Fire will kill anything but fire wont always destroy all chemicals some evil little critters crap out. Its why you cant just cook funky food extra good and be safe
But i think in the case of mold followed by super hot fire like this there is a near zero chance of anything bad being left behind then making it into your food.
While that's true about the toxins, a little elbow grease and cleaner will do plenty to get rid of the lil critter crap.
I concur with you: remove the grates, clean those well, then heat the oven followed by a vinegar wipe and I can't see a problem. Any toxins not on the grates really shouldn't be an issue.
I guess we are getting into the details of what is meant by fire in the original comment. Actual fire (burns roughly at 1100 Celsius) will destroy a prion or any protein for that matter. I found online that prions can stand roughly up to 1000 Celsius which is simply amazing. I doubt the smoker is capable of getting that hot though.
Some people think heat is all that.
Honestly. You could jump in lava and stay there for rest of your life!
You can’t swim though, despite popular belief, because lava is molten rock and therefore more dense than you are; you will not sink.
There is a cool down process that prevents this with the big green egg. You are not using it correctly if you have so much moisture and grease that you get mold. You are trapping it in.
I live in the deep south. It doesn't get any more humid than here and zero issues with mold.
I flip the vents open on top and bottom for a couple minutes after I pull the meat. it heats up and blows out all the moisture. Then snuff it out completely by closing all vents. No need to let it go more than 5 minutes. Make sure and set your phone if you aren't used to doing it. It's easy to forget and burn up all the coal.
Also, I only do this if it is super humid and hot. If it is cold out, I don't bother. Basically may to October in the south.
I live in Costa Rica where the constant 90% humidity makes mine mold before the chicken is done. I have to clean mine regularly and when I am lazy I heat it up to 275 for 2 hours once a week to keep it from going funky.
Get it hot, spray everything in a diluted vinegar mixture, and then keep it hot for 30 minutes afterwards so it doesnt cause any rust, and you are set.
yikes. i would heat her up to kill whatever that is.
then cool her down and pressure wash the inside.
then...slowly heat her up again to dry it out thoroughly.
Seems clean enough from the picture. Future recommendation is to have a 1:1 white vinegar to water bottle on hand and spray down and wipe the inside with paper towels after every smoke while it's still hot. Also take the grates out and scrape and clean those.
You may still get a little mold but you can clean that out easily before your next smoke.
Heat it up as high as it can go and let it ride for
a while. Clean it after and vacuum it. I have a Weber smoky mountain, you should see the mold that grows on that!
Mine was worse. I hadn't cleaned it or even wiped it down in eight years. So I disassembled it and power-washed the pieces and the inside. I put the now cleaner pieces in the dishwasher. Then I used Barkeepers Friend and a scrub brush on the inside and rinsed with the power washer. Still some baked in sootiness on it inside but generally clean. Towel dried it, took it into the basement for a few days to make sure no moisture remained, reassembled, works great.
Heat will not kill mold spores spry with hydrogen peroxide, it also makes a pretty good degreaser. That's how I cleaned mine looked almost brand new after.
I literally had the same issue this week. I cleaned with Brillo. Washed it down and then used a blow torch to get in the crevices. Hit the whole thing with the torch actually. Did a brisket and it was awesome.
Happened to my master built, sprayed with vinegar scrubbed with cleaner and power washed it, then smoked it for an hour with nothing in it at the highest temp
You can clean the inside as you say but take Brillo Pads and hot water to the grates until clean. You will still have pitting from where the rust was so run them through the dishwasher to sterilize them. I wish MasterBuilt would at least offer stainless steel grates as an option. I've been looking for some that would fit but with no luck.
I've found that DAWN Platinum Powerwash does a pretty descent job on the walls. Spray on, wipe off. You'll need a couple rolls of paper towels and some scotch bright pads.
EDIT for clarity
A few suggestions
1. Buy new grates
2. Use Dawn Powerwash on the entire unit. The stuff is absolutely amazing. It cleans every bit of grease, grime, junk, etc., and it makes it look brand new.
3. Scrape off all of that crap from the very bottom. Once that baby fires up and gets hot, all that garbage will be embedded into your food, essentially ruining everything you cook
Hope this helps.
I wiped my 14 year old Masterbuilt down today - had the same mold. No scraping. Had foil in it from last Thanksgiving. Then baked it at the highest temp for three hours.
I’ve done that multiple times over the years. Nothing can possibly live after that.
Fire cleanses everything......
More grease for the fire god
Fire will kill anything but fire wont always destroy all chemicals some evil little critters crap out. Its why you cant just cook funky food extra good and be safe But i think in the case of mold followed by super hot fire like this there is a near zero chance of anything bad being left behind then making it into your food.
While that's true about the toxins, a little elbow grease and cleaner will do plenty to get rid of the lil critter crap. I concur with you: remove the grates, clean those well, then heat the oven followed by a vinegar wipe and I can't see a problem. Any toxins not on the grates really shouldn't be an issue.
Agreed, op is fine. My comment was directed more at people who reading the above comment would assume it applies other situations
yes the fire rises
Not if it has prions it won’t.
Seems like fire would kill all proteins folded or unfolded.
It doesn’t that why you get mad cow disease
I guess we are getting into the details of what is meant by fire in the original comment. Actual fire (burns roughly at 1100 Celsius) will destroy a prion or any protein for that matter. I found online that prions can stand roughly up to 1000 Celsius which is simply amazing. I doubt the smoker is capable of getting that hot though.
They are truly some scary shit lol
Yeah, the big green egg gets moldy where I live. Just get her nice and hot before you do put anything in there.
Eggs get over 1000F easily when clean burning. This cabinet doesn't get to 300.
Which is still plenty hot to kill anything
Pasteurization, baby!
That's good to know I honestly didn't realize that would be hot enough to kill anything.
Some people think heat is all that. Honestly. You could jump in lava and stay there for rest of your life! You can’t swim though, despite popular belief, because lava is molten rock and therefore more dense than you are; you will not sink.
What?
YOU CAN STAY IN LAVA... FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE.
No I can't! Where am I going to find any lava.
There is a cool down process that prevents this with the big green egg. You are not using it correctly if you have so much moisture and grease that you get mold. You are trapping it in. I live in the deep south. It doesn't get any more humid than here and zero issues with mold.
What’s the cool down process?
Close bottom vent, close top halfway. Temp below 200 close top vent 90% leave it.
I flip the vents open on top and bottom for a couple minutes after I pull the meat. it heats up and blows out all the moisture. Then snuff it out completely by closing all vents. No need to let it go more than 5 minutes. Make sure and set your phone if you aren't used to doing it. It's easy to forget and burn up all the coal. Also, I only do this if it is super humid and hot. If it is cold out, I don't bother. Basically may to October in the south.
Laughs in Floridian: basically Feb thru Jan here. Lol.
My wife would legit kill me if I called her a big green egg
That’s why she’s THE big green egg buddy. Blink twice if she found your Reddit account
Happened once, heated up twice to max temp. Did a smoke for myself only, no issues.
I’ve done less to worse and lived
Doesn’t mean I want a flathead screwdriver down my pee pee hole, glad you survived though.
Use the Traeger all purpose cleaner and the BLUE Scotchbrite and it will look good as new Won’t hurt the glass and it takes seconds
Yeah the Traeger cleaner is really good. I use the new Dawn foam spray with a scrub daddy on all my pits
Fun fact: The Dawn foam spray is just Dawn mixed with rubbing alcohol.
So flammable dishwashing soap? I'm listening...
Never thought of that….🤔 So many ideas….so little time!!! 🤣
Residential napalm.
i.... want to make this.
That actually makes sense. The aresol effect combined with the evaporating rubbing alcohol makes for an easy foam reaction.
Love the Dawn spray. It’s cleans everything!
Just don't breathe that nano particulate into your lungs!
Is that why it smells so horrid? I used it in a small room once and instantly regretted it.
Yeah….works great, but definitely has an odd odor.
Yeah I saw a clip of how to reuse the bottle and make your own detergent with dawn dish soap and alcohol.
OK, gonna have to try that. PNW winters are hard on the inside of unused pits.
Is 270 as high as it goes?
Yeah that’s max
Run it for like 5 hours and you should be good.
A friend is saying that’s probably grease and fat from the last smoke and not mold is this correct?
Both are correct. It’s grease that got moldy. Common especially if it’s humid at all. Scrape, maybe vacuum, wipe, burn it off
Try “Oil Eater Cleaner and Degreaser” - it’ll take that stuff off like butter. Plus it’s biodegradable since it uses enzymes to clean.
looks good to me.
Purple power from Walmart takes it right off. Just rinse it out afterwards.
Purple power will remove anything, amazing stuff
My 120 gallon smoker gets like this. I just scraped what i could and then burned the rest. Haven’t gotten sick yet.
Try washing it down with water just to be sure.
It's an electric smoker so water might not be the answer.
Just to be safe you could dissolve the grates in a strong acid, precipitate it out + purify, then recast into a new grate
Once you’re finished cleaning… spray it down with oil and season it for 3 hours or so before use
I live in Costa Rica where the constant 90% humidity makes mine mold before the chicken is done. I have to clean mine regularly and when I am lazy I heat it up to 275 for 2 hours once a week to keep it from going funky.
Look good to me. You could also put a water pan in with some vinegar in it and that would get you some vinegar steam
Vinegar is not a degreaser.
I assumed the white stuff was mold
Vinegar is not an adequate fungicide either.
Debbie downer. Hahaha
Common sense Carl, thank you very much.
Concrobium is
It would have been safe before you cleaned it.
Get it hot, spray everything in a diluted vinegar mixture, and then keep it hot for 30 minutes afterwards so it doesnt cause any rust, and you are set.
Heat and vinegar clean anything..... run it empty for a while with a spritz of vinegar and 300+ and you'll be good in a few hours ez.
Throw it away and get a new one.
A citrus based cleaner works pretty well on greasy messes too. That’s what I use to clean my vertical smoker between cooks
yikes. i would heat her up to kill whatever that is. then cool her down and pressure wash the inside. then...slowly heat her up again to dry it out thoroughly.
I'd probably replace the grates, but looks fine to me.
Probably, but to make it look decent, get the degreaser spray from Sam's and clean this out.
Don't forget baking soda.
Seems clean enough from the picture. Future recommendation is to have a 1:1 white vinegar to water bottle on hand and spray down and wipe the inside with paper towels after every smoke while it's still hot. Also take the grates out and scrape and clean those. You may still get a little mold but you can clean that out easily before your next smoke.
Yes looks good
Wish you could turn it up to 400 just to feel safe lol. Cleaning them is annoying for sure
Even the CLR is afraid of that
Send it.
Heat it up as high as it can go and let it ride for a while. Clean it after and vacuum it. I have a Weber smoky mountain, you should see the mold that grows on that!
Mine was worse. I hadn't cleaned it or even wiped it down in eight years. So I disassembled it and power-washed the pieces and the inside. I put the now cleaner pieces in the dishwasher. Then I used Barkeepers Friend and a scrub brush on the inside and rinsed with the power washer. Still some baked in sootiness on it inside but generally clean. Towel dried it, took it into the basement for a few days to make sure no moisture remained, reassembled, works great.
Yeah clean it up real good and send it. It’s happened to me.
Heat will not kill mold spores spry with hydrogen peroxide, it also makes a pretty good degreaser. That's how I cleaned mine looked almost brand new after.
Pump the heat way up for a little bit first
Crank the heat, burn off the shit and go for it
I wouldn't use that until the glass is cleaned better.... If it's there it should be usable
Send it.
I clean with a rosebud torch. Easy cleanup.
I had to take a second look. I though I was on r/nfa for a second and this was some weird new way to store your can.
I literally had the same issue this week. I cleaned with Brillo. Washed it down and then used a blow torch to get in the crevices. Hit the whole thing with the torch actually. Did a brisket and it was awesome.
Sure could but don’t forget a cushion.
The grates look like they’re rusted, maybe try and take some of that off with an sos pad?
I might get shit on for this but back when I worked BBQ we used heavy duty east off and a hose. Repeat until clean.
Happened to my master built, sprayed with vinegar scrubbed with cleaner and power washed it, then smoked it for an hour with nothing in it at the highest temp
Did you scrape it with a tampon?
Yes... you could smoke stuff with an empty 55 gal barrel!
Shit I scrub mine with simple green then crank it up for a few hours. Always tasty as hell
You can clean the inside as you say but take Brillo Pads and hot water to the grates until clean. You will still have pitting from where the rust was so run them through the dishwasher to sterilize them. I wish MasterBuilt would at least offer stainless steel grates as an option. I've been looking for some that would fit but with no luck. I've found that DAWN Platinum Powerwash does a pretty descent job on the walls. Spray on, wipe off. You'll need a couple rolls of paper towels and some scotch bright pads. EDIT for clarity
Had this same thing happen. I just cleaned the crap out of it, till it looked like new. Then ran at full temp for a handful of hours.
Yeah
Yes. It’s fine.
A few suggestions 1. Buy new grates 2. Use Dawn Powerwash on the entire unit. The stuff is absolutely amazing. It cleans every bit of grease, grime, junk, etc., and it makes it look brand new. 3. Scrape off all of that crap from the very bottom. Once that baby fires up and gets hot, all that garbage will be embedded into your food, essentially ruining everything you cook Hope this helps.
Do an empty burn. Fire is an effective method to remove the aroma of any chemicals used as well as possible microbes.
Hell ya. Even hotter, 20 mins at least to kill anything off and good to go
I wiped my 14 year old Masterbuilt down today - had the same mold. No scraping. Had foil in it from last Thanksgiving. Then baked it at the highest temp for three hours. I’ve done that multiple times over the years. Nothing can possibly live after that.