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plate setter clean up

had my egg since xmas,have done 10-12 cooks so far,cleaned out ash a few times,just wondering whats the best way clean plate setter???getting quite the build up!

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Comments

  • Chubbs
    Chubbs Posts: 6,929
    A hot egg
    Columbia, SC --- LBGE 2011 -- MINI BGE 2013
  • Make pizza
    Mamaroneck
  • Chubbs said:
    A hot egg
    +1...Clean out ash, start your lump or after you finished a cook open bottom vent all the way, top vent open all the way and let her rip. I take out the thermometer on the dome to keep it from getting pegged. Should do the trick.  

    Opelika, Alabama
  • If it is really caked on, I would just do a clean burn with it in the egg. I wouldn't make pizzas if there is a ton of gook on it.

    For future cooks, you may try using a drip pan or wrapping the platesetter with foil. The foil wrap is super easy to clean up.
    Mark Annville, PA
  • I'm just curious as to why it's necessary to clean these things at all?
    "I've made a note never to piss you two off." - Stike
  • This is my method:

    1) i use a piece of standard thickness foil across my plate setter and onto the one edge of my egg which protects my probe wire when used.  I form some sides on the foil to catch the drippings.  Since it is "ON" the plate setter any liquid is going to burn off and not puddle up.

    2) When finished you can see the burnt grease on the foil.

    3) I use my tongs to wrap up the foil, and set it on the shelf for a minute to cool off.

    4) Throw the wrapped up foil in the garbage

     Costs about a nickle for the foil....

  • lousubcap
    lousubcap Posts: 32,170
    Just be aware that, depending on your OEM gasket, when you crank up the temps in the BGE you can/will toast your gasket.  Mothership will send you a replacement gratis (at least during the first year of ownership I'm told).  After the gasket goes you have several after-market options or you can run "commando" if you are able to manage temperature control without it.  FWIW-
    Louisville; Rolling smoke in the neighbourhood. # 38 for the win.  Life is too short for light/lite beer!  Seems I'm livin in a transitional period.
  • thanks everyone for the tips!!!!going to try them tonite after my cook!!doin burgers and jalepeno poppers!!! =D>
  • I'm just curious as to why it's necessary to clean these things at all?
    John is right, if you use  a drip pan, the setter will only gook up near the legs, which are holding up the cooking grid. For a legs down setter, like pizza, the upper surface of the setter should never have anything on it. 

    When doing a clean burn it is best to pile whatever will take the heat in and "de-gook" it. 
    Delta B.C. - Whiskey and steak, because no good story ever started with someone having a salad!
  • pgprescott
    pgprescott Posts: 14,544
    I just use a putty knife and scrape the gunk off the setter.
  • Plano_JJ
    Plano_JJ Posts: 448

    I always cover mine with foil when doing an indirect. This plus a clean burn and it looks brand new.

  • njl
    njl Posts: 1,123
    edited February 2013
    Like anything else egg related...clean it with fire.

    I suggest removing the the dome thermometer before any clean burns.  No sense running it up to 1000F and hoping it doesn't need a recalibrate.
  • BYS1981
    BYS1981 Posts: 2,533
    unnecessary to even clean it, imo.
  • Max232
    Max232 Posts: 76
    I put my medium plate setter in my oven on clean cycle, came out like I had just picked it up from the dealer, and it was gnarly and solid black. Disclaimer, swmbo was not thrilled with the plan for a few hours.

    Stereo egging w/ xl and med eggs! BBQ guru

     http://www.facebook.com/BeerGutsAndPorkButtsBbq

     

  • Solson005
    Solson005 Posts: 1,911
    edited February 2013
    Mine was looking pretty gross after cooking indirect for the holidays and doing wings for some football watching even with a drip pan so I just flipped the platesetter over to have a pizza cook and it looks almost new. You certainly can do a clean burn but there is no need to. A high heat pizza cook or two will get it the side of the pizza stone that is dirty and the egg itself pretty clean on its own. 
    Large & Small BGE, CGW Two-Tier Swing Rack for BOTH EGGS, Spider for the Wok, eggCARTen & and Cedar Pergola my Eggs call home in Edmond, OK. 
  • Again, it's not clear to me why it's necessary to clean these things when they get gooked up.  Are people worried about cross-contamination of cooks or something?
    "I've made a note never to piss you two off." - Stike
  • This is just the way I'm wired, but my thought is a clean machine is a happy machine.

    Damascus, VA.  Friendliest town on the Appalachian Trail.

    LBGE Aug 2012, SBGE Feb 2014

  • Well, i am not worried about cross contamination, but i have some standards about food safety and some of my cooking does not taste as good with a smoky taste included.  If it was a REAL BIG problem to keep it clean, i might say "the heck with it".  But after three years, i have a system that works, and i have the facilities at hand to make it easy.  Kind of stay after it.
  • henapple
    henapple Posts: 16,025
    I haven't cleaned my ps since "72"...
    Green egg, dead animal and alcohol. The "Boro".. TN 
  • Again, it's not clear to me why it's necessary to clean these things when they get gooked up.  Are people worried about cross-contamination of cooks or something?
    Not cross contamination, just taste. If a pork butt has spooged all over the setter and the temp is held at 250 to complete the low and slow, there will be fat and other stuff on the setter if it is not covered with foil or large enough drip pan. 
    If you decide to spatch a chicken or do some wings at 400 indirect, it could take an hour or two to burn off the butt drippings. If you put the wings or chicken on early, they could take on the taste of burning butt spooge - not really a good idea. 
    Delta B.C. - Whiskey and steak, because no good story ever started with someone having a salad!
  • henapple
    henapple Posts: 16,025
    @skiddymarker...did you say "butt drippings"?
    Green egg, dead animal and alcohol. The "Boro".. TN 
  • "Butt smooge" -- OK ----  what part of the butt is this??  Just grease?  Just my two cents, but if it easier to maintain something, why not just clean it or cover it as you go??  Like cooking on the egg, many ways to do it, but do it !!
  • @Henapple - and here I thought you would be on about "spooge", and it was butt drippings, you never cease to amaze! :))
    Delta B.C. - Whiskey and steak, because no good story ever started with someone having a salad!
  • Again, it's not clear to me why it's necessary to clean these things when they get gooked up.  Are people worried about cross-contamination of cooks or something?
    Aside from asthetic reasons, I believe that built up gunk could add an unpleasant smoke to your food, especially baked goods, as it burns off.  This is only speculation because my plate setter and my stones I use for indirect cooks are protected by drip pans or foil.    
    Flint, Michigan
  • henapple
    henapple Posts: 16,025

    @Henapple - and here I thought you would be on about "spooge", and it was butt drippings, you never cease to amaze! :))

    I love the medicine commercials that say the medicine may cause "anal leakage". Really?
    Green egg, dead animal and alcohol. The "Boro".. TN 
  • Eggcelsior
    Eggcelsior Posts: 14,414



    Again, it's not clear to me why it's necessary to clean these things when they get gooked up.  Are people worried about cross-contamination of cooks or something?

    Not cross contamination, just taste. If a pork butt has spooged all over the setter and the temp is held at 250 to complete the low and slow, there will be fat and other stuff on the setter if it is not covered with foil or large enough drip pan. 
    If you decide to spatch a chicken or do some wings at 400 indirect, it could take an hour or two to burn off the butt drippings. If you put the wings or chicken on early, they could take on the taste of burning butt spooge - not really a good idea. 


    If you wait a couple of hours to clean off butt drippings, you're going to have a bad time.... The burn certainly won't be the charcoal. Plus, I've heard of chicken tenderloins, but never using a chicken as a loin cloth. I would postulate that this practice would greatly increase one's risk of salmonella poisoning. Plus, who does that?

    You Canadians are weird.....
  • Eggcelsior
    Eggcelsior Posts: 14,414
    Mr. Tuna, you know I was just being silly, right?

    No hard feelings @Skiddymarker :D
  • I am not a Canadian, but i know a lot of them, and never found many any "WEIRDER" than us Americans.....  But i think the egg works in eother country.  And Canadians can bake!!  They bring their own flour when they come to the States!! :)]
  • Eggcelsior
    Eggcelsior Posts: 14,414
    I am not a Canadian, but i know a lot of them, and never found many any "WEIRDER" than us Americans.....  But i think the egg works in eother country.  And Canadians can bake!!  They bring their own flour when they come to the States!! :)]
    Indeed. Us Americans are quite weird. I cannot recall ever seeing a "People of Walmart - Canada"


    :-S
  • clean burn! just as white as the day you got it, same with the inside of the egg! say goodbye to your stock gasket thou, and burp it once in a while to keep it from fusing shut