How Barbecue Fanatics
Accessorize Their Grills
July 18, 2002 -- With a modest $100 charcoal grill, Marc Taylor might come off as a barbecue lightweight. That is, until you check out "Marc's Kitchen" -- the outdoor bunker where he stores gadgets from sauce injectors and a wok to a metal basket for cooking fish. His newest toy? A special light for nighttime grilling.
"It's like a woman shopping for the ultimate pair of shoes," says the Miramar, Fla., account executive. "This is how guys accessorize."
Memo to barbecue fanatics: Hold on to your wallets. After years of foisting fancy models on backyard chefs, the grill industry is trying a new tack -- promoting accessories you never knew you needed. It's no joke. From an infrared thermometer (it takes the temperature of the grill) to wood chips sprayed with Veuve Clicquot, makers are pulling out all the gadget stops this summer. There's even a tent to keep flies off your raw hot dogs. So far, grillers are biting. Sales of all the extras are expected to jump as much as 40% to more than $1 billion.
That's nearly half what people will spend on grills themselves, a fact not lost on grill companies. Last year, grill sales fell for the first time in five years, and one of the largest manufacturers says its sales are flat so far this year. By turning up the heat on accessories, makers are hoping to lure consumers who are either eating at home more often (it's the economy, stupid) or at least willing to spring for an accessory if a new grill is out of the question.
But is any of this stuff worth buying? Armed with our own gas grills, $1,300 worth of groceries and the help of two restaurant pros, we put 56 of the newest accessories to the test. Like doctors, we used a huge syringe to inject sauces into meat, flipped a giant salmon with a new double-wide spatula and even cooked pancakes on a grilltop griddle (or tried to, anyway). Along the way, we discovered that the best technology not only saves time but makes you look like an early adopter.
We also learned that, yes, you get what you pay for. Some items were surprisingly flimsy, with cheap aluminum hinges and lights that didn't flick on. One set of metal "corn holders" even melted on the grill. Emily Hubbling, a buyer for the Barbeques Galore chain, based in Lake Forest, Calif., says she rejects four out of 10 products because the materials aren't sturdy enough.
Still, after spending so much on mega-grills, Americans seem primed to shell out for gadgets. After all, what's a $10 "poultry cone" among friends? A spokesman for the National Barbecue Association estimates there are about 50% more accessories on the market today than in 1999. The biggest seller for Kodar, a fast-growing accessories maker? A $79 "tool briefcase," complete with a four-in-one spatula.
Certainly, families like the Cornellisons of Julian, Calif., are willing prey. After Larry, the dad, charred 15 filets mignons at a recent dinner party (he was too busy pouring drinks and schmoozing), his daughter bought him a $75 thermometer that announces when his meat is done. "You can always get by with an abacus," says Mr. Cornellison, a math teacher. "But why?"
For our test, we enlisted Rafael Palomino, the chef at Viva La Vida, a New York restaurant with a leafy patio, and Jack McDavid of Jack's Firehouse in Philadelphia (who often shows up on cable's Food Network). We also got opinions from a weekend grill-master (fledgling filmmaker Luke Tansill) and a grill neophyte (Dr. Maggie Walkup). For six hours they cooked -- and we tasted -- chickens, steaks, burgers, salmon and even a few eggs, to see what these new gagdets are really made of. Here are the results.
Thermometers
What We Tested: An infrared grill meter, a fork with a thermometer in it, temperature-taking tongs, a talking remote thermometer, a thermometer that doubled as a light and three other temperature-taking gizmos.
Price Range: $10 to $130
Grilling Grades: Who knew you could check your steaks by remote control? Of all the accessories we tested, thermometers have gone the most high-tech. Brookstone has one for $75 that not only declares that the food is done (in a soothing woman's voice -- think of the voice-mail lady), but can do so from yards away thanks to a cordless remote unit. No one could get the thing to work until the office techie arrived, but then it stole the show. Before long, Jack had clipped it to his overalls to keep tabs on a beef tenderloin while wandering around. "You could go and play tennis," he said.
Thermometers are getting a big marketing push, both to those worried about food safety and obsessive gourmets striving for medium-rare perfection. Experts say a few degrees can mean the difference between done and overdone. But beware: Quality was so hit-or-miss that Jack dismissed many of the offerings. The GrillMate temperature fork ($10) rated our shish kebabs "medium well" when they were practically bleeding. Plus, we stabbed our meat so often, we lost all the juices. No wonder one taster asked: "Why are these burgers so dry?"
Biggest Surprise: Tel-Tru's $130 model, which you just point at the grill, or anything else, and click a button to read its surface temperature. (It measures infrared radiation.) It doubles as a party trick; guests scanned everything from an iced latte to their own foreheads.
Biggest Disappointment: The $15 Thermo Spatula Fork. Its short handle and awkward sensor were hard to maneuver. The company told us we should move the meat to the front of the grill.
Tools
What We Tested: Updated basics, from an extra-wide spatula for flipping fish to an attaché case for forks and brushes, a food tent, rubber mitts, tongs, a baster, a brush and grill-protector sheets.
Price Range: $5 to $79
Grilling Grades: When it came to these gussied-up basics, our panel quickly divided along gender lines. The guys went gaga over oversize spatulas and scary-looking tongs. But Maggie couldn't see the point, branding them "gimmicky" and "toys" for overgrown boys. And indeed, some of these so-called new basics proved useless, like a brush whose bristles melted right on the griddle and a grill scrubber that bent like a wire hanger when we tried to scrape off burnt fish scales.
Then again, who cares about function when you can look like a supreme grill master? That explains why Luke was "stoked" about the sleek metal attaché case that housed Mr. Bar-B-Q's $79 tool assortment. This briefcase looks like something Agent 007 might take along on a classified backyard cookout.
Biggest Surprise: A humble $5 food tent from Kodar that made our hot dogs look like they were quarantined but successfully kept the bugs off.
Biggest Disappointment: The fish spatula. It looked cool, but our salmon still stuck to the grill.
Lights
What We Tested: For the night-grilling crowd, there are lighted grill handles, clamp-ons, utensils with lights inside and a light that doubles as a mosquito zapper.
Price Range: $25 to $125
Grilling Grades: It's not immediately obvious that backyard chefs need a special lamp just to see the grill -- aren't flashlights good enough? Even odder: The great minds of the grilling industry can't decide where the light should go. Some are attached to tongs, others mount on the grill -- and then there's Frontgate's standing halogen lamp, which shines on your burgers for $125.
Our panelists liked the idea of having a lamp, especially for when they wanted to see if their meat was done by cutting it open (even if that is a no-no for the pros). But tongs with lights, heavy with batteries, proved a little unwieldy.
Biggest Surprise: Olympia's halogen lamp ($90) with a long cord and a clamp, which attached securely to our test grills.
Biggest Disappointment: Zelco's light-cum-mosquito zapper ($25), which seemed to make the appropriate mosquito-shooing noises, but wouldn't light up for us. Turns out we needed to pull on the arm of the contraption.
Cooking Aids
What We Tested: Gizmos to upgrade your grill skills, such as a porcelain wok, griddles, a cast-iron press, poultry cone (to roast chicken upright), rib rack, vegetable holders, an electric sauce mixer and a sauce sprayer.
Price Range: $7 to $20
Grilling Grades: Afraid to char your designer pans sautéing bluefish on the grill? Not to fear. The barbecue industry is cranking out gadgets that let you whip up indoor favorites outdoors, from pancakes to stir-fry. One of the most popular gadgets we found was the wok, for obvious reasons: Veggies won't slip through the grate in front of your friends. Indeed, novice Maggie, who used it to make smoky chicken teriyaki, found it a perfect compromise between kitchen and backyard. "It's awesome," she says.
For $17, Luke thought the Weber rib rack was a pretty good deal for keeping his ribs from burning. But maybe the most impressive -- and cheapest -- cooking aid was the $8 "Zap Flavor Injector." With remote thermometer still attached to his overalls, Jack put on a show for us injecting a salty marinade into a two-pound pork roast. The juicy result was a favorite with our tasters.
Biggest Surprise: We loved the $21 Grillman cast-iron searing press, but the company has stopped making the item.
Biggest Disappointment: The $10 Oscarware griddle that gave us burnt eggs. A spokesman says he's had one for 10 years with no problem.
Baskets
What We Tested: We checked out eight different baskets, for everything from fish to chicken wings, kebabs, burgers, franks and vegetables.
Price Range: $10 to $23
Grilling Grades: The kudzu of barbecue stores, baskets seem to be taking over the shelves. You can stick your meat in a cage and flip it without a spatula -- no more broken burgers. And you can do multiples with the flip of a wrist. "This would work for my 13-year-old son," said Jack, while operating one basket.
Still, baskets made it impossible for us to cook anything to order and, worse, kept the meat from getting sear marks or a deep smoky flavor. The ones with wooden handles were also hard to maneuver. A basket might be a good idea at a campsite to keep food from touching the communal grill, but we thought, "Who needs a basket to grill a hot dog?"
Biggest Surprise: The $19 fish basket from Kodar made it easy as pie to flip salmon steaks.
Biggest Disappointment: Charcoal Companion's $20 six-skewer kebab basket, which kept the kebabs so far off the grill we abandoned cooking them because it was taking so long.
Email your comments to rjeditor@dowjones.com.