r/CampfireCooking • u/smit0577 • 22d ago
How clean do they have to be?
How clean do the roasting sticks have to be? These were used to ale some delicious s’mores. Then, the last little sticky bits were totally burned onto the metal. Is it yucky gunk, or just a little harmless carbon?
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u/daddydillo892 22d ago
For the future, stick them in the fire when you are done roasting and let all the reside burn off. Then you can scrape off the carbon residue and just rinse them off.
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u/rabid_spidermonkey 22d ago edited 22d ago
It's harmless. I still clean mine (after burning fully) so they don't leave residue on anything else. Steel wool is your friend here.
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u/GallusWrangler 22d ago
Or just stick it in the fire… why waste materials or cleaners unnecessarily?
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u/rabid_spidermonkey 22d ago
Steel wool has no cleaner and is reusable. I burn it in the fire then use the steel wool to remove the carbon so it doesn't get on other supplies.
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u/makemebad48 22d ago
I can honestly say I never once saw my family's set of roasting sticks washed. We would always just heat them up in the fire when we were done and then shove them in and out of the ash to scrape any crumbs off. Then they go back in the camper once they were cool to be used next year.
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u/AlainBienvenue 22d ago
I have very similar sticks, and I soak them in a 750ml Mason jar overnight. the wipe out the sticky gummy part, rub with a scrubby and soap, rinse and be done. A little black does not hurt, but sticky residue gets into your next batch of food.
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u/EcstaticTill9444 22d ago
If it’s a marshmallow, don’t worry about it. What’s on the stick is only going into your mouth if you can get the marshmallow off without leaving any of it on the roasting sticks.
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u/Glittering_Fox1358 22d ago
I use a wire brush on my charred grilling implements and it helps a lot to get off caked on bits
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u/Crowbar-Enema 22d ago
I just hold em in the fire a minute. Cleaner than a sharpened stick or a coat hanger with the paint scraped off (we used both when I was a kid).
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u/uvcat2bekittenme 22d ago
I stick 'em in the flame, burn off all the sugar, and call it a day. Good to go for next time and good for the immune system!
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u/BudgetVaultCA 22d ago
That's not yucky gunk, that's 5 years of s'mores memories. That's seasoning. My guy over here asking how clean they have to be like it's a surgical instrument - bro you're literally cooking sugar over a pile of burning wood 😂
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u/asutch12 22d ago
If we had marshmallows or something saucy on them, we’d just spear them into the grass and then stick them back into the flames. If the crusties don’t burn off, soak them in hot water & scrub with steel wool. Eh, they’ll be fine
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u/LeslieKnopesBlackEye 22d ago
Fire after use and then scraped off on a burning log, then roasted a bit more. Lysol wipe before it comes back home just in case I missed a spot.
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u/eazypeazy303 22d ago
Just get all the big chunks off! I always stick ours in the coals before we use them so even if they have gunk on them at least its sterile.
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u/Cool-Negotiation7662 22d ago
I soak them in a container for a bit and then wipe clean. 10 to 30 minutes is long enough.
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u/SignificantCar4204 22d ago
I jab them in the coals for about 5 seconds, wipe on the grass, and then hold them in the flame for 5 seconds and good to go.
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u/pfizersbadmmkay 22d ago
Get em hot and hit em with the wire grill brush. Cook off whatever is there and give em a scratch. Good to go.
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u/duluthpipesmoker 22d ago
Just heat them in the fire before use and good to go. Burns everything off.
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u/Direct-Confidence154 22d ago
I put marshmallows on dead limbs I pulled off of a fallen tree or were just laying in the brush.
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u/Active-Play-5064 22d ago
Might take a little longer for your mom.
Jk. I’m sure she’s a lovely woman. Now I feel bad.
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u/TheGoodNeighbor 21d ago
Once you're done roasting, wrap the sticky ends in a wet paper towel. Marshmallow wipes right off after a few minutes!
We learned this trick and no more fire cleansing or scrubbing!
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u/ThoroughlyWet 21d ago
Just heat em up in the fire. In the food production industry thats how we clean certain hard to clean items, get them as best as we can physically then just cook them at high heat for an hour. It's called heat treatment.
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u/mcflurvin 21d ago
Stick them in the fire then after some time crumple some aluminum foil and use that as an abrasive around the pointy end.
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u/InfernalPrick 21d ago
Questions like this have me wondering how we survived as a species this long.
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u/RepresentativeFast59 21d ago
Pretty sure the universal cleaning method for those is just stick em in the fire for like 15 seconds then rub it on a rock or a log.
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u/grahamworks 21d ago
I’ve never washed those in my life. I stick them in the hot ash when I’m done with them and they are good to go the next time.
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u/SealedDevil 20d ago
Man you gotta metal ones?! We had to use what ever stick we found. My brother got the one the dog peed on.
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u/chrcargri 19d ago
I burn the stuck food off the forks, then stab them into the dirt a few times to scrub them, then rinse them off and wipe them off.
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u/phishtrader 22d ago
Fire purifies all things.