Most favorite the Joetisserie by far. Followed by Frog Mats and a perforated grill pan. Least fave probably meat claws. I’ve got better ones on the ends of my hands.
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I have started more live fire cooking so I might sound a bit odd, but here is what works for me.
I still use my WSM for certain things, mostly cooking on a live fire grill.
Favorites
Amazing Ribs
thermapen
smoke and smoke x4
cast iron pans and griddles
live fire grill
tri pod for live fire
flat Side of grill grates for live fire
local firewood
welders gloves
Sous vide
No longer use
beer can chicken holder
wooden grate cleaner
rotisserie
gas grills
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Other than my Thermapens, my favorites change over time. Right now my absolute favorite is my air fryer. I use it almost daily. Today I did a baked potato in it, perfect. Sous vide makes the favorite list. And I have a carbon steel 10" pan that I use more than my cast iron. Least favorite is grill grates. I used them once now I am not sure where they are.Comment
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Lots of Grill Grates dislikes. Are you guys seasoning and using the flat side?Comment
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Likes:
Thermopens
DigiQ controller and fan
My bigass 28" skewers
Rotisserie (Blaze)
Drip 'N Griddle Cast Iron Pan
Titan Outdoors 22" Santa Maria attachment
Poortex
Tencoz Professional Kitchen Cooking Torch
Bernzomatic torch
Stok grill grate lifter
Harbor freight welding gloves
Weber chimney
Weber starter cubes
My 8-10 sets of identical tongs
SNS - It is a nice charcoal basket
Dislikes:
Artleflame 26" insert - I did like and enjoy it when I got it but it's a production to get it going and especially once I had the EVO it was obsolete.
meat claws
Nylon grill brush
Wood grill brush
SNS - The fanatical worship of it goes too far IMO. It's not in anyway necessary or superior to using a kettle without one. Banking, snaking, minioning, or bricks can do anything a SNS can do just as well.Last edited by Attjack; February 15, 2022, 10:24 PM.Comment
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We can surely agree to disagree but in my opinion in a cook-off no one is going to detect any superior food coming from a SNS and the other methods are not difficult. Also, find the water trough too small thus requiring refilling more often than I would desire. However, I also put the the SNS itself and another product from Adrenaline BBQ on my list of likes. My dislike is about the fanaticism around the product. It doesn't turn your kettle into a smoker and a sear machine it already is one. -
To me, the value of the SnS is in the ease of cleanup. I use foil to form a drip pan on the indirect side of the charcoal grate. Then when it's time to clean up before the next the cook, the foil is just the right size to hold the mostly spent charcoal and ash left in the SnS. I just dump it all in the foil, put that in a plastic grocery bag and drop it in the trash. -
I would agree on the SNS, I have not used mine in years. I just bank the coals or make a snake, it works just as well. There is no need for a water reservoir or heat block at all. Never had any issues. I mean sure, it does look nice when all those coals are nestled in there nice and tight in the SNS. But I do not get the hype either. I have always thought that, even when Dave was around here and starting to roll these out. Always kept my mouth shut, as he was just getting things going.
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Likes:
Thermopen and Lavatools Javalin
Maverick XR-50
PBC
SNS
Weber Charcoal Chimney - both sizes
Weber wax charcoal starters
a good cigar
disposable cutting boards
Dalstrong chef's knife
nitrile gloves
Neutral:
GrillGrates
wood grate scraper: have one and use it occasionally but leftover foil balls work just as well
Dislikes:
Cheap meat injectors
Meat claws
lighter fluid
Beer Can Chicken Holder: mom gave it to me a couple years ago because my dad likes cooking beer can chicken, never used it and think I threw it away when I moved
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Likes:
Joule
Thermo Pop
BBQ trays
Fire starters
Brisket Slicer
Trimming Knife
Fireboard cord holders
Dedicated Mobile Storage Unit
Avocado Oil
Dedicated searing grill grates for kamado on lower shelf
Rescue Grill Brush (love!)
Blackbear Hex Logs (coconut charcoal)
Limited Value:
BBQ light
Qwick Trim
Vertical Skewer
Charcrust
Commercial Rubs
Air Fryer
Instapot
Still Deciding:
SNS Charcoal basket (not SNS) (still in package)
Things that do the job but I don’t care about them:
Meat claws
Inkbird temp monitor
Things I want to use more so I can put in like column:
Dutch oven and frying basket
Things that bored me:
kettle
PBCLast edited by STEbbq; February 15, 2022, 11:12 PM.Comment
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Panhead John it was a bit tongue in cheek but more that I felt they no longer suited my needs so I sold them.
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My favorite has to be either my Thermapen or Smoke. Absolutely the best-in-class. If only every product category had such a company.
My least favorite are these flexible cutting boards. They store easily, after all, they are only a mm or two tall, but they slide around and they warp in the dishwasher. I'm about to stop using them simple as a knife safety issue.Comment
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I like:
SNS, Vortex, HEAVY duty foil I get at restaurant depot, thermopen, weber charcoal starter, I have two proper cambro's,
my 26" weber my smoker, hotel pan's
I sometimes use when space is,. tight rib racks, but they're too short to hold the ribs without them laying on top of each other.
(any day now I'll have one of my welder friends make me some proper ones)
I hardly use my (orphaned 22" weber) though I do have an sns for it!
I use the big one.Comment
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WillTravelForFood you beat me to it!!
favs:
AR
anova hot tub time machine (credit Ernest for the term)
Pizza stone
14†CI skillet
Thermometer (I have several)
fagor 10qt pressure cooker (mentioned in another post, it’s a multi-tasker)
that sliding cutter thing on plastic wrap
my pantry is a big ole metro shelving unit, so S hooks are the bomb
grapefruit spoon (cleaning squash, scraping mushroom gills, etc)
swimming goggles for massive onion slicing (think French onion soup)
paprika app
non-favs:
Stupid, gimmicky knife sharpener (inherited from BF that he won’t let me throw away even though he doesn’t use it because he knows I know how to sharpen a dang knife)
plastic cutting boards that I inherited from BF that he won’t let me get rid of
lighter fluid (my back neighbor uses it and I am going to show up with a chimney one of these days!)
AR grammar police Panhead John (just had to throw that in 😘)
please know that BF is a really cool person! 🤣🤣🤣
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In this situation your comments would have looked much better by capitalizing the first word of each sentence throughout the post, rather than just here and there. Overall I’d give your post a C+ SheilaAnn
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Panhead John stupid auto-correct
And I use AR on my iPad, so trying to correct capitalization, etc is a pain.Last edited by SheilaAnn; February 16, 2022, 12:13 PM.
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My least favorite, I'm ashamed to say, is the Rib-O-Lator.Comment
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This thread is fascinating! Biggest surprise so many grillgrates in least favorite, which will include me..
Favorite:
Membership in the Pit!
Pitmaker gloves (highly recommend for all those who put meat claws in least favorite)
Grill armor gloves
Paprika app
Thermoworks Signals
Solidteknics wrought iron pans
Least favorite:
Grillgrates
Multiple rotisseries I never use and struggle to find storage for
Meater
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My list is similar to most of yours. My likes;
Fireboard and fan. I don't care what anyone says, it turns a variety of charcoal cookers into pellet pooper like convenience. Keeps temps rock solid and monitors doneness to a tee. I own several other brands, they all work well but the FB shines.
SNS. As I said above, is it necessary? Not really. But I could say that about most cookers in general. I can dig a hole in the ground, light a fire, throw a grate over some bricks and cook a mean steak any day. But cooking one on a kettle reverse sear with a spinning grate over a red hot bed or coals in the SNS is hard to beat. Then turn around and do a slow burn, minion type method with 4 cups of water in the trough and slow smoke a pork butt to perfection. Again is it necessary, no but it's an improvement.
Paprika App. Not an accessory per se but THE best organizer of recipes on the planet. It's downloading capabilities are astounding. And when I use one of the recipes I just prop my phone's kickstand up, turn it sideways so I can see the ingredients and the directions at the same time, making it super convenient. Plus it won't allow the phone to go into sleep mode. I can't think of much of anything I'd improve on it.
Thermopen. I own two of them and have yet to even change a battery in one and they get used all the time. If there's one thing I always tell people to buy to make them better cooks it some sort of thermo device, but the Thermopen is the gold standard.
Tupperware Storage Bins. I've got several wire, multi-tier racks in my garage on which I've placed a number of plastic storage bins. I keep everything from charcoal, to pellets, wood chunks, to fire starters and all kinds accessories out of the weather.
Anova SV Circulator. If you haven't gotten into SV I feel sorry for you. It's simple, it works and it's full proof once you understand the basics.
Garage Refrigerator. For those who have one, you get it.
Charcoal Chimney + Fire Starters. Along with an inexpensive propane torch, makes charcoal starting a breeze.
Heat Proof Gloves. They work.
Large Custom Made Spatulas. I have one that's 6" wide and one that 10" wide. The large one can pick up a 14# brisket or a whole turkey. That my friends is convenience.
Grill Grates. I like them for searing. Got a set on my gasser that get upwards of 750*F. Bought a set from Panhead John for my 22" kettle and used them a couple of times. I'm not in love with them but do like the results. Cleaning is a pain in the butt, so there's that. (I guess that's in the MEH column)
To be honest I have a few more gadgets that I drag out from time to time. Other than that I really don't have too many dogs laying around. I still have an old stainless beer can cooker (which I haven't used in years) and one of those jalapeno popper racks that allow the jalapenos to slip through rendering it useless. But for the most part I'm pretty choosey about what I buy and back they go if they don't work. I guess what I'm saying is the above and my cookers themselves are really all I need. Do I want more, do I have MCS? Of course but I found the anti-MCS pills at my pharmacy so I'm weaning myself off buying random junk.Last edited by Troutman; February 16, 2022, 09:46 AM.Comment
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I do not consider a thermapen an accessory, also a garage fridge & the SnS. I mean, it would be like walkin around with no guns. Ya can’t go thru life without em.
Now the grill grates, Ol’ Troutman just reminded me of what a pain they are cleaning & I am about to yank em out of my Napoleon. I have been fighting on & off with these dad gum things fer years. I just have not sold myself on em. I sure don’t need em fer any steak. So I think I’ll park em with my smokenator if I kin find it.
Tongs are rilly important, they save on the wear n’ tear on yer fingers. A spatchyla is helpful, same differnce. I also like to keep,a rag handy or a pair of gloves so’s I kin handle big stuff & not burn me paws. The sleeve on my shirt does allotta wipin of brow & nose. Summertime is a little bit of a problem, but not to much since they’re so short around here, just a few weeks. I might have more to add later as I think about things.Comment
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