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Cleaning up Egg

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Louisiana Redneck
Louisiana Redneck Posts: 198
edited November -1 in EggHead Forum
Well,
I have now been cooking on my Egg for a little over 2 years. I have got a lot of black build up on the insides. I have heard that you can heat up the unit into "super sear mode and let it burn. I understand it will turn white again. The downside is that I know if you let it get too hot it will burn up the gasket, which is still original, and possibly crack the inside grates. What do you regular Eggers do to clean the insides. Any help will be appreciated.[p]Louisiana Redneck
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Comments

  • stike
    stike Posts: 15,597
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    Louisiana Redneck,
    i don't....[p]is it just black? or black and flakey or black and caked with goop?[p]what is the "build-up" like?
    ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta -Dante
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  • Sundown
    Sundown Posts: 2,980
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    Louisiana Redneck,
    I wouldn't worry too much about the build up. I've got 6+ years and I've never done anything about cleaning it up. Some of the folks tale a wadded up piece of aluminum foil and scrub the dome down from time to time but, I think it would make my teeth itch to do that. Turbo for a few minutes if you must.
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  • The Naked Whiz
    The Naked Whiz Posts: 7,777
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    Louisiana Redneck,
    I don't worry about it.
    TNW
    The Naked Whiz
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  • Toy Man
    Toy Man Posts: 416
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    Some times at the end of a sear, I will loosely crumple up some aluminum foil, put it on the grate and let it go for awhile. Not sure why the foil works but it definitely seems to help.[p]Toy Man
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  • Grillicious
    Grillicious Posts: 347
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    Louisiana Redneck, don't worry about it. Eventually you will one day accidentally fry your gasket (many of us have), and the positive outcome from that experience will be a clean egg.

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  • La. Redneck
    La. Redneck Posts: 26
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    Louisiana Redneck,
    Hey guys, thanks for the advice. I guess I will let it ride a while. I don't do very many high temps cooks. Usually between 200-450. The black is building up but what the heck. Thanks
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  • Prof Dan
    Prof Dan Posts: 339
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    Louisiana Redneck,[p]Every so often, I make a halfhearted attempt to brush off the really thick crud with a brass wire brush -- otherwise, big black chunks sometimes fall in the food. [I think the black chunks taste great, but some folks (like my wife) don't agree.][p]This is only the stuff on the inside of the dome, of course -- the black crud on the walls of the bottom half provide extra insulation and seasoning, and I would never touch that stuff.

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  • Charbon
    Charbon Posts: 222
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    Louisiana Redneck,
    That's what I call the forbidden zone. You have to watch when putting something large into egg or otherwise it may rub against the zone and ruin your perception of the cook. You can foil rub the lid and place a foil sheet (shiny side down) onto the grid and let her rip. Everything below foil will burn off but lid zone will still be there. High heat burn puts gaskets at risk. Good Luck
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  • Unknown
    Unknown
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    Louisiana Redneck,
    I have used heavy guage foil and covered both top and bottom gasket. Fire up the Egg less the grill rack and nuke it. You don't have to use much lump to get it hot. When it reaches 600 or so, put more foil over the lump to snuff it out while you have the lid open. Take a scotch pad with nothing on it and start scrapping. It will never get white again, but it will be fairly clean. Every time I finish cooking and as soon as I take the meat off the grill, that is when I take my soft brush and clean the grill. Comes off really easy when hot. [p]Chef Jerry
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  • billyg
    billyg Posts: 315
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    Interesting question. I haven't had my egg as long as as you, but the one axiom I have is I just leave it alone. But if I wanted to clean it out I would use my protable steam cleaner. No chemicals,no residue, just water. Let dry and you're clean. (about $40 Mine works great, never tried it on the egg, don't plan to.
    bill
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  • Unknown
    Unknown
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    Louisiana Redneck,[p]Everyone talks about burning up the gasket... If you used your mapp gas to flame out the crud you'd only be heating up small areas at a time. [p] I don't worry about mine, I've had my Egg for 4 months and I'm on my third dome! Heck, mine barely gets dirty! lol....[p]Seriously, I wouldn't worry about the dome getting black and nasty, the flaky stuff will burn off on it's own. It's called seasoning!

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