00:00:00:00 - 00:00:07:18 Speaker 1 Your resume is good in numbers given to give more people.

00:00:07:18 - 00:00:30:00 Speaker 1 You're listening to the Barbecue Nerds podcast, where smoked meat science and flavor is our favorite experiment. Hey, barbecue lovers, I'm David, your resident pitmaster and science geek, along with my co-host Frank. We're diving deep into the world of barbecue where tradition meets innovation. Now let's get to today's episode.

00:00:30:02 - 00:00:34:00 Speaker 2 But I want to get back on that other deal. When we were talking about seasoning, though. Sure.

00:00:34:00 - 00:00:37:12 Speaker 2 You know my buddy Colby, Archie or Cody, one of those two boys?

00:00:37:12 - 00:00:39:11 Speaker 2 One time posted a video.

00:00:39:11 - 00:00:46:05 Speaker 2 If you go on to Instagram or the TikTok, if you go back in there far enough, you'll see pit hustlers.

00:00:46:05 - 00:00:47:12 Speaker 2 That that was those boys.

00:00:47:12 - 00:00:51:03 Speaker 2 Anyway, I remember a video they did one time.

00:00:51:03 - 00:01:06:07 Speaker 2 Where they were talking about seasoning your pit, and they were always posting really great content in the inside of their drum smokers. He took the old white glove and went in there and wiped it. Course it was black inside his drum, and whenever he wiped his finger, it came out clean.

00:01:06:09 - 00:01:25:22 Speaker 2 And he said, that's seasoned. If it's stiff, it comes off and it's black on your finger. That's dirty. That's the difference between seasoning a pit and dirty pit. It's just like an iron skillet, like I cook with cast iron every meal. If I'm cooking, we're using cast iron. I got two good skillets, got two,

00:01:25:22 - 00:01:30:16 Speaker 2 Dutch ovens, and I got a big old nice flat griddle thing, and we cook everything on that.

00:01:30:19 - 00:01:31:06 Speaker 2 And,

00:01:31:06 - 00:01:38:22 Speaker 2 you know, my cast iron. I have a certain way that I wash it after every single time I use it. I have a certain way that I re season it.

00:01:38:22 - 00:01:42:13 Speaker 2 There's a quick re season. Then there's the long re seasoning and,

00:01:42:13 - 00:01:51:13 Speaker 2 keeping that stuff clean. You shouldn't you shouldn't have like if you take a towel and wipe it around in there, if you got stuff that comes off on that paper towel, you're skillets dirty.

00:01:51:15 - 00:01:58:20 Speaker 2 Go back to the hot water or the salt and the oil or whatever you're using to clean that thing with. Go back in there and clean it. And,

00:01:58:20 - 00:02:01:17 Speaker 2 then you can go back and re season it and it'll last forever.

00:02:01:18 - 00:02:06:14 Speaker 1 So I, I, I, I agree with you. I love to cook with cast iron.

00:02:06:14 - 00:02:07:18 Speaker 1 I like to say that,

00:02:07:18 - 00:02:11:04 Speaker 1 mine's as smooth as a baby's bottom on the inside, but.

00:02:11:06 - 00:02:11:16 Speaker 2 Which one.

00:02:11:16 - 00:02:19:18 Speaker 1 Was. Yeah, I, I haven't, I guess I haven't used my cast iron pans as, as often as I would have liked, or they're not as,

00:02:19:18 - 00:02:21:23 Speaker 1 as well aged in seasoned.

00:02:21:23 - 00:02:25:20 Speaker 1 But I, I do have, believe it or not, on the with,

00:02:25:20 - 00:02:27:04 Speaker 1 some of the,

00:02:27:04 - 00:02:34:22 Speaker 1 the, the flat tops that I've used in the past. Here is their glass shimmered beautiful, really nice, broken in.

00:02:35:00 - 00:02:42:00 Speaker 1 And that's kind of the way that I'm trying to get my my new pits to. Look. I know it's going to take a while, but,

00:02:42:00 - 00:02:53:16 Speaker 1 you know, for the outside, even after I use them this weekend, I made sure that they were wiped down. They were cleaned. Linseed oil went right back on the outside. I can't get them up to make sure that,

00:02:53:16 - 00:02:55:05 Speaker 1 that boiled linseed oil would.

00:02:55:05 - 00:02:55:16 Speaker 1 What? It's,

00:02:55:16 - 00:03:00:03 Speaker 1 re polymerized on to the to the external, the metal. And,

00:03:00:03 - 00:03:04:05 Speaker 1 after I went and gave them a good clean out, sprayed them down with them again, he did up.

00:03:04:07 - 00:03:07:11 Speaker 2 Yeah. My favorite tools, I think in order would be,

00:03:07:11 - 00:03:14:06 Speaker 2 there's a brush from a company. Well, it depends on what kind of grates you got. I got to start there. Assuming you have,

00:03:14:06 - 00:03:20:03 Speaker 2 round bar cooking grates. Most grills have round bar cooking grates. That's my favorite. Honestly,

00:03:20:03 - 00:03:24:07 Speaker 2 when you're with, you have those grates. There's a brush from a company called Boyer Brush.

00:03:24:07 - 00:03:27:07 Speaker 2 We're not sponsored by them. I just had some beers with,

00:03:27:07 - 00:03:29:00 Speaker 2 with Sylvester, and,

00:03:29:00 - 00:03:31:21 Speaker 2 he gave me a brush, and I started using it, and I love it.

00:03:31:21 - 00:03:45:07 Speaker 2 Both by Boyer brush. And that brush is got, like, these cool springs that have, like, this hook in them, and it's stainless steel and their springs. And when you take it, they they stay, they stay in the brush.

00:03:45:07 - 00:04:03:22 Speaker 2 It's not like a wire brush where the bristles come out. They don't get hooked and stuff. And so you can take and scrape. But that little cupped part, if you keep up with your cooking grate, that cup poured on that wire will start to scrape the sides of that. And that's the hardest part to get is down underneath on the sides, both sides.

00:04:03:22 - 00:04:08:21 Speaker 2 Yeah. AKA barbecue man said Boyer. Brush kicks ass. He's right. It's a great tool.

00:04:08:21 - 00:04:11:12 Speaker 2 The other thing that I really like is,

00:04:11:12 - 00:04:14:00 Speaker 2 a five and one painter's tool.

00:04:14:00 - 00:04:17:01 Speaker 2 It looks kind of like a hybrid putty knife. Like, or,

00:04:17:01 - 00:04:28:09 Speaker 2 or a drywall blade, but it's about 2.5in wide. Sometimes you can get wider ones, and it's got like, the flat blade that's sharp, and then it's got, like, a hook in it like that.

00:04:28:11 - 00:04:30:19 Speaker 2 And the other side's got almost like a,

00:04:30:19 - 00:04:42:15 Speaker 2 squared off hook in it. You can take that and get that down inside of a lot of cool little areas that you can't reach with, like just a regular old putty knife or like a four inch blade or something like that.

00:04:42:15 - 00:04:45:10 Speaker 2 I like to have those around, especially if they're flexible.

00:04:45:10 - 00:04:48:01 Speaker 2 Because it'll kind of bend and you can get some pressure on it.

00:04:48:01 - 00:04:52:21 Speaker 2 Another tool I use quite a lot if I've got a big pit that is,

00:04:52:21 - 00:05:00:21 Speaker 2 I'm going to be doing a lot of this, you know, going down the curve or the inside of the wall, or if I've got a pit like the smoke slinger, full size.

00:05:00:21 - 00:05:03:14 Speaker 2 That's a that's a flat walled pit.

00:05:03:14 - 00:05:04:16 Speaker 2 You can take these,

00:05:04:16 - 00:05:14:20 Speaker 2 four inch floor scrapers that are sharpened, and they've got a reversible blade on them. Boy, you talk about getting something clean fast. It'll get all the way down to bare metal.

00:05:14:20 - 00:05:21:12 Speaker 2 You'll need to make sure that there's no, like, welding debris inside. You'll have to grind that down so it doesn't like, get hung on it.

00:05:21:12 - 00:05:38:00 Speaker 2 But you can clean super fast with that. 90% of cleaning a pit is scraping it. That's what I think. From there, it's we can do all kinds of other stuff from there. If we get the solid food build up, that's the worst part. And the liquid that's in there in the chamber,

00:05:38:00 - 00:05:41:11 Speaker 2 then you'll then you can just heat the pit up and rinse it out.

00:05:41:12 - 00:05:46:06 Speaker 1 At that point when when you were talking about the putty knife, I can relate to that.

00:05:46:06 - 00:05:59:04 Speaker 1 Whether I've used pellet cookers in the past, and then you get full of all the pellet dust and the ash, or again, back to the gas grills. Or now moving on to our stick burners and our smoke slingers that are charcoal and wood.

00:05:59:06 - 00:06:02:04 Speaker 1 I've always found that that putty knife,

00:06:02:04 - 00:06:03:10 Speaker 1 or

00:06:03:10 - 00:06:26:10 Speaker 1 even they use in the baking industry the bakery knives to be able to get in there and scrape things down. I've had those occasions, like you mentioned earlier, with the brisket or even with the pork butts, that it's nice when it's still liquid, but I'll allow that start to coagulate, and now it becomes a lot more tacky, and I find it easier to be able to use that, that putty knife and scrape everything out.

00:06:26:10 - 00:06:41:18 Speaker 1 And I get in there with paper towels, and when I get a really good mess, I get a really good chunk. Let's just say, for the those that are listening on the radio, you get up like a good pile of grease. I'll take that, scrape it up, get it into the paper towel.

00:06:41:18 - 00:06:43:03 Speaker 1 And it looks like puke.

00:06:43:05 - 00:06:45:06 Speaker 1 And you take the whole not in the whole

00:06:45:06 - 00:07:15:19 Speaker 1 paper towel and dump that out. And after a few times of of doing that, you're able to get a lot of that tough grease as well as the ash all together and pull it out. But, Frank, if you haven't tried this one because I, I'm seeing now that not necessarily with the gas grills or the pellet cookers, but with our a quarter inch steel, even our eight inch steel cookers that we have, the getting in there with the, the weed burner, same tool that we used to like the charcoal.

00:07:15:19 - 00:07:33:06 Speaker 1 Same thing that we use a lighter wood, to get in there and burn everything out with the, with the weed burner. I've seen people pro on the circuit doing the same thing. They get in there and they're, they're actually burning everything out from their expanded metal down to the inside of their pits.

00:07:33:06 - 00:07:43:11 Speaker 1 I would think that it would make sense to unscrew your temperature gauge and pull that out so that you don't spin the dial around or do anything to the, to the four inch probe that's on there.

00:07:43:11 - 00:07:48:19 Speaker 1 But have you seen anything similar to that where people are burning out the entire inside?

00:07:48:21 - 00:07:54:04 Speaker 2 Yeah, actually, if you were watching when we were down in Miami, the kosher guy was kosher and with the torch.

00:07:54:04 - 00:07:55:08 Speaker 1 As it was.

00:07:55:09 - 00:08:07:13 Speaker 2 But it didn't look like it was getting clean to me. It still looked like the used great. Still had used food on it. So. So the problem with it is, I think, is that you still got to get the solid buildup off, like,

00:08:07:13 - 00:08:08:14 Speaker 2 for instance,

00:08:08:14 - 00:08:14:10 Speaker 2 like whenever you've got expanded metal grates like Eric was asking about canned meats, competition, barbecue.

00:08:14:12 - 00:08:17:06 Speaker 2 Sure. He was asking earlier about expanded metal.

00:08:17:06 - 00:08:38:16 Speaker 2 You know, the torch can get in there and burn or whatever, but a lot of times that material's only like somewhere between 9 and 11 gauge thick material. So which is eighth of an inch essentially. And it depending on the construction of the cooking grate, you know, it, it can warp and you're sitting there heating this thing up and heating it up and heating this up, especially on a bigger pit.

00:08:38:18 - 00:08:40:14 Speaker 2 You could actually get some bubble or,

00:08:40:14 - 00:08:41:01 Speaker 2 little,

00:08:41:01 - 00:08:46:01 Speaker 2 oil. Can they call it where it can like dunk, dunk. You know, they can do that little maneuver.

00:08:46:01 - 00:08:52:19 Speaker 2 You can get a little bit of that in there and it's you can't ever get rid of it. So once it starts doing that,

00:08:52:19 - 00:08:54:22 Speaker 2 I prefer not to burn them off.

00:08:54:23 - 00:08:57:00 Speaker 2 Now, inside the pit,

00:08:57:00 - 00:09:11:03 Speaker 2 you could go around with a torch in there and kind of burn off some of the sidewalls and things like that, but I think, you know, just like anything else, when you start hitting it with the torch, it starts to kind of ash up or kind of crumble up. Right? But it doesn't like necessarily come off.

00:09:11:07 - 00:09:19:05 Speaker 2 I think, I think you still need to scrape or powerwash or something. You know, what's, what's talking about power washing.

00:09:19:05 - 00:09:21:09 Speaker 2 I think the reason that I like that the most,

00:09:21:09 - 00:09:41:22 Speaker 2 and I don't even worry about, like, doing it with a hot pit or using any chemicals or anything like that. If you watched the video that I posted earlier, I literally just taken scrape the pit with that flat, flexible blade and I just get every surface that is, scrape a bowl, and then I go through there with the power washer and rinse all that out the best I can.

00:09:42:00 - 00:09:46:05 Speaker 2 And then I come back with a you'll see me in the video with a big,

00:09:46:05 - 00:09:51:21 Speaker 2 brush that's got like a scrub brush with a handle on it, like a broom handle on it, and,

00:09:51:21 - 00:09:57:20 Speaker 2 on a big pit, I can take and scrape that whole thing down, scrub it after I power wash and,

00:09:57:20 - 00:10:00:11 Speaker 2 then hit it one more time with the power washers.

00:10:00:11 - 00:10:20:09 Speaker 2 I'm talking cheap power washer. I'm not like an expensive power washer guy. Karcher or whatever it is from Harbor Freight. That's mine. It's going to freeze and bust anyway this every winter. So you're just going to wind up with a new one. So get the good one for like 90 some bucks. You know, maybe 79 bucks. But,

00:10:20:09 - 00:10:22:23 Speaker 2 anyway, power wash that thing down and get rid of all that stuff.

00:10:22:23 - 00:10:29:15 Speaker 2 You're back to zero, and you can just easily heat it up and season it, you know? No problem.

00:10:29:16 - 00:10:34:02 Speaker 1 That's that's a great process. I have one of these,

00:10:34:02 - 00:10:36:02 Speaker 1 electric power washers.

00:10:36:02 - 00:10:40:23 Speaker 1 I don't know why. That's what I decided to go with instead of the the gas.

00:10:40:23 - 00:10:44:08 Speaker 1 But it has a feature on there that allows me to,

00:10:44:08 - 00:10:46:07 Speaker 1 to heat up water as a coil inside.

00:10:46:08 - 00:10:47:07 Speaker 2 Oh, cool.

00:10:47:09 - 00:10:48:04 Speaker 1 I'm feeling.

00:10:48:04 - 00:10:48:15 Speaker 2 Better.

00:10:48:20 - 00:10:51:18 Speaker 1 Yeah, that's what I was thinking. The same thing when,

00:10:51:18 - 00:11:10:17 Speaker 1 when when I'm washing greasy pans here. I don't tend to use cold water. I use hot water on there. I because hot water is obviously going to help with emulsifying the greases in the fat to pull them off. Not to mention using a detergent like Dawn or some other one that breaks right through the grease.

00:11:10:19 - 00:11:34:06 Speaker 1 So it's going through my head. And again, you know, you put this video out. I had the opportunity to to watch it as Mr. Smoke Builder himself educates the public on what to do. And it dawned upon me, there we go, Don. Again, using hot water in the pressure washer along with some of that. That dishwashing soap. Would that help to to,

00:11:34:06 - 00:11:40:18 Speaker 1 to get through the grease any quicker, or would it eliminate more of any of the greases that are on there.

00:11:40:20 - 00:11:45:06 Speaker 2 Oh, absolutely. Yeah. That's going to make a huge difference. By the way, I'm cracking up because I'm reading what,

00:11:45:06 - 00:11:51:02 Speaker 2 Dave and Beth's, said kosher with the torch. Best line ever. He was there.

00:11:51:02 - 00:11:52:10 Speaker 2 So, anyway,

00:11:52:10 - 00:11:55:01 Speaker 2 yeah, the the hot water thing is great.

00:11:55:01 - 00:11:56:12 Speaker 2 As a matter of fact, you know,

00:11:56:12 - 00:11:59:17 Speaker 2 the restaurant industry with their grease hoods and stuff like that.

00:11:59:17 - 00:12:03:14 Speaker 2 Of course, I spent a lot of time under a hood, you know, working on stuff and,

00:12:03:14 - 00:12:12:15 Speaker 2 working on those fans and stuff like that. And those guys got to come in quarterly and they scrape everything first, and then they come in and they got this,

00:12:12:15 - 00:12:15:19 Speaker 2 what they call a hot city. Some guys call it that or,

00:12:15:19 - 00:12:19:04 Speaker 2 steam powered or very hot water,

00:12:19:04 - 00:12:20:01 Speaker 2 power washer.

00:12:20:01 - 00:12:21:10 Speaker 2 My buddy Kurt does that,

00:12:21:10 - 00:12:36:13 Speaker 2 for hoods. Anyway, those guys flat blow through some grease. Course, they're using chemicals on the hoods and stuff, which you can't really do that in a pit necessary. You could, I guess, but you're starting from zero every time. And I think it's unnecessary with your seasoning. But if you,

00:12:36:13 - 00:12:41:20 Speaker 2 if you do have the opportunity to get a power washer that's got hot water in it, by all means, it's the best.

00:12:41:20 - 00:12:45:04 Speaker 2 Now, I will give you a little parentheses here.

00:12:45:04 - 00:12:51:14 Speaker 2 Not all power washers are created equal. If you're smart, like me, when you built your house, you put a hot in a cold,

00:12:51:14 - 00:12:56:04 Speaker 2 frost free hydrant in your garage so you can run a hot water line out,

00:12:56:04 - 00:12:58:20 Speaker 2 to clean your pits. Well, I found out

00:12:58:20 - 00:13:06:08 Speaker 2 you can't put hot water in every power washer, even if you've got hot water available on the fire under your water hose.

00:13:06:10 - 00:13:16:07 Speaker 2 Some of those it'll actually mess them up. They got to be designed to take hot water into them before you can actually use them that way and and clean with them.

00:13:16:07 - 00:13:25:04 Speaker 2 But honestly, I don't I found it, you know, it's it's really great to have that hot water there for like, cleaning dishes when I'm doing, like, all my meat grinders and stuff like that.

00:13:25:04 - 00:13:40:21 Speaker 2 I want to hose all that off out in the back end. You know, because that hose goes a long way from the house. I can go out there and on the edge of the woods and clean all that stuff up and keep it out of my sink and my garage and all that stuff. And the coons eat, and they're happy and everything's cool, you know?

00:13:40:23 - 00:13:41:10 Speaker 2 But,

00:13:41:10 - 00:13:50:12 Speaker 2 it's not it's not really necessary for cleaning a pit. I don't your little situation with the little heater in, it's pretty dang cool, though. I have to check that one out. Yeah.

00:13:50:18 - 00:13:53:10 Speaker 1 Yeah. You're welcome to come here to the lodge.

00:13:53:10 - 00:13:54:07 Speaker 2 To the lodge?

00:13:54:09 - 00:13:59:07 Speaker 1 You might. There might be a couple of cookers here you're familiar with. And, you know, I heard

00:13:59:07 - 00:14:01:00 Speaker 1 some help and some expertise.

00:14:01:01 - 00:14:02:22 Speaker 2 But you want me to come clean them? Is that what you're saying?

00:14:03:04 - 00:14:09:00 Speaker 1 Yeah, I'm saying about that to you. Then we've got to clean them. So one hand washes the other.

00:14:09:02 - 00:14:10:06 Speaker 2 Yeah. That's right.

00:14:10:06 - 00:14:34:12 Speaker 1 That's a wrap for today's episode of the Barbecue Nerds podcast, where smoked meats, science, and flavor always comes first. This episode is brought to you by Smoke Slinger, the craftsman behind some of the best barbecue pits and offset smokers in the game. Whether you're a backyard warrior or a pro, Pitmaster smoke slinger builds custom pits designed to help you cook your best barbecue ever.

00:14:34:14 - 00:14:54:03 Speaker 1 Visit Smoke slinger.com to see their lineup and bring competition quality smoke to your own backyard. A big shout out to smoke slinger fueling our passion and keeping the smoke rolling strong. And as always, keep those pits hot, the smoke rolling and stay nerdy about barbecue.