Question about oiling/cleaning PC grates

Many people recommend brushing porcelain-coated cast iron grates after cooking, but some people recommend letting the grease/food particles remain and "protect" the grates and only cleaning them up after preheating for the next meal. I've been using PAM grilling spray to oil the grates before lighting the grill. Safety tells me not to ever spray the oil after the grill is hot (!) so it would seem counter-productive to brush the grate to clean it after I've sprayed oil on it. Is there a better way to oil the grates? What are your methods?

some feel that oiling the food is better. i use pam or veggie oil put on the grates with a paper towel.

Clean and Oil enough and your brush should build up a nice "sponge like" texture of oily gunk that starts to do both

Anne,

After grilling, I turn all burners to "high" for about 5 minutes (while my cooked food is "resting"). Then I use my brush to clean the grates.

On next cook, I again turn all burners to "high" and when the grill is up to temp, I wipe the grate with a folded, and oil soaked paper towel (usually peanut oil), obviously using a long set of tongs. This works well and you wil be surprised at the stuff you clean off the grates.

Ray

Anne
We all have different ideas about what to do but the basics don't change. You want to have a clean rust free surface to cook on with the minimum amount of effort.

Contrary to popular belief porcelain can crack with temperature variances and draw in moisture when cooling and then rust in flaky bits. This usually happens after a couple of years but can happen earlier.

It is always easier to clean the gunk off the grill as soon as you have finished cooking whilst the gunk is still soft.

Oil sprayed or wiped on a hot grill will be absorbed into any cracks in the porcelain or the grain structure of the Cast Iron whilst it is cooling down and protect it from rusting.

The way I recommend to people when demonstrating is
1. - Brush after cooking while the grill is hot,
2. - Turn the heat to high for a couple of minutes. Turn the heat off and lightly spray with cooking oil and brush again. Let it cool down with the lid close.
3. - Next time Preheat and brush before cooking and do steps 1 and 2 after cooking.
You will know when the grill is real dirty, when it is like this soak in hot soapy water for 15 - 20 minutes and then brush clean./ Heat it up on the BBQ for 15 minutes, turn the BBQ off and spray liberally with cooking oil and brush again. let it cool down with the lid closed.

If you follow these steps you will get a long life out of your grill.

Cheers