Gas Grill Advice

[[AK]Nuts]

Okay... I'm traditionally a charcoal grill kind of guy. I like the effort and I like the end results of meat cooked over charcoal. However, the wife has turned me into a 'gasser'. I've already lost the debate and I can live with it. However I have a newbie question:

What's the best way to keep my new grill (seen here) clean? The drippings and bits of meat that fall down into the grill, unless they roll down into the center to drop into the drippings can, all just collect along the sides and bottom for the grill. There's about 10" of space between the burners and the bottom. Should I just line the grill bottom with heavy duty tin-foil or buy something like lava rocks? What do you gassers do?

Thanks.

[[AK]The Beast]

As long as my cooking surface (ie, the grate) is clean, I don't generally care much about what falls down in. Most of it will burn off or fall into the grease trap--every so often, I'll give the lower part of the grill the once-over with my wire brush/scraper tool.

[The Purchaser]

Ditto on what Beast said...

And when it gets to be too much, I'll empty the thing of the elements, lava rock, etc and spray her down with some easy off oven cleaner.

The Purch.

[[AK]StitchJones]

Those drippings help season the lava patties. Hmmmmm yummy!

[[AK]Devil_Dog]

What all three above have said goes for me and my gas grill as well Nuts...

Cooking on a gas grill will spoil you in a good way..

[[AK]Devil_Dog]

Speaking of which, I have a side burner like Nut's grill does, BTW nice grill Nuts!!!

Do any of you guys have a side burner? What do you like to cook on it?

[[AK]Gunny Highway]

That's the exact same grill I have , I also leave the drippings etc.. through the season then before storing it for the winter I scrape it out with the scraper/wirebrush.

[[AK]Rocks]

Lava or Not, I say you can never have enoughs Rocks: [AK]Rocks that is! Grill away Boys!

[[AK]Hylander]

We have a Charbroil as well with a side cooker. We tend to use it as a simmer for franks as we cook them prior to grilling and also to fried onions for on top of steaks.

[[AK]Clay]

Nice grill Nuts. Just to hear my own voice, I agree with what most folks here have said. As gross as it may sound, the drippings will "season" the bottom of the grill and help season what you're cooking.

Lava rocks are OK, but I've found that they can shift and settle in bad ways after some time. I now use a steel heat distributor plate and am pretty happy with it.

Good call on getting a side burner - perfect for side dishes in the summer time without heating up the kitchen.

[[AK]Sonic Boom]

I must say that I'm solidly pro-lava rock. (I gotta get out of political forum mode...)

I have a kind of twisted theory on grills. I bought this fantastic, dirt-cheap, grill about eight years ago from Home Depot and absolutely abuse it. It's a single burner setup that I cook on just about every night. It sure beats the hell outta cleaning the kitchen...

I never clean the thing and never cover it up. I just keep the wick turned up WFO when I'm preheating it and do a complete rebuild every spring after it's survived another winter here in Seattle.

I love that grill more than my girfriend's dog... (almost.)