Grilling equipment & the world of BBQ tools

  how to navigate the world of Stainless Steel Grills, Gas BBQ Grills, Brinkman Grills and all the gadgets?

Equipment & Gadget Reviews

In this section and with these links we will review grilling equipment, grills, bbqs, smokers and gadgets. If something gets a negative review from us we will not advertize it or sell it on the site.

Our Rating System

We rate our system by kettles, with one kettle being the lowest rating and five the highest. We will not advertize or sell anything on our site that we do not find acceptable, whether service or product. Our review on an excellent product, and the first to get our 5 Kettle rating! GrillGrates. Grill grates need to be changed out from time to time, this is an excellent upgrade for your consideration! Matter of fact, don't wait get'em now!

Check out our Smoker Reviews starting with the review of the Master Forge Gas Smoker!

Are you looking to be all set up with your grilling equipment?

Wow, this is a major subject and everyone has their favorite widgets, and “whatits”. I guess I will discuss what works for me and my style as a starting point.

Coming from the restaurant side of things and my love of cooking, I have worked big round open Mesquite wood burning grills (and have the hairless arms to show for it), to top fired infrared broilers and just about everything in between.

Including a Santa Maria style charcoal grill in the kitchen one of my houses. So cool! For the record on this site, we are really talking about grills with the heat from the bottom. Gas, wood or charcoal fired mostly, but we may get into some electrics for those times when the weather is just too funky to mess with the outdoors issue.

I will be honest and tell you that I have not tried every grill on the market. However, giving you the features that I look for and have shopped for in my decision making process.

GrillsKeep it simple (the K.I.S.S theory) or bring on the gadgets?

To be frank, I am a bit quirky in that I like a degree of simplicity. These days there are some amazingly feature packed grills at remarkably good prices. Bells and whistles, dials and read outs, wow lots of gadgets.

To start on grilling equipment, the grill comes first. I have just two grills right now. One my venerable Weber Kettle and the other my Weber Genesis Special Edition. They are both great, they are both simple. They are both bullet-proof, figuratively speaking of course. Sturdy and reliable all.

Having had Weber Kettles back as far as I can recall. They are great all around grills and I have prepared everything from Hot Dogs to smoked prime ribs, turkeys and pulled pork on them. I have done a lot of smoking on them and they work well for virtually anything. When I had to have one grill for everything, my choice is the Weber Kettles.
Now, sometimes a gas grill is just so nice and easy. I was commuting 100+ miles a day here in New Mexico. I was frequently pretty tired by the time I rolled in after a 10 to 12 hour day plus driving. So next to my radar detector, my Weber Genesis was my buddy during this time. The controls are all sturdy, temperature gauges work, easy to clean, and very importantly to me, very HOT. I have had it up to 650, nice.

Looking for a New Grill or BBQ? Check out the Great Grilling Store!

Smokers and Smoking

Another favorite is smoked foods; smoked chickens, smoked ahi tuna, pulled pork, prime rib, etc. Now I have done all of these on my trusty Weber Kettle. But for low temp smoking sometimes other equipment is better. At my place in California, I had a two compartment charcoal smoker that was great, indirect heat, great for low and slow. I also have a Masterbuilt digital electric smoker that had a nice cook and hold feature. This is especially nice for smoking fish. Not much heat for hot smoking since the max temp is 275, but for long smoke and cooler temps, works great. I picked up mine at Cabela’s for a great price.

Knives

As a professional chef for many years, knives have been important. Without good knives, one can hurt themselves! These are essential grilling equipment priorities to the grilling or BBQ enthusiast. These days there are bunch of brands, Japanese, Chinese, German, Spanish and many good ones. My own personal work knives I bought in the early ‘80s and they are still as good today as when I bought them. Then along the road I have picked up a few specialty knives, well to be honest a drawer full of them. The brand that I gravitate towards, because I like the balance and hardness of the steel is Wustof. Their steel is easy to put an edge on and they are comfortable. Henkle is another that I have used and have many amigos who use them Good knives just personal preference.

I have been drooling over some of the new folded steel knives, by Shen and some others, they are beautiful made from three steels. Gorgeous, I have not broken down yet, but will soon. Our affiliate has the best pricing I have seen on these. If you are just getting into the knife market and are serious about wanting the best, you might consider them.

Food Processors, Blenders and Such. Grilling equipment? Heck yes!

Well, my venerable Cuisinart is great for those big batch or lazy chopping days. Very handy grilling equipment! Plus I can make Chicken sausage in them really quick and easy to throw on the grill. They are a solid brand and very well made. I also have one of the blenders, which is great. Another handy tool is their hand blender, in professional kitchens we use a version of these for blending soups and sauces in the pot, That saves a bunch of playing around, moving pots etc. If you are making your own BBQ sauce, think about it. Especially if you are making sauces on the burner on your grill.

There are more grilling equipment studies, ratings and suggestions to go over and we are just doing an overview on the basics with our own experience first.

Tabletop

Many times our grilling and BBQs are outdoors, camping, boating, RVs or picnics. This can make the tabletop subject to the elements. How many times have you chased napkins blowing away or had to dig around for the silverware.

One of our friends invented the Picnic Placemat They are a great way to keep things in their place during transport and on the table. Great idea and they come in a bunch of colors.

Check them out.