If you are a lover of low, slow, and true barbecue, then you need to have a good offset smoker. Compare to grill barbecue, offset smokers required a low temperature of around 225 F to cook food, and it saves time as well. That’s why I use an offset smoker for my outdoor cook. Most people spend a handsome amount on a good offset smoker having a plan to keep it for years. But, to increase the life span of an offset smoker you should need to clean it regularly. For this, you should know how to clean offset smoker?
Cleaning a smoker is not a very simple procedure; rather it involves multiple small tasks throughout the whole process of cleaning. Before moving towards the regular cleaning of the offset smoker, just look at the initial seasoning of an offset smoker.
Seasoning of an offset smoker
Before the initial cook, you must season your smoker at once. Larger smokers need to be seasoned more comprehensively. Although some manufacturers claim there is no need to season their smokers, a re-season of offset smokers would make it cleaner for use.
The first step is to coat the complete inside surface with the oil, you can use different cooking oils such as canola, grapeseed, palm, peanut, or bacon oil, but canola and grapeseed oils are recommended due to their high smoke point.
After coating the whole inside surface completely with oil, you need to heat the coated oil to a temperature that will seep the oil into imperfection in the surface. This process will keep the surface free from any kind of rust by repelling water. The inside temperature should be around 250 F to 280 F. A temperature higher than this may damage the paint of a metal surface of an offset smoker. During seasoning, a chimney should be wide open to create a good airflow.
This process will create a protective layer to eliminate any contamination from the smoker and enables you to get the hang of your offset smoker. After properly seasoned you can use your smoker for cooking, but you just need to clean the smoker regularly to avoid it from rusting.
Now we will discuss in detail how to clean offset smoker?
Steps How to clean an Offset Smoker
1-Empty the Firebox
To cleaning of offset smoker, firstly, remove the offset smoker and let the ash and wood pieces fall into the bottom of the box. Then, by using a small brush sweep the ash into the ashtray.
In the case of large pieces of wood or charcoal, it’s best to remove these pieces by hand, so they don’t get trapped into an ashtray. After removing large pieces, open the ashtray and drop the ashes onto the garden or throw them in the garbage.
As different types of wood produce different amounts of ashes, that’s why you may find a lot or a bit of ash in ashtray depending on the wood or charcoal used. I hope you understand how to clean a smoker box?
2-Wipe down the Cooking Chamber
For easy access to the whole chamber, remove the stainless steel grates and heat deflection plates. After cook, the bottom of the cooking chamber is usually stuck with a bit of fat. This solidified fat can be easily wiped out by using a paper towel.
Ensure that you do not use hard or abrasive surface paper this may damage the protective coating that is sprayed on the surface during the initial seasoning by the manufacturer.
It’s necessary to wipe out the leftover fat each time; otherwise, it will heat up with every cooking and start to overflow which is not good.
3-Heat Deflection Plates Cleaning
When you have done with the cooking chamber and completely removed extensive fats as well. Now, it’s time to clean the heat deflection plates thoroughly. Simply just like a cooking chamber, use a paper towel to clean fat.
However, in case of any stubborn parts, you just carefully use a scraper or a spatula to raise the baked food. That’s how you can easily clean the heat deflection plates.
4-Cleaning the Grills
Finally, we will discuss how to clean smoker grates? It’s the most necessary step in offset smoker cleaning because your food will directly touch with grills or grates while cooking. So, the proper cleaning of smoker grates is essential to save your food from any kind of contamination.
Normally, the offset smoker grates are coated with stainless steel or porcelain; you can easily clean such kinds of grills without too much effort. After removing them from a smoker, you need to soak them into hot water either in your sink or in a big bowl, that’s how you can remove litter easily.
But I recommend you a degreasing method to get more effective cleaning, just sprayed grates with BBQ degreaser, leave them for 5 minutes allow them to immerse properly. Then, take a simple wire brush and scrape all waste from the grills.
Alternatively, it’s more convenient to remove all debris just after finishing the cook because hot grates make your work easier. You just need to remove extra food particles from the grills by scraping them with a wire brush.
I hope you would understand how to clean inside of a smoker properly and effectively.
Wrap Up:
We already discussed step by step how to clean offset smoker, now time to take a detailed look at the smoker to make sure the smoker is free from all kinds of rust or fats. If still there is any dust, rust, or fat on the smoker, wiped it out carefully by using a wire brush or sandpaper.
Now, set up all parts of the offset smoker carefully in their respective positions. Not only clean your offset smoker completely after every month, but also remove dust and food waste after every cook, it will increase the life span of the smoker, and you don’t need to buy it often.
Apart from effective cleaning, try to maintain a protective oil coating to save your smoker from rust or other contamination that can damage the surface.
Final Verdict:
Everyone wants to enjoy nice and clean food; effective cleaning not only helps to maintain your smoker in good condition for cooking but also makes the food tasty. And I hope after reading this article; now you have complete knowledge about how to clean offset smoker.
Protect all parts of your equipment with a regular oil coating, and try to remove any fat or debris from a hot smoker just after every cook, heat not only make your work easier but also provide better cleaning. Rather, you can build fire in the box to produce more heat to scrape all waste.
So, always make sure proper cleaning to save your offset smoker and investment.
