BBQ Accessories

LondonBridge

I assembled my fine charcoal BBQ grill and ready to use it but was curious if anybody can recommend some good accessories, especially for cleaning it as it has porcelain grills?

I already have a chimney too

fuelish

Don't clean the grill, let it season. I even oil mine when I get a new grill to speed the seasoning process along. Once they have a nice layer on them food will not stick and it adds to cooking/seasoning of the meat. (much like cast iron cookware or a wok)

I grill a couple of times a week and the only grilling tools I use are a long bladed spatula, tongs, and a silocon mitt for turning meat. You don't want to pierce the meat when cooking it, it lets the juices out. I also got some kabob skewers, good for vegatables or very small pieces of meat. And you will want a basting brush the silicon ones work well

Xaquin

when you kabob, soak your skewers for a half hour in some red wine .... mmmm mmmm

also, get yourself an apron with a good saying and/or picture on it.

EggyToast

Yeah, the only real accessories you need for grilling is a good mitt (so you dont burn your hand) and long utensils. Things that grab are much more useful than things that flip.

I keep my grate pretty clean, but you should be able to look in the manual for care constructions.

starmanbrand

Get a pair of silicon tipped long tongs and a very thing, long metal spatula. The silicon tongs will prevent you from puncturing steaks or chicken or what have you if you happen to grip it too tight. No unsightly marks. The spatula will be used mostly for burgers. If you do not make burgers, you might not really need one. Also, the silicon brush is a good idea. They allow for good application of sauces or marinades and are way easier to clean than typical brushes. Plus the bristles will not start to come out on your food as it ages.

Also, depending on the size and coverage of your BBQ you may want to look into a pizza tile. Making pizza on a BBQ makes it taste really intense. I do not know, though, how well the stone would work with porcelain grates.

Also you will need a small water bottle with a sprayer on top for flareups when cookin something with a high fat content.

fuelish

It is the "reburned" food from the grill adding flavor to the pizza. I have heard this is why the pizza from an old school pizzaria is so good. the flavoring has been applied over and over to the interior of the oven and gets added to the pizzas as they are cooked. Another thing for pizza cooking on a grill is the ability to get the grill hot enough. Most home ovens will not get hot enough. They need to be around 600 degrees. You can do this with a gas grill easy. You should be able to do it with a coal grill as well. And the best pizza ovens are wood fired.

pinenut_canary

As a few people have mentioned before, don't clean the grill too much. I read this in Wired magazine, so I'm just passing it along. But the residue that's left behind is called gestalt, and it is a very important component in grilling, and even more in baking, especially pizza. The gestalt adds more flavor to pizzas and other stuff you would be cooking. That's why a lot of people say that New York pizza is hands down the best pizza on the face of the U.S. It's because those pizzerias have been using the same ovens for years, whereas pizzerias in other regions in the West Coast can't get that flavor because they only started 5-10 years ago (plus other factors, but gestalt is pretty important).

With grilling, this gestalt is very important, but I heard that a scrub is required every few months or so. It will get rid of a little bit of the gestalt, but it's for the health of the people who will be eating your food, because there can be a lot of buildup of stuff that you actually don't want to eat.

Also, when watching Good Eats with Alton Brown, he said that the less you move around the meat, the less juices will leak out of it. In my eyes, Alton Brown is God, so I don't question him whatsoever.

Also, going along with the bottle spray idea, I like to put olive oil in another one also. It makes it handy when quickly applying some to the outside of fish and other meats when necessary. I also have a rolled up wet towel around. I use this when switching foods to cook, ie from fish to steaks, etc, because I don't want my steaks tasting like seared ahi tuna.

Djeet

I thought you were supposed to keep the grilling surface pretty clean. There's this guy, Steven Raichlen, who has this show/website called BBQU, and his thing is "keep it hot, keep it clean, and keep it lubricated". So before he lays any meat on the grill surface he takes a wire brush and scrubs the grill surface and then brushes/coats the grill surface with oil. But you have a porcelain grilling surface which doesn't sound like it would handle a wire brush well. Check out his site/program for some good recipes and video, in my area it shows on the PBS channel on weekend mornings.

He uses some cool accessories, like a little box to hold wet wood chips in the grill so you get smoke, or these basters that look like little mops so you can quickly apply alot of sauce/oil.

starmanbrand

Keeping the Grill Clean- As far as cooking in a professional enviroment, this is what you do. Every time you can you are supposed to season your grill. You clean the grill off with a brush to get the larger bits of residue off, then apply olive oil (From a rag that is lightly soaked in it) to the surface and let it heat up, and then scrub it with the brush again.

This makes the grill create -perfect- grill marks. If you do not do this, your grill marks become dulled because of the residue blocking the direct searing metal.

But for a pizza stone, its good to just brush it off and never to wash it.

firewaterword

I'd have to respectfully disagree with the "don't clean the grill" method, if only because I feel it can negatively impact heat transfer. But I realize I'm most likely in the minority here. I'm a big fan of nice, rare steaks, properly seared at high heat with distinct, deep grill marks (specifically, what my snooty old housemate would call quadrillage). But I get the reasoning behind letting some buildup occur.

Also, second on the silicone brush. As far as skewers go, if you use wood, definitely follow the soaking advice. I generally can't stand when they burn, so I go for metal ones with twisted shafts. More convenient, but you loose some wood flavor. Then again, just toss some soaked chips into the coals if that's what you're really after.

Enjoy your new BBQ!

fuelish

I think the trick to proper heating is the spread of coals(with a charcoal grill) and distance to grilling surface. I use a gas grill and I put in grating just over the burners so I could lay in lava rock on top of that. This gives a fantastic even heating and helps to reduce flareups(the fatty deposits burn very quickly on the rock and the rock helps prevent direct fat to flame contact) When using lava rock cook some cheap stuff the first couple of times to help with the gestalt(excellent term) The first couple of meals might be a little "dirty"tasting.
The olive oil sprayer is a great idea but be sure to not use it for flare ups!

starmanbrand

Oh, and you know what rocks for charcol grills? One of the jet engine starters. You put the coals into this thin, vertical tube and start them from teh bottom and they get up to full heat in a very short amount of time. then you flip a level and they all fall down and are easy to spread out.

man i love grilling.