Homepage > All Blogs > Do you really know about grilling tools?

Do you really know about grilling tools?

Posted by: Smatdeals

Nov 16, 2024

Thousands of people around the world will grill food, sometimes out of necessity, but often as a hobby. Many see it as a way to experience the life of primitive people and take pride in it. But grilling is more than just putting burgers on the grill.

Grilling is much more enjoyable if you have a well-oiled set of grilling tools and gain experience so you can become a grill master. Thinking about the rich aroma of barbecue? Come read this article.

The best grill brush: Bryan Stove Best BBQ Grill Brush

A clean grill pan is the best way to keep food from sticking to the grill. Residues like charred sauces and burnt food crumbs can cling to your food, making it difficult to come out clean (and who wants to cook on a dirty grill?). In our tests, the Bryan Stove Best Barbecue Grill Brush was the fastest at removing carbonized and stuck-on sauces.

The Bryan Stove Grill Brush has three rows of coarse wire bristles that cover a large surface area with each stroke, and its sturdy construction won't bend during tough scraping tasks.

Unlike the coiled metal pads found on some other brushes, the steel bristles of the Bryan Stove Grill Brush stay intact and upright, with no sign of breaking or shedding. That, combined with the comfortable 10-inch plastic handle, makes it stand out.

The best wire-free grate cleaner: the Great Scrape Woody Shovel

If you don't want to use a wire brush, the Great Scrape Woody Shovel is our favorite wire-free grate cleaning tool. This hardwood paddle has a straight, tapered edge that takes on the pattern of the grill as it heats up (and gives off the pleasant odor of burnt wood every time you use it).

The holes in the Woody Shovel's handle are better than the solid handle on Great Scrape's Woody Paddle because they provide a more stable grip. But if you want to save a few bucks, the Woody Paddle offers the same cleaning features.

Since the grooves are designed to fit a specific grate shape, you have to be careful where you place the Woody Shovel on the grill. You also can't use it on more than one grill (unless they all use the same grill); you'll need a specialized Woody Shovel for each grill, which can be expensive.

The best-wet brush: Grill Rescue Grill Brush

It's mediocre when used dry, but the real magic happens when you dip the brush in water and brush it lightly over a hot grill pan, with steam billowing from the bristles. When used in conjunction with a wire brush (or wooden spatula), the Grill Rescue Brush removes soot from the grill more safely and effectively than any other tool we've tried.

Since it creates a lot of hot steam, it's best to start from the inside of the grill and work outward, and it's a good idea to wear grill mitts when cleaning.

Is using this tool more expensive than wiping down the grill with cotton or paper towels? Of course, it is. But it's really easy, satisfying, and fun to use, and it lasts several times longer than most rags before you need a new brush head. Unlike paper towels, it doesn't leave any fibers behind after wiping.

A large spatula: Mercer Culinary Hell's Handle Fish Turner

We recommend the Mercer Culinary Hell's Handle Fish Turner as the best spatula for grilling that is both flexible and sturdy. We've found that fish-turning spatulas are the most versatile spatulas, and this large spatula is no exception.

The "Hell's Handle" stainless steel blade is sharp on the edges and stable in the hand with just the right amount of looseness, and the tapered blade slides seamlessly under burger patties without resistance for a clean flip. While the blade is very flexible, it's still strong enough to help transfer a whole chicken from the grill to a cutting board.

The wide polypropylene handle (which can withstand temperatures up to 450 °F) feels secure in your hand and provides more leverage than most similar products. This spatula is also backed by a limited lifetime warranty.

Long tongs: Winco Heavyweight 16" Stainless Steel Utility Tongs

For cooking on a blazing hot grill, we love the 16-inch Winco Heavyweight 16-inch Stainless Steel Utility Tongs because they're comfortable, easy to use, sturdy, and long enough to keep your hands a comfortable distance from the flames. Sam calls them "perfect." Plus, they're the most affordable of all the pliers we tested.

The Winco tongs don't open too wide and the springs provide enough resistance so your hands don't get tired while grilling for a crowd; many other tongs are too stiff and tire out your hands quickly.

Of the tongs we tested, the Winco model's scalloped tips have a narrow-angle, providing the most control when grabbing tiny asparagus spears or sauce-soaked chicken pieces. By contrast, many competitors' wide-angled tongs couldn't pick up small items.

A heat-resistant basting brush: OXO Good Grips Large Silicone Basting Brush

Whether you're grilling chicken nuggets or multiple racks of ribs, you'll need a basting brush that can spread barbecue sauce generously without spoiling it in the heat. We recommend the OXO Good Grips Large Silicone Basting Brush. The silicone bristles on the OXO brush are heat resistant up to 600 °F, so they won't melt or leave stray bristles on your food (as most natural fiber pastry brushes will). These brushes are also dishwasher safe.

The brush has two types of bristles: rounded bristles on the outer layer and flat, porous bristles in the center. These two types of bristles hold enough sauce between them that we don't have to keep reapplying. The bristles are neither too stiff nor too wobbly, with just the right amount of elasticity to apply a smooth, even layer of barbecue sauce to the surface of the meat. Of all the silicone brushes we considered, we didn't find any other silicone brush with this combination bristle design.

While the handle is shorter than some of the other brushes we tested, we found that it was still far enough away from the grill to keep our hands safe. The brush head is also slightly curved, providing a convenient angle for scooping up large quantities of sauce and facilitating pouring.

For more flavorful veggies: the Grillaholics Grill Basket

The best option for cooking diced veggies on the grill is the affordable Grillaholics Grill Basket. The grape tomatoes, diced zucchini, and eggplant we cooked in our Grillaholics Grill Basket had better color and more flavor than veggies cooked in other grill baskets. These baskets have larger perforations for better heat and air circulation, allowing more contact between the vegetables and the grill. The less contact the vegetables have with the grill, the faster they steam.

We think that over time, the Grillaholics Stainless Steel Vegetable Basket will stand up to high grilling temperatures better than any nonstick pan. And since it's dishwasher safe, it's also easier to clean. We also like that it has curved handles so we can use tongs to move the grill pan around the grill more easily.

The best chimney starter: Weber Rapidfire Chimney Starter

Chimney starters are the fastest and easiest way to light coals at once and don't rely on nasty lighter fluid. The Weber Rapidfire Chimney Starter is the best because it ticks all the boxes: large, easy to use, affordable, and widely available.

The Weber chimney fire starter has a spacious main chamber with a capacity of 6 quarts, or about 90 briquettes. We found this to be enough fuel to cook 12 burgers with some cooking time left over. The ignition chamber has plenty of room for a large ball of newsprint (our preferred ignition material) and large vents for air circulation and match access.

It has two handles for safely pouring hot coals into the grill. The main fixed handle has a heat-resistant plastic grip; the second is a swing-out wire handle for added stability and control. This design feature is not unique to Weber chimney starters, but it's the only widespread model that offers all of these features at an affordable price.

A handy all-around tool for charcoal grilling: GrillFloss

More than just a spatula, the GrillFloss is an all-around tool for gripping and rotating grill grates. It has a small rounded hook protruding from the end, and this hook will scrape each side of a bar grill clean, but it won't work on a flat cast iron grill.

The hook also allows you to get a firm grip on a hot grate to move back and forth across the grill or flip the side hinges to add charcoal. The hooks are replaceable, and if they wear out, a new one is only a few dollars.

The GrillFloss is also an ideal tool for kicking hot charcoal around the firebox, a job usually left to the tongs that end up touching the food.

A luxury add-on for charcoal kettle grills: the SnS Grills Slow 'n Sear Deluxe

The popularity of Weber kettle grills has sparked several third-party innovations - ways to make your grill even more versatile - and the SnS Grills Slow 'n Sear Deluxe is one such product that's hardly a necessity, but we can see why it's a favorite among charcoal grill enthusiasts: it turns any 22-inch kettle grill into a more powerful and versatile smoker, and makes indirect cooking and high-temperature grilling easy.

This half-moon charcoal basket has a built-in reservoir that holds up to 1 quart of water and sits flush with the side of the grill, so it's easy to access from a hinged cooking grate. You can find other charcoal baskets at lower prices, but none of the ones we researched had the wide range of features of the Slow 'n Sear Deluxe Charcoal Basket, which Craig "Meathead" Goldwyn, a leader in the professional grilling community, calls "the best accessory ever for a Weber kettle."

Priced at about $100, this grill basket is no gadget. But the Slow 'n Sear Deluxe offers deft heat control from the lowest to the highest temperatures, the utility of a water tank, long cooking times that can be accomplished with a single coal fill, and very simple setup and cleanup. If you grill or smoke food regularly, or plan to become a griller or smoker, then these advantages may justify the expense.

Great Deals at Amazon

Hot Deals

Do You Have Any Suggestions?

We're always looking for ways to enrich our content on DontPayFull.com. If you have a valuable resource or other suggestion that could enhance our existing content, we would love to hear from you.