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"  Just in time for Memorial Day weekend, the official opening of the grilling season, I asked my good friend Elizabeth Karmel to write two guest posts for us. Who knows more about grilling than Elizabeth? Raised in North Carolina barbecue country, she&amp;#039;s one of the leading experts on grilling in the country. Not only is she the Executive Chef of New York&amp;#039;s Hill Country Barbecue and Hill Country Chicken restaurants, but she&amp;#039;s also written 3 grilling cookbooks, developed her own line of grilling tools, and hosts a website called girlsatthegrill that&amp;#039;s chock full of advice, tips, and recipes. Yes, Elizabeth is one busy lady and I&amp;#039;m thrilled that she took take the time to share her best grilling advice with us. Today, she tells you how to get your grill ready. You&amp;#039;ve just bought a shiny new grill or you&amp;#039;ve taken your grill out of winter hibernation, and you can&amp;#039;t wait to cook out! But wait ... Before you grill those steaks, burgers, and garden-fresh veggies, you&amp;#039;ll want to season your grill. Barbecue grills are like cast-iron skillets: they get better and more seasoned, the more you use them. When food cooks on the grill, the fats and juices are vaporized by the heating element and create the smoke that flavors the food with that legendary taste. The smoke accumulates on the inside of the grill, seasoning it and making your food &amp;quot;sing&amp;quot; with flavor. I you&amp;#039;ve had your grill for awhile and use it a lot, you may notice that inside the lid it looks like the &amp;quot;paint&amp;quot; is peeling. This is simply the accumulation of layers of smoke and not paint at all. Warm soapy water, a scrubbie, and a little elbow grease will take the excess off quick and easy. Be sure to rinse with cool clean water and you&amp;#039;re ready to re-season your grill. My favorite and the most effective way to season your new grill or a grill that&amp;#039;s just been cleaned is to fill the cooking grate with uncooked link sausages \u2014 not the bulk breakfast variety. You&amp;#039;ll find my Smoked Sausage with Apple Fennel &amp;quot;Sauerkraut&amp;quot; is perfect for both seasoning your grill and having a great meal too! Grill the sausages slowly on a low-medium heat until bubbling hot and very brown. Remove the sausages and reset the burners to high (if you have a gas grill), letting the grill burn off the residue until it turns white, or for about 20-30 minutes. Do this while you enjoy your dinner. When you&amp;#039;re done eating, clean the cooking grates with a brass-bristle brush, turn off the gas or close all the vents on a charcoal grill to extinguish the coals, and you&amp;#039;re ready for the season! Follow my tips for Cleaning the Grill and Grill Safety all summer long. Tune in later this week, for Elizabeth&amp;#039;s ultimate grilling menu, and be sure to check out GHRI&amp;#039;s complete online guide to grilling. To learn how we put consumer products to the test and keep you safe, sign up for a tour of the famous Good Housekeeping Research Institute. If you visit, be sure to say hello when you come by the Kitchen Appliances &amp;amp;amp; Technology Lab. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/institute/a21439/get-ready-for-grilling/>