13 Must-Get Gifts for the Grill Master

Though Hanukkah has started and Christmas is closing in fast, there’s still time for some last-minute shopping for your holiday gift list. When it comes to the griller in your life, there are usually two camps: Ron Swanson (low tech) versus Inspector Gadget (high tech). Some grillers like wood chips and a spatula and nothing else between them and their meat, whereas others like to pull out all the stops to ensure a perfectly grilled meal. In this gift guide, you get some of both.

Source: Thinkstock

Flavor makers

Flavor is the top concern when it comes to good grilling, and wood planks are a great way to impart that smoky, woodsy flavor without a smoker. Different proteins pair better with different types of wood. According to Serious Eats, fish should be planked on cedar or alder; chicken and pork on apple, maple, or pecan wood; and beef or other red meats benefit from a heavier flavor like oak or hickory. You can get a sampler pack from Outdoor Gourmet for $24.99, $14.99 on sale.

Wood chips offer the flavor of smoke along with your char. With a charcoal grill, you can lay soaked chips right down on the coals. With a gas grill, you’ll need a smoke box like this one from BBQGuys.com. For a longer burn than the often ephemeral chip, use wood chunks, easily found on Amazon.

Source: iDevices

Heat rising

Getting your grill going is easy for gas grillers, but getting a charcoal grill going is a science. Whether or not you have a chimney, this Joe Blow Electric Charcoal Firestarter gets your coals lit without dousing them in chemicals. It has a heat mode, a fan mode for stoking the coals, and a heat plus fan mode to really get your fire going. Added bonus: a built-in bottle opener. It costs $69.99 on sale from BBQguys.com.

Getting the cook right is vital to a grill master. If it’s supposed to be medium rare, it better be medium rare, and cutting into the meat is not an option. Luckily, doneness is a factor of internal temperature — and easily measured with a tool like the iDevices iGrill. What’s so cool about this tool is that it links with your smartphone to not only alert you when your meat is done, but it also lets you know the rate at which your meat is cooking with a nifty line graph. The iGrill is $99.99 and the iGrill mini is $39.99.

With a gas grill, you never want to run out of propane halfway through grilling. Always know how much juice you have left with a propane gauge, like this lower-tech one for $24.99 from Brookstone, or this higher-tech one that connects to your smartphone for $49.97 from Verizon.

Source: Branding Irons Unlimited

Tools

Keep your grill master’s game sharp with new tools. This set from Cuisinart through Amazon ($24 on sale) has a stainless steel spatula, grill tongs, four pairs of corn holders, a silicone basting brush, and a cleaning brush, all in a neat metal case.

For the grill master who really likes to leave a mark, branding irons like this one from Norpro through Amazon for $23.24 allow you to change your branded message as often as you want. Others, such as irons from Branding Irons Unlimited, offer customized irons in every shape, from the fire department seal to Greek letters to your grill master’s favorite sports team, ranging from $32.20 to $65-plus.

From novice to master, every griller can benefit from a little extra know-how or a different grilling viewpoint. Serious Eats’ favorite grilling cookbooks include Wicked Good Barbecue by barbecue champions Andy Husbands and Chris Hart, Grill it! by Chris Schlesinger and Doc Willoughby, and Peace, Love, and Barbecue by Mike Mills and Amy Mills Tunnicliffe.

Source: Uncommon Goods

Cleaning up

No one likes a dirty grill. Keep last week’s old steak char off of this week’s pork ribs without working up a sweat with the Grand Grill Daddy Steaming Grill Brush from BBQGuys.com ($59.99).

Alternatively, take a totally hands-off approach with the motorized Grillbot Automatic Grill Cleaning Robot, also from BBQGuys.com ($119.95 on sale). It’s like a Roomba for your grill.

Grilling on the go

Don’t let traveling get in the way of fixing a grill craving. The Portable Briefcase Bbq (sic) Grill, available from Uncommon Goods for $80, is a 7.5-by-11.75-by-11.75-inch charcoal grill that packs up into a sleek metal briefcase for grilling on the go.

Is your favorite griller apartment-bound with a lease that forbids a grill, let alone a big smoker? Compromise with the Williams Sonoma Smoking Gun, which uses little wisps of wood — bigger than a splinter, smaller than a chip — and a hose to pointedly infuse your food with apple, hickory, mesquite, or cherrywood smoke. The Smoking Gun is $99.95. Additional chips come in sets of four for $29.95.

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