Guide on How to Stop Grill Flare-Ups? 

How can you prevent flare-ups when grilling? This query is universally posed by anyone who enjoys the art of grilling. You may be aware that flare-ups from the grill are sudden, intense bursts of flame, typically caused when oil and fat drip onto the hot coals or wood, sparking the flames.

If you are thinking that a flare-up and grease are the same things. Well! That’s not the fact.

Quick and short flare-ups that may happen from small drips may be common during the process of grilling. They do not generally cause a problem or any other issue that you have to be worried about extinguishing. They may often happen when you put fatty flesh onto the grill such as chicken or steaks or when you turn them.

In this blog, we are going to share some useful information about how you can stop or prevent these flare-ups of your grill. And also discuss how these can be controlled.

How to Stop or Prevent Grill Flare-ups?

When a small flare-up happens, the best thing you have to do is to move your food to another part of the grill. By doing this, the flare-up will automatically die down quickly. But the main problem occurs when the small flare-ups enhance and get out of control that it may change into a grease fire and turn into a big issue.

It generally happens when there is a build-up of grease and carbon in the grill. You can do a lot of things to stop the grill flare-ups from getting out of control. Here we mentioned some of them.

1- Keep the Grill Clean

One of the main and number reasons behind a quick flare-up that may get out of control is a dirty grill. First of all, make your all effort to deep clean the grill if required and after that also keep it clean between or during the cooking process.

It is better that after each cooking season, turn the heat up high and then burn off any food leftover on the grill grates. You may also use a grill brush or aluminum foil ball to drag the grates off to remove any dirt or carbon.

You certainly do not even want to have a residue buildup of grease and carbon whenever you get to light up the grill for cooking. When you are using a charcoal grill ensure that you have completely dragged out the interior of your grill when you are removing the ashes.

Along with it, do not forget to clean out the greased pan after your cooking session. While using a gas grill, you have to clean or degrease the drip guards after every session.

2- Use the Two-Zone Grill Set-up

It is recommended to use a two-zone grill set up for preventing grill flare-ups. When you are using this grill set-up, you may have a side that has a fuel source and is the source of direct heat while the other one is the indirect heat side without any fuel source.

Therefore, when you are using a wood or charcoal grill, all of the wood or charcoal will have to be on one side of the grill. The reason for this partition is to generate a high heat zone and a cooler zone.

While using a gas grill, leave one or half of a burner off as it depends on the size of the grill. It will generate a safety zone and give you an area away from any flare-ups. So that you can easily move your food and let them die out fastly.

3- Use Oil Sparingly 

When you are using oil or marinade on the flesh, never go too crazy for that. And ensure that the meat does not drip when you put it onto the grill grates. If it seems that your meat is highly marinated then shake it off gently before placing it on the grill. It will surely remove excessive marination material from the flesh.

4- Build up the Right Size Fire 

When you are using wood or charcoal as a fuel source for cooking, you do not have to overdo it with an excessive amount of wood or coal. Because it will create a huge and extremely hot fire.

In case you are grilling a couple of steaks, never use an entire big bag of briquettes. Try to create a balance between the amount of fuel and fire size for what you are genuinely grilling for.

5- Trim Off Excessive Fat from the Flesh 

Oils and fats dripping can be one of the main causes of a flare-up of the grill at the initial stages. So it is recommended to trim off as much of the excessive fat from the flesh as you can but without making any compromise on its flavor. When you trim off this excess fat from the meat, it will help you in discouraging flare-ups from happening.

6- Try to Avoid the Wind while Grilling 

It is important to position the grill so you can easily avoid the wind as much as you can. Because a gust of wind into the grill may quickly stoke the fire and then a large flare-up occurs.

You might see that we have discussed all the important ways to stop your grill from getting flare-up. It is very necessary to work on these habits when you are even doing your normal routine grilling.

However, some other worth-mentioning things to do when your grill gets flare-up are turn off the burners immediately and do not use water. It will help you greatly and keep you away from big losses.

Final thoughts

We hope that you learned how to stop grill flare-ups by now. So, go for what you need to do next. You can use these tips for grilling, barbecuing, or smoking meat. Always remember that the grill is another member in your backyard and shows respect for it. So, try these methods whenever you are getting a flare-up while cooking on your grill.