Basting Brushes

[sattie]

Cooking last night brought my attention to my basting brushes. I have a couple of different kinds, the cheapy straw bristle brushes, and an ecko brush that looks a bit sturdier and should be longer lived if it did not look so gunky.

My question is how do you clean your basting brushes? I usually toss mine in the dishwasher, but have found that they manage to accumulate gunk after a short period of time.

Also, do you buy basting brushes for specific purposes? What is the best basting brushes to purchase?

Thanks in advance DCers!

 

[smoke king]

My grandson was selling stuff for a fundraiser last year, and one of the items was a set of silicone basting brushes

I not an accomplished cook by any stretch, but they seem to work well for what I do and they clean up easily too.

 

[justplainbill]

I'm satisfied with my silicon basting brush. I only use my boar bristle brush for painting breads, wash it by hand with soap and water and hang tip down to dry.

 

[pacanis]

I have a couple of the bristle kind and toss them in the DW brush down. The metal part gets rusty/gunky looking, but the bristles are fine. And they are very old. I also have a small silicon one with the suction bulb to draw the sauce up into it. I got it with a silicon spatula set. It sucks. Too small, flimsy, gimmicky, you name it.
Then I have a nice no-name (I just looked) silicon brush that I picked up at the local grocery store. It's over a foot long with a gooseneck shape by the brush. I love this brush. It has a very natural shape for painting sauce onto meat and the bristles are close enough together to hold a fair amount of sauce. And it's long, which works well for the grill. I'm going to look for a couple more and throw the other ones out.

 

[marigeorge]

I clean mine by squirting liquid dish detergent into the bristles, massaging well and then rinsing for quite awhile to make sure all the soap is out. I do have a silicone brush but don't care for it.

 

[RobsanX]

I got a set of three silicone brushes as a gift, and they clean up fine in the dishwasher...

 

[QSis]

I only use silicone now. When I cook competitions, if I brush hair falls out onto my entry without my seeing it, I'm disqualified. So I took a competitor friend's advice and got silicone brushes.

I never went back to bristles. The silicones work just as well and are great in the dishwasher. They are always completely clean.

Lee

 

[pacanis]

Here it is at Amazon only mine is blue.
Hmmm, I didn't know it came in red.... I see a couple more only red in my near future (lol).

 

[QSis]

Try a couple of short-handled brushes, pacanis. I find that I use those a lot more than the long ones. Silicone Basting Brush. Free Shipping. Lifetime Guarantee. Price: $8.99 Actually, I just wanted to find a picture for you - the brush in the link is more costly than you need to pay.

You can get them for very short money - more expensive does not mean "better" in this case. IMO.

Lee

 

[LadyCook61]

I have both , the bristles and the silicone ones.

 

[pacanis]

Try a couple of short-handled brushes, pacanis. I find that I use those a lot more than the long ones. Silicone Basting Brush. Free Shipping. Lifetime Guarantee. Price: $8.99

You can get them for very short money - more expensive does not mean "better" in this case. IMO.

Lee

Sweet! And it's red!
You like short brushes cuz you go low and slow. Whereas I typically go high and hot Using a short brush like that would burn the hair off my knuckles

But I'm sure I'll order one Thanks for the link, Lee.

 

[sattie]

Wow, thanks for the info folks! I may try and get me a silicone brush... very odd looking!

 

[Adillo303]

I have a bristle brush that looks like a mini paint brush. It is about gone, it is cracking. I got a 3 pack of silicone ones at the grocery store small round, medium brush like and long handled. They are great!! The long handled one keeps the hair on my arm on the BBQ.

AC

 

[BreezyCooking]

I treat mine like Marigene does - squirt dish liquid directly into the bristles & massage vigirously into the base & throughout. Rinse, repeat, thoroughly rinse again, & air dry for a good 48 hours.

 

[RPCookin]

Silicone is the only thing I use any more too. I buy cheap bristle brushes at Home Depot (paint dept) for seasoning my cast iron grate on my grill... but for all other uses I have 3 silicone brushes that work great and are a snap to clean.

 

[Russellkhan]

I've also switched over to silicone. Much easier to clean, and never a bristle in my food. I do still have one bristle brush - it's one that never touches liquid: I use it to brush out the coffee grinder I use for spices.

Do be picky about the silicone brushes. Some of them have pretty sparse bristles, and I'm told these don't pick up enough liquid.

 

[VeraBlue]

That gunk is just grease accumulation. You could buy a grease cutter and soak them in a solution of that and water, or you could spray oven cleaner on them, let it set for awhile, and then soak them to remove all the cleaner.

They tend to pick up everything in the drawer they are stored in. If it won't drive you crazy, keep them wrapped when not in use.

 

[homecook]

I also have switched to the silicone brushes. I have 3 short ones for the house and a long one for the grill.
I'll never forget the time dh and I were in TGIF'S. I was eating a chicken quesadilla and couldn't figure out why I felt like I was chewing on fish bones. I finally realized it was from their basting brush. I talked to the mgr. and I mentioned she should get some silicone brushes. She said she was going to talk to her supplier to change over and gave us our dinner for free! lol The next time we were there she thanked me again for the suggestion.

Barb

 

[sattie]

Ok... I think I'm gonna go look for some silicone brushes myself! Thanks all!