Cooler Cookout
Your average summer BBQ involves dealing with fire, smoke, charcoal, sweaty brows and thick cuts of meat. It’s a manly task that requires tools capable of withstanding plenty of torture and testosterone — but who decided aesthetics had to sit on the back burner? Thankfully, Eva Solo, a Danish firm, wants to bring sexy, sophisticated [...]
Zone your technique
You need a hot grill to sear in the juices for that High Plains Bison that was just delivered, but you also need a sub-400 degree zone to make sure your investment doesn’t go up in smoke. To make sure you’ve got your grill in order, just place the Taylor Grill Surface Thermometer ($10) directly [...]
Great box of fire
New evidence suggests that our mancestors may have started cooking with fire almost a million years ago. We’re willing to bet the chefs on duty in the Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa wish they had a Grillcube. Billed as a greener way to grill, Grillcube is essentially a cardboard box full of natural hardwood charcoal. [...]
Definitely not smoke and mirrors
Good BBQ is a thing of legend and separates the “great neighbors” from “those people down the block”. Be the hero of your street this season with the Yoder Smokers Pellet Series YS640 ($1,299). Yoder makes competition grade grills in a hotbed of BBQ excellence, Kansas. The YS640 Pellet Smoker is Yoder’s solution for the [...]
Scorched Mirth
We like to grill our meat, but if you prefer to give it the ol’ Towering Inferno treatment, the Cook-Air Portable Grill ($200) could be for you. This small BBQ is capable of reaching temps of 1,100°F — that’s the equivalent of 65,000 BTUs of power, which is essentially double that of your average propane [...]
Fire escape hearth
Weighing in at 32 pounds, slightly less than the totalitarian Mongol it’s named after, the Genghis Kahn Hibachi ($180) offers up more than one way to get meat cooked. The stout, yet compact cast-iron grill provides three cooking schemes: flat griddle, 16-skewer shish kebab attachment, or a convex grilling grate with V-Grooves — an improvement [...]
Redefining Blow Torch
Cooking over charcoal can impart many excellent flavor characteristics to your meat of choice — lighter fluid just isn’t one of them. Swedish inventor Richard Looft created the Looftlighter ($80) to end charcoal-grilling man’s dependance on the explosive fluid once and for all, granted they have an electrical outlet close at hand. Looking like a [...]
Skewering the Competition
The first man to use a skewer while cooking food over a flame was the undisputed genius of his time. The fire cooked his catch, not him, and he could eat right off of the stick afterwards. Then someone invented plates and botched it all up. The price of progress in this case was mountains [...]
BBQ Meets the Autobahn
German engineers have made countless innovations in the automotive world, and hold a reputation as some of the best in the business. The question is, do these technical skills translate to BBQ? Brennwagen is a relatively new company, founded in 2010 by former Formula 1 engineer Florian Wagner. A quick look at his grill’s low [...]
Made from Concentrate
If you’re willing to adventure a little off grilling main street you’ll find there are some great American-made options like the Minden Master Grill ($479). Designed with a more realistic and urban-friendly compact form factor, the Minden is an ideal fit for households not yet ready to sell their first born child for a barnyard [...]
Bring the bar to you
Think of the Alpina Mobile Bongos Beer Bar ($11,300) as a graduate degree in outdoor drinking. The mobile party center features an integrated kegerator, 8kg of ice storage, and customizable tops for adding everything from a gas-powered grill to extra serving areas. Thanks its four sturdy wheels and a specially designed refrigeration system, there’s also [...]
Savvy Slab
Made from locally sourced Burgundy clay and kiln baked at 2000°F, the Black Flame Top Grilling Stone ($49) features proprietary “Flame” technology allowing it to work perfectly in all cooking scenarios be it gas, charcoal, wood, electric, oven or broiler. Using the principle of radiant heat, the handmade stone provides an even cooking surface for [...]
Trifecta anyone?
Why choose between gas, charcoal, or wood when buying a grill, when you can have all three? That’s the holy trinity the new Kalamazoo Hybrid Fire Grilling System ($10,000+) offers. The magic happens via special drawers installed above the grill’s main gas burners, which can be filled with either wood or charcoal and lit from [...]
Killing Guesswork Grilling
Some men are grill-capable the day they leave the delivery room. Others have an uncanny ability to turn great cuts of meat into fresh sets of mud-terrains. If you or someone you know falls into the latter bucket, these Steak Button Thermometers ($20) will help. Their big, easy to read dials are essentially idiot-proof, even [...]
