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I guess there was too much accumulated grease…

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I put my Lodge 12″ dutch oven in my Weber Sub-Silver grill to re-season it, figuring I’d let the temperature get up to around 450 degrees farenheit before turning it off.

At about 425 degrees the usual white smoke my grill emits (the remains of the last grilling project burning off of the grill surface) turned oily and black, and I realized there was flame coming off of the grease “funnel” (the removable piece below the burners, which has a hole in the middle through which grease will drip, ending up in the small, also-removable grease pan.) The whole surface of the funnel was on fire, which meant there were flames BELOW the burners. I turned the burners off, and the grill kept burning merrily. I’d say “cheerily” but the smoke was too black and stinky to be cheerful.

Long story short: no damage to the grill. What should have been a 20 minute “clean-and-season the dutch oven” project turned into a 90-minute “extinguish the grill, clean it up, then re-clean and re-season the dutch oven” project. The good news is that I didn’t have anything better to do with my time, and now the grill is nice and clean. Burning the stuff in that funnel, dangerous though it may be, made it a darn sight easier to clean than last time. And hey, I got to play with fire. Any day that has THAT in it is all right by me.

–Howard

10 thoughts on “I guess there was too much accumulated grease…”

  3. Well, normally I prefer cleansing with fire and sword, but you’re halfway there at least! And I suppose the sword wouldn’t have gotten you much on a dutch oven…

  4. (apologies if this is an old meme here, but:)

    grill + LOX = hilarity

    “[L]ighting of the grill with 3 gallons of liquid oxygen. Started with 60 lbs of charcoal, and burnt up 40 lbs of it in 3 seconds. Result is a grill ready to cook in about 3 seconds, and all the old grease, etc burned off. Don’t try this at home.”

    (from the [mirror of the old] homepage of george goble)

  6. FIRE!!!!!!……….. *drools*
    I love fire almost as much as I love explosions (especially the kind that set stuff on fire)

    but then, you knew that. I do read Schlock, after all

  8. Why is it all guys just love to play with fire? And, if they’re in the position to do so, other fire-like effects such as high-power lasers. A friend of mine was taking bits out of his thumbnail with a 4W one the other day.

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