Tools of the Trade are Important for Outdoor Grilling Too

I find many folks end up thinking they are grilling failures, because they do not invest in the right equipment. Even if your barbecue "base" is a standard grill and not a fully equiped outdoor kitchen (which includes most of us), it's still important to have the correct grill gear. You don't try to paint your house without drop clothes and rollers and line tape (or I hope not), so dedicate some time and a little money to ensure much better barbecue grilling fun.

You may think, "Well, I have a grate, so I don't need any pots and pans."

Hum, WRONG. Good grillers use cookware sets and cast iron skillets and grill woks. Some foods just don't work on the grates. Then, there's that side burner on the gas grills. Sadly, few people take full advantage of that feature which allows for full meal cooking outdoors and no heat or mess in the kitchen. Get good pots and pans that conduct heat well, and you expand your grilling horizons tremendously.

On charcoal, I stick with old style cast iron which is black anyway and will withstand flares. Over gas grill heat, I use most any of my good cookware pots and pans - depending on what I'm grilling. The side burner is fine for basically any good quality pot or pan. I like the Le Creuset, because it's sturdy and holds the heat well (and side burners tend to be lacking a bit on the heat output).

I also keep grill gloves on hand. I like Lodge and Oxo Grill gloves. Kitchen mits are not made for the high grill heat, and they get scorched and nasty. If you're a guy, you will not make your lady happy if you mess up her nice kitchen mits. Invest in grill gloves which protect your hands and hold up much longer.

There are loads of accessories and grill gear on the market, and most items aren't too expensive. Look around and put the extras on your birthday or Christmas list. Just a few nice pots/pans, skillets, gloves, really good barbecue sauce like Wild n Mild and an excellent grate cleaner like Grill Floss.

Yes you can grill (as I say at my grill web site by the same name), but it's much easier and the results are much better if you're armed for the job. Start building your barbecue grill gear collection and see the difference.

Grill Floss - Clean Your Grill Grates the Easy Way and Do It Right

Cool grill tools are a good thing. They are fun, and it's also easier to get guys to help out with anything new in the tool category.

As you can see, my son is cleaning the grill grate. Now, that's not usually a job that anyone likes to do. But, with Grill Floss, it's pretty painless to clean grates, and Grill Floss does a bang up job on dirty grills. Gotta love that.


I guess you could say that Grill Floss is kind of like dental floss. It gets where grill cleaning brushes don't.

Grill Floss has a metal end that is curved that cups the edges of the grate and really gets the gunk or funk off. That grill cleaning end can be flipped around for wider grates. The one here you see is for the wire type grill grates, but Grill Floss can be flipped around on that end piece to do the wider grates - mostly on gas grills.

My kid is hitting a hot grate here before we start grilling up a pork loin. Bad me. I did not clean the grill the last time I used it. The heat does make it a little easier to use Grill Floss, but it does a bang up job on a dirty grate that is not hot. I've done it both ways, and Grill Floss rocks either way.


If you're not sure just what a difference Grill Floss, you can see right here. The first couple of grill grate wires were flossed, and the ones toward the back haven't been flosssed. Big difference. You bet.

No. Grill Floss is not like pushing the "self clean" button on an oven. It takes a little elbow grease but very little. I'm not big on grill cleaning myself to be honest, and Grill Floss is the easiest way I've found to have a really clean grill without loads of work. Just slide the tool up and down the grate, and it looks almost new. I was pretty amazed.

Check out Grill Floss. It's one of my favorite grill products. Thumbs up!