The Grill Toppers and Racks You Need and the Ones You Don't
You already have a grill grate. Do you need a rack or tray or other grill topper on top of the grate? Yes and no.
Some grill toppers and racks are essential. For instance, a rib rack helps you cook more meat at once, a very handy feature on small and medium charcoal grills like the ubiquitous Weber kettle. A grill tray also prevents small foods like asparagus and shrimp from falling into the fire. You can even get a perforated grill pan for tossing small foods over the fire. Ever roasted chestnuts over the fire? A perforated grill pan with a handle is the perfect tool for the job. Grill toppers come in all shapes and sizes, from trays and baskets to woks and saute pans, and many of them are extremely useful.
On the other hand, you may not need something like a Ribalyzer grill topper to cook the best ribs you ever tasted. For that, just follow my recipe for Last Meal Ribs. Here's the best of the rest among toppers and racks.
"He who dies with the most toys wins."
Anonymous grillmaster
GrillGrates (TM) are an amazing recent invention and I recommend them for gas grills and many pellet smokers. They have multiple benefits, the least of which is giving you better crusts and better flavor. Read more...
Frogmats are a sturdy wire mesh screens with a non-stick coating capable of resisting grill temperatures, and they are easy to clean. Use them to grill jalapeno poppers, onion rings, potato slices, mushrooms, bacon, and biscuits, and to dehydrate tomatoes and smoke nuts. Read more...
Grill toppers are essential for grilling and smoking small objects such as slices of onion and peppers, and nuts, and I prefer them for small chunks of meat rather than skewers. I also prefer mesh types like this one because they let in more smoke and flavor. Read more...
The Weber Style Grill Pan has plenty of slots for smoke to travel through, and plenty of surface to brown things like salmon cakes. Handles make it easy to position on the grill and to carry food from your prep area to the grill and back. Read more...
A quality cast iron griddle is a wonderful addition to any grill and the highly rated Lodge Cast Iron Grill and Griddle Combo is a great option. Using a griddle plate on top of a portion of your grill is actually a great way to take advantage of both direct cooking on the grill's grates and griddle at the same time. Read more...
The Baking Steel is an expensive slab of specially formulated steel that heats rapidly and holds heat very well. In other words, it is a steel pizza stone. In our tests, it performed similar to a cordierite pizza stone, cooking the bottom crust of pizza a bit faster than ceramic materials. Read more...
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