The Right Barbecue Accessories Can Elevate Your Grilling

The sun is shining, you’ve got the garden furniture ready, the guests have been invited. Now it’s time to get the best barbecue accessories to ensure your grilling is a success!

People spend so much time worrying about which grill to buy or which type of charcoal to cook with that they end up forgetting about grill accessories. What they don’t know is that investing in the right accessories will not only make their life a lot easier but will also improve the quality of their barbecue. This doesn’t mean you need to go overboard and complicate what should be a simple and satisfying cooking process. Instead, some key pieces will really get your barbecue humming.

Digital Thermometer

It takes a lot of grilling practice to know the temperature of meat just by feeling it. While this skill can be very useful, you can’t always be 100% accurate. Just get an instant-read digital thermometer instead, and you are good to go. This is one of those must-have barbecue accessories as it allows you to measure the temperature of your food so that you know when it’s medium-rare or well done. If you like fancy things, you can opt for a wireless thermometer that you can leave in the meat, and it will broadcast the temperature to your phone.

Heat Resistant Gloves

The idea of using heat resistant gloves may sound ridiculous. After all, who needs gloves to grill? You may be surprised by how heat resistant gloves can improve your cooking experience. Look for a model designed to protect your hands up to 500-degree Celsius. With a glove of this capacity, you’ll be able to do everything with your hands, maybe even blend the charcoal with your fingers.

Heavy Duty Tongs

In order to cook your big steaks on both sides, you will need to flip them. Well, not all kitchen tongs are up the task. To avoid dropping your half-cooked steak, consider using heavy-duty stainless steel tongs.

A Grate

The grilling debate about gas versus charcoal will never die, but you can skip it entirely with a good set of grill grates. As you may know, the extra flavour that you get from charcoal comes mainly from the rendered fat dripping off your meat, hitting the coals bellow and becoming smoke, which then gives flavour to your food. You can achieve the same effect with grill grates which trap juices in its deep groves where they burn off, flavouring your food. You can use a grate to replace your existing grates or just to cover them.

Charcoal Baskets

If you are looking to branch out from high heat to indirect heat or smoking, make sure you get a set of charcoal baskets. These gadgets make it a lot easier to cluster your briquets to one side of the grill, allowing you to keep indirect cooks on the other. Combining your charcoal baskets with a hinged grill is an easy way to feed in fresh fuel as your smoke progresses.

Cleaning Tool

Getting a good cleaning tool is extremely important. Not everyone notices, but a stainless steel or brass wire brush can leave behind small bristles that get stuck in your grill and eventually wind up in your food. Look for a wire-free scrubber and combine it with disposable wipes to clean your grill without leaving your brush a mess.

Spice Barbecue Seasoning

Regardless of the food you’re grilling, you’ll need smoky and sweet seasonings on hand for lots of flavours. Look for barbecue seasoning sets that include different seasoning mixes like Jamaican Jerk seasoning, Louisiana Creole Blend, Chipotle Garlic Barbecue blend and more.

Kabob Skewers

We all have bamboo skewers at the back of our kitchen drawers that we always forget to soak before we toss them on the grill. Well, stop using them. First of all, splinters in food aren’t very tasty. Second, good skewers just make life easier. Get yourself a couple of sets of good skewers featuring tips that ensure nothing will come off when you flip them. If you decide to go with a straight skewer, make sure it’s a heavy-duty one, is easy to clean, and comes with a nice rack to elevate your delicate veggies.

Barbecue Cover

A barbecue cover can protect your grill just like a cover can protect your outdoor furniture from the elements. Your barbecue is more than just a piece of garden equipment. Depending on the model you’ve chosen, your barbecue may have cost you several hundred dollars. For this reason, you should invest in a cover to protect this worthy piece. If you leave close to the ocean, salt water can cause great harm to your grill. Salt can cause parts of your grill to rust and corrode, making it difficult or potentially dangerous to use. High-quality covers will keep salt from coming into contact with your grill when it isn’t in use.