up, it's a much better place to stack the sorted lump on.

Legume

Eh, maybe a little of both.