Make Your Grates Last Forever - Season Them!

If you have recently purchases a high quality grill and haven’t seasoned your grates yet, do so as soon as possible. If you fail to do this simple task they will rust badly and you will find your food sticking to them like super glue. This will also prevent your grates from rusting. This is a very common mistake but a task that must not be put on the back burner…excuse the pun.

Well seasoned cast iron grill grates will add tons of flavor to your food and this will improve with age. Food will never stick to properly seasoned grates. Most importantly they will never rust, which is important for health reasons. Who wants rusty food?

Seasoning your grates is pretty easy. All you need is some vegetable oil or bacon grease. You will need enough to apply a thick coating to your grates. I used a basting brush for this. Once you have applied a thick coat to your grates you must bake them for 3 hours at 300 degrees.

Then remove the grates and re-coat them. Place back into the over for another 2 hours at 200 degrees. Remove the grates and allow them to cool and use on your grill as normal.

You can heat your grates in either the grill or the oven. If you use the oven and vegetable oil be sure to open a window or two and/or the ventilation fan. The vegetable oil will cause some unpleasant fumes, nothing harmful though.

This seasoned non-stick finish will last for a few seasons. They will absorb flavor and give you food a true grilled taste with every use. They will hold up well with normal use and occasional use of a grill brush. However, if you use the scrapper often on the grill grates then you may have to re-season as needed to avoid rust.

Turn Any Charcoal Grill Into A Smoker

To use your charcoal grill as a smoker you will be using the indirect cooking method. This is done two ways depending on the type of charcoal grill you have.

For the typical round grill this is done by placing your coals on both sides of your grill separated by an aluminum pan with about 2-3 cups of water along with any flavorings you want to add. Once your coals are heated up, place soaked wood pieces on top of the coals. Be sure your wood is fully smoking before you start cooking. You want to place your food on the grill directly above the water pan. Be sure to add a few coal briquettes every hour and as needed add water and seasonings to the pan.


For a barrel shaped grill the method is about the same except the placement of your cooking materials. For this type of grill, you will place your coal and smoking wood to one side of the grill. If your barrel grill has a smoke pipe then you want your coals on the opposite side and the food on the same side as your smoke stack. Once the coals get going good place your wood on the coals and place your food on opposite side of grill.

Important Cooking Tips

When smoking your food this way be sure to keep the temperature around 190 and 220 degrees. 200 degrees is an optimal temperature to smoke with. Be sure to use a meat thermometer because smoked food has a different color than regular grilled food. A thermometer will make sure you don’t under or over cook the meat. Also you can add some wood chips to your water pan to help add some flavor.