Why You Should Be Rubbing A Raw Potato On Your Grill Grates

Few things are as pleasurable as grilling out in fine weather — taking advantage of your ultimate outdoor grilling set up, enjoying the fresh air and lovely aromas, and then eating what you've made! With that said, frustration quickly enters the picture when your food sticks to the grill, making a mess and wasting food. But fear not, the lowly spud is here to stop the stick! You may have seen the popular trick of rubbing an onion on the grill to clean and coat the grates, but using a raw potato has similarly become a common backyard hack to make them non-stick. While scientific research to support the slippery spud story is hard to find, that is not stopping scads of clever cooks from taking advantage of the technique.

Any meat can stick to the grates under the wrong conditions, but this is especially common with lean meats like salmon, chicken breast, and trimmed pork. (Why is eating healthier always harder?) When applied to a hot grill, the potato leaves a starch layer that acts as a barrier to allow the meat to pull off readily, giving you a cheap and convenient way to help your cookout run smoothly. Never tried this hack? Certainly, in this case, nothing ventured is nothing gained — and really, potatoes are cheap!

A couple of basic pointers to start out: Always start with clean grill grates, and pre-heat them to your desired temperature. Remember, a very hot grill will stick less than cooler grill grates, potato or no potato. (You can always get your grill super-hot and then lower the cooking temperature after you've set the meat in place.) Next, cut a large potato in half crosswise. Stick a grill fork in the uncut end of the potato, and rub the cut end across the grill to coat it well. Don't be afraid of using a bit of elbow grease. (Relax, elbow grease is not fattening ...) You want to transfer starch from the potato to the grill surface.

From here on out, it is grilling as usual. As you may know, preparing your meat in certain marinades will often add to the tendency to stick to the grill. But the potato trick will be helpful even so, particularly when you follow a few smart grill cleaning tips and keep the grates greased. If you have a hankering for a backyard grilled meal, give the potato trick a try — you may find it surprisingly useful.