Cleansing Your Cooker With Fire....

(Click on photos for larger versions)

"Give me leave to speak my mind, and I will through and through cleanse the foul body of th' infected world." -- As You Like It, Act 2, Scene 7.

We sometimes think that those who seek to cleanse the inside of their ceramic cookers are akin to those that would place great grandma's 100-year old cast iron skillet in the dishwasher to get that hard shiny black stuff off. Nevertheless, some are driven to clean the inside of their cooker with a cleansing fire, expecting a lily-white interior just like when they bought it.

We normally would not perform such an act, but recently we had occasion to do just that, but for reasons other than cleansing. Our large Egg is about 10 years old, so there was some "stuff" that could be cleansed. We placed enough charcoal in the fire bowl to come up about half-way between the top of the bowl and the holes. We lit it, took off the top cap, opened the bottom vent all the way, and then let be what would be.

The fire got up to about 1000° for over half an hour and then took about another hour to cool back down to 300° as the charcoal was consumed and the fire grew smaller and smaller.  We then closed the vents and went to bed. You can see the results in the two photos above. Obviously, we didn't get that lily-white restoration that some hope for. Granted, any greasy residue is gone, but things don't look a whole lot better than when we started.

What else did we get? Well, we got a lid stuck shut. We easily fixed that with a large screwdriver, a hammer and some clever and judicious tapping to drive the screw driver twixt the top and bottom gaskets. Then a simple twist of the handle popped the lid free. And then there was the fact that what little was left of our gasket was now even littler. Not a problem for us since we were planning to install a new gasket anyway, but not exactly a welcome sight to someone with a serviceable gasket in place.

So, there you have it. If you want to make great grandma roll in her grave, at least now you know what to expect.

- TNW