A barbecue is sold with a fourteen-piece tool set containing one thing that matters. This is the short answer: 3 objects to get before you cook, a handful worth having once you cook often, and a longer list you can safely ignore until you need it.
Get this before you cook (3)
Three objects. Each one is here because something published says what it does, and between them they cover the two things a barbecue will not tell you on its own — whether the fire is lit properly, and whether the food is done.
Instant-read thermometer
Knowing when it is doneAlso called Digital thermometer, Meat thermometer.
It reports the temperature at the very tip of a thin probe, which is why it can find the coldest point of a piece of meat rather than an average of it. Clemson gives a digital thermistor ten seconds and half an inch of insertion, and a thermocouple two to five seconds at a quarter of an inch — both sense at the tip, which is what lets them read a burger or a fillet. A dial thermometer with a fat stem senses along two to two and a half inches of its length, so it cannot read anything thinner than that and will report the average of everything it is touching, including the grate.
When it earns its place
- ▲Any food with a safety endpoint — poultry, mince, burgers, sausages, rolled or stuffed joints.
- ▲Any cut expensive enough that overcooking it matters, which is most of the reason people buy one.
- ▲Cooking for other people, where the difference between your judgement and a number is who gets ill.
What it will not do
- ▼It will not tell you what the cooker is doing. That is a different instrument in a different place, and a probe left lying on the grate reads the grate.
- ▼It will not survive being left in the food through a lid-down cook — Clemson lists instant-read types as not designed to remain in food while it is cooking.
- ▼It will not correct a bad reading position. In the wrong part of the meat, or against a bone, it is confidently wrong rather than approximately right.
What this is based on (4 findings)
- How deep a food thermometer must go depends on the instrument: a digital instant-read thermistor senses at its tip and needs about half an inch, a thermocouple a quarter of an inch, while a dial bimetallic thermometer senses along its stem and needs two to two and a half inches.
- A food thermometer belongs in the thickest part of the food, not touching bone, fat or gristle, inserted the full length of its sensing area past the dimple — and sideways into a thin patty, which has no thick part to go into from above.
- A food thermometer can be checked in an ice-water slush — at least half ice — with the stem immersed and touching neither side nor bottom; it should read 32 °F (0 °C). Two extension services differ on how long to wait: Clemson gives at least thirty seconds, and the University of Georgia says the reading may take five to ten minutes to settle. Wait until it stops changing. A dial instrument is adjusted at the nut beneath the dial; one that cannot be adjusted, or that is more than a few degrees out, should be replaced. The University of Georgia's reason for checking at all is the blunt one: readings from an uncalibrated thermometer do not mean anything.
- A thermometer stem should be washed in hot soapy water before and after each use, and the head should not be put in water.
Chimney starter
Getting the fire goingAlso called Charcoal chimney.
It is a chimney in the literal sense: the column of hot air rising through the packed charcoal pulls fresh air in at the bottom, so the coals light each other from below and the whole load is going in roughly fifteen minutes. Weber's procedure is two lighter cubes on the charcoal grate, the filled chimney over them, lit through the holes in the base — or oiled newspaper wadded underneath. The readiness cue is the coals at the top turning grey with ash, and the cue is more reliable than the clock because the fifteen minutes is qualified by the weather.
When it earns its place
- ▲Every charcoal cook, which is what makes it essential rather than useful.
- ▲Refuelling a long cook, where a second load can be lit outside the cooker and poured in already going.
- ▲Any time somebody was about to reach for a bottle of something to make the fire go faster.
What it will not do
- ▼It will not light itself. It needs a cube or oiled paper underneath, and the thing it replaces is lighter fluid rather than a match.
- ▼It will not stay cool. Weber's instruction is two insulated mitts and both handles, and the emptied chimney is still dangerous for a long time after the job is done.
- ▼It will not help on a gas or pellet cooker, which have their own ignition and no loose fuel to light.
What this is based on (3 findings)
- A chimney starter is filled with charcoal and stood over lighter cubes or oiled newspaper on the charcoal grate, and lit through the holes in its base. In roughly fifteen minutes, weather depending, the coals at the top turn grey with ash and are ready to pour.
- A lit chimney starter is handled with two insulated mitts and by both handles, and the emptied chimney stays dangerously hot — it should be stood somewhere nobody will walk into it, and checked to be empty.
- Petrol, paraffin and methylated spirits should never be poured onto a barbecue or fire; firelighters are the intended alternative.
Firelighters
Getting the fire goingAlso called Lighter cubes.
The problem a firelighter solves is duration rather than heat: a match goes out before charcoal catches, and charcoal needs a sustained flame underneath it for a couple of minutes. RoSPA names them as the alternative to the three substances it prohibits outright — petrol, paraffin and methylated spirits — and Weber's chimney procedure uses two cubes as the default. Masterbuilt goes further for its gravity-fed cooker and prohibits fast-light charcoal as well as lighting fluid, which rules out the pre-treated briquettes people often buy instead.
When it earns its place
- ▲Under a chimney starter, which is what they are mostly for.
- ▲Lighting a charcoal basket in place, on cookers where a chimney will not fit.
- ▲Any cook where the alternative on the shelf is a bottle of accelerant.
What it will not do
- ▼They will not light a fire on their own. They light charcoal, and charcoal needs air moving through it, which is a chimney's job.
- ▼They will not make wet or old charcoal work. A cube burning under fuel that will not catch just burns out.
- ▼They are not a substitute for the prohibition — nothing here makes pouring accelerant onto an existing fire safer, lit or unlit.
What this is based on (2 findings)
- Petrol, paraffin and methylated spirits should never be poured onto a barbecue or fire; firelighters are the intended alternative.
- A chimney starter is filled with charcoal and stood over lighter cubes or oiled newspaper on the charcoal grate, and lit through the holes in its base. In roughly fifteen minutes, weather depending, the coals at the top turn grey with ash and are ready to pour.
Worth having once you cook regularly (9)
Nothing in this group is needed to cook well, and all of it makes cooking regularly easier or cleaner. This is the band a grill set should have contained instead of the novelty items it did.
Leave-in probe thermometer
Knowing when it is doneAlso called Probe thermometer, Oven cord thermometer.
It solves the specific problem of the long cook: every time a lid comes off to take a reading, the cooker loses heat it then has to rebuild, and on a smoker that is measured in tens of minutes. A leave-in probe is designed to sit in the food for the whole cook with the chamber shut — Clemson lists the oven-cord type as designed to remain in the food while it is cooking, alongside the oven-safe dial and the liquid-filled types. Many of them carry a second probe for the air temperature beside the food, which answers the other half of the question.
When it earns its place
- ▲Any cook long enough that opening the lid costs real time — brisket, pork shoulder, a whole bird on a smoker.
- ▲Overnight cooks, where the useful thing is an alarm rather than a reading.
- ▲Cookers with a big gap between the dial setting and what the grate is actually doing.
What it will not do
- ▼It will not replace an instant-read. One probe reports one point, and the point you chose at the start is not necessarily the last part to come up.
- ▼It will not read a thin food. The same depth problem applies, and a probe in a steak is mostly a probe in the air above it.
- ▼It will not tell you the cooker is fine because the meat is fine, or the reverse — they are two measurements and both can mislead alone.
What this is based on (3 findings)
- Leave-in and instant-read thermometers are different instruments for different jobs: oven-safe dial, liquid-filled and oven-cord thermometers are designed to stay in the food while it cooks, and instant-read thermistor, dial instant-read, thermocouple and fork thermometers are not.
- A food thermometer belongs in the thickest part of the food, not touching bone, fat or gristle, inserted the full length of its sensing area past the dimple — and sideways into a thin patty, which has no thick part to go into from above.
- A thermometer stem should be washed in hot soapy water before and after each use, and the head should not be put in water.
Heat-resistant gloves
Not burning yourselfAlso called Barbecue mitts.
They exist for the moments where the tool is the wrong answer: pouring a lit chimney, lifting a grate out mid-cook, moving a drip pan full of hot fat, taking a whole bird off. Weber's chimney instruction is specifically two insulated mitts and both handles, which is the sourced version of a thing that otherwise reads as generic caution. The difference between a kitchen oven glove and a barbecue one is contact time — an oven glove is rated for lifting a tray, not for holding a steel handle that is genuinely at fire temperature.
When it earns its place
- ▲Pouring a chimney starter, which the maker's own instructions describe as a two-mitt operation.
- ▲Any charcoal cooker where the grate has to be lifted to reach the fire during a cook.
- ▲Handling large or awkward food — a whole bird, a joint, anything that will not go on a fish slice.
What it will not do
- ▼They will not let you hold something hot indefinitely. They buy seconds, and the failure mode is discovering how many while carrying it.
- ▼They are not a replacement for tongs. Fingers in a glove are still less precise than a tool, and gloved hands near a fire catch on things.
- ▼A wet glove is worse than no glove, because water carries heat straight through.
What this is based on (1 finding)
- A lit chimney starter is handled with two insulated mitts and by both handles, and the emptied chimney stays dangerously hot — it should be stood somewhere nobody will walk into it, and checked to be empty.
Tongs
Moving food aroundA pair of tongs does one job that matters and one that does not get talked about. The first is turning food without piercing it, which is why they are the default over a fork. The second is keeping your forearm out of the radiant heat above a live fire — a kitchen pair puts your hand about twenty centimetres from the coals, which is survivable for a moment and not for the length of time it takes to turn a full grate of sausages.
When it earns its place
- ▲Turning anything over direct heat, which is most grilling.
- ▲Rearranging a full grate, where the food at the back has to move without everything else moving.
- ▲Moving lit coals or a wood chunk, if you own a second pair kept for that and only that.
What it will not do
- ▼They will not lift anything large or fragile. A whole bird, a joint or a delicate fillet needs a slice, a glove or two hands.
- ▼One pair cannot serve raw and cooked food. That is the same cross-contamination route the food-safety rules describe for boards and plates.
- ▼Nothing about a heavier or more expensive pair cooks food better. Length and grip are the whole of it.
No published source behind this one — it is BBQHQ’s own account, which is why it is not listed as essential.
Wide slice
Moving food aroundAlso called Fish slice, Spatula.
It supports a food along its whole length rather than gripping it at two points, which is the difference between turning a fillet and folding one. This is the tool the fish-on-the-grate problem is mostly about: BBQHQ's diagnosis for fish falling apart separates the flesh not having released from the bars from the flesh having overcooked, and a wide thin blade slid along the grate is what tests the first without causing the second.
When it earns its place
- ▲Fish of any kind, which is the case tongs handle worst.
- ▲Burgers, especially before the crust has formed and the patty will still tear.
- ▲Anything cooked on a solid plate rather than bars, where there is nothing to get tongs underneath.
What it will not do
- ▼It will not stop fish sticking. That is a matter of the grate, the oil and whether the flesh has released, and no tool substitutes for the wait.
- ▼It will not turn anything tall or round. Sausages and corn belong to tongs.
- ▼A thick blade is worse than none, because it pushes the food along the bars rather than getting under it.
No published source behind this one — it is BBQHQ’s own account, which is why it is not listed as essential.
Griddle plate
What the food sits onAlso called Plancha, Flat top.
It removes the gaps. Everything a barbecue is bad at comes from the same fact — a grate is mostly holes, so small things fall through, wet things stick to the two bars they touch, and rendered fat drops into the fire. A solid plate cooks by conduction across the whole underside of the food and keeps the fat where the food is, which is why the manufacturer's own list of what it is for reads bacon, seared seafood, smashed burgers and fajitas: every one of those is a food a grate mishandles.
When it earns its place
- ▲Small or loose foods — prawns, sliced vegetables, chopped onions, anything that would fall through.
- ▲Smashed burgers and anything else that wants full contact with a hot surface rather than bar marks.
- ▲Breakfast on a barbecue, which is the case where a grate is simply the wrong shape of tool.
What it will not do
- ▼It will not give you bar marks or the flavour that comes from fat hitting the fire. It is a different way of cooking, not a better grate.
- ▼It will not make the cooker a griddle appliance. The plate takes its heat from whatever is underneath it, so zones, hot spots and the fire's behaviour are all unchanged.
- ▼It will not heat evenly straight away. Cast iron takes longer to come up than bars do, and the usual mistake is putting food on too early.
What this is based on (2 findings)
- A griddle or plancha plate is a solid cooking surface fitted into a barbecue that already exists — cast iron, covering the grate — and it is sold for the foods that fall through bars, stick to them or lose their fat between them.
- British trade usage files griddles and planchas as a single product category, while describing the products themselves as griddles. That the two words share a shelf label is not evidence that they mean the same thing.
Drip pan
Making the cooker do something elseAlso called Water pan.
Two jobs that get confused because one object does both. Empty, it keeps rendered fat out of the fire, which is what stops an indirect roast turning into a flare-up and what makes the cooker cleanable afterwards. Filled with water it becomes a thermal buffer instead — the mechanism the bullet smoker is built around, where the water cannot exceed its boiling point and so puts a ceiling on how fast the chamber can climb. Weber's own charcoal guide is specific that a drip pan is the right way to set up indirect, rather than lining the bowl with foil, which obstructs airflow.
When it earns its place
- ▲Any indirect cook on a kettle or a gas barbecue, where fat would otherwise fall on the burners or the coals.
- ▲Long cooks where the temperature drifts up and a water pan will hold it down.
- ▲Roasting anything you want the juices from.
What it will not do
- ▼It will not stop flare-ups over direct heat. The fat has to be falling somewhere the pan is, and over the fire it is not.
- ▼Water in the pan is not a flavour or a moisture treatment for the meat. It is a temperature mechanism, and the two get run together constantly.
- ▼Foil across the whole bowl instead is not the same thing — it blocks the airflow the fire is running on.
No published source behind this one — it is BBQHQ’s own account, which is why it is not listed as essential.
Grate scraper
Clearing upAlso called Grill brush.
It removes carbonised food from the grate, which is worth doing for a reason beyond tidiness: BBQHQ's diagnosis for food sticking to the grate names a dirty grate as one of the causes that look identical to the others on the day, and the residue is what the next piece of food sticks to. The job is much easier on a hot grate than a cold one, which is why the standard instruction is to do it during the preheat rather than at the end of the evening.
When it earns its place
- ▲Every cook, during the preheat, which takes about thirty seconds on a hot grate.
- ▲Before cooking anything that sticks — fish, chicken skin, anything lean.
- ▲After a cook that left sugar on the bars, since sugar burns to a residue nothing later will shift.
What it will not do
- ▼It will not clean a cold grate without a great deal more effort, and that is the version most people give up on.
- ▼It will not deal with grease below the grate, which is a different job and the one that actually causes fires.
- ▼Loose wire bristles are a documented hazard — bristles come off brushes, end up on food and get swallowed, and documented cases have needed surgery. Scrapers and coil-style tools exist because of it.
What this is based on (1 finding)
- A bristle shed by a wire grill-cleaning brush can be picked up by food later cooked on that grate and swallowed, and documented cases have required surgery. The clinicians reporting them recommend that the danger be communicated commercially and issue no instruction to consumers about inspecting grates or replacing brushes.
Ash shovel or bucket
Clearing upAsh is the ordinary end of every charcoal cook and it is the part of it that stays dangerous longest. Oklahoma Joe's warns that unconsumed embers can retain heat for up to twenty-four hours and burst into flame when exposed to fresh air, RoSPA states that the ground under a fire stays hot after the fire is out, and UK fire guidance is that coals must be cool before disposal. A metal bin with a lid is the object that holds all three of those facts at once. It also matters for the cooker itself: on any bottom-vented design, ash in the base chokes the intake the fire is running on.
When it earns its place
- ▲Every charcoal cooker with a vent underneath, which is most of them.
- ▲Disposing of ash on any day it is not certain the coals are properly out — which is most days.
- ▲Cookers with an ash pan that has to be emptied between cooks rather than after them.
What it will not do
- ▼It will not make hot ash safe to put in a wheelie bin. The container buys time; it does not cool anything.
- ▼A plastic bucket is not a version of this. That is how a bin melts through and sets a shed floor alight.
- ▼It will not deal with grease, which collects separately and is the more likely source of a fire in the cooker.
What this is based on (1 finding)
- The ground beneath a fire or a disposable barbecue can stay hot for some time after the fire is out, and coals and embers should be allowed to cool completely before they are thrown away.
Cover
Clearing upMost barbecues die of water rather than of use. A kettle or a drum with the lid off collects rain like a bucket; a gas grill's burners and ignition corrode; a cabinet smoker is a mains appliance that Electrical Safety First would rather was dry before it is switched on. A cover is the least interesting object in this list and the one with the largest effect on how long everything else lasts.
When it earns its place
- ▲Any cooker that lives outside, which is nearly all of them.
- ▲Anything with electrics — a pellet grill, a cabinet smoker, a gravity-fed cooker.
- ▲Cast-iron grates, which rust in a fortnight of British weather.
What it will not do
- ▼It will not dry a cooker that is already wet. Put on over standing water it makes the problem worse by keeping it there.
- ▼It must not go on a cooker that is still hot, which is the mistake that melts covers onto lids.
- ▼It will not stop condensation, so a covered cooker still wants its vents open.
No published source behind this one — it is BBQHQ’s own account, which is why it is not listed as essential.
Only if you cook the thing it is for (4)
Only worth owning if you cook the specific thing each one is for. Buying these first is the commonest way to end up with a drawer of barbecue equipment and no thermometer.
Grill basket
What the food sits onIt solves the same problem as a griddle plate and solves it differently: holes small enough to keep food in, but still holes, so smoke and the fire's own heat reach the food from below. That makes it the better answer where the point of cooking outdoors is the fire rather than the surface — vegetables that want char, whole small fish that want to be turned in one movement, prawns that want smoke.
When it earns its place
- ▲Sliced or chopped vegetables over direct heat, where half of them would otherwise be in the coals.
- ▲Small whole fish, which a hinged basket turns without touching them.
- ▲Anything you want smoke and char on rather than a flat seared face.
What it will not do
- ▼It will not sear like a solid plate. Contact is partial by design and the marks are patchy.
- ▼It will not cook evenly if overloaded, which is the usual failure — a basket packed full steams rather than grills.
- ▼It is genuinely awkward to clean, and a burnt-on perforated tray is the worst thing in this list to deal with.
No published source behind this one — it is BBQHQ’s own account, which is why it is not listed as essential.
Skewers
What the food sits onA skewer turns several small pieces into one object that can be turned in one movement, which is the whole technique behind an entire family of live-fire cooking — BBQHQ models skewer grilling as a method of its own, and the mangal, sate and yakitori traditions are all built on it. A flat or twisted skewer holds the food still when it turns; a round one lets everything spin back to where it was, which is the single most common frustration with them.
When it earns its place
- ▲Kebab pieces and anything else cut small enough to fall through a grate.
- ▲Cooking where the food needs turning as a unit rather than piece by piece.
- ▲The traditions built on them, where the skewer is not an accessory but the cooker's other half.
What it will not do
- ▼A round skewer will not stop food spinning. Flat or twisted is the fix, and no amount of technique substitutes.
- ▼They will not cook mixed foods evenly. Prawns and peppers on one skewer finish at different times, which is why traditional skewer cooking keeps them separate.
- ▼Wooden ones will not survive a long cook unsoaked, and burnt through at one end is how a skewer's worth of food ends up in the fire.
No published source behind this one — it is BBQHQ’s own account, which is why it is not listed as essential.
Heat deflector plate
Making the cooker do something elseAlso called Plate setter.
It puts something solid between the fire and the food inside a cooker whose fire is directly underneath, which is the whole of what indirect cooking is. On a kamado this is the difference between a machine that sears and a machine that roasts and smokes — the same ceramic body, one plate, two entirely different capability sets. It is the clearest example in the catalogue of an accessory that changes what a cooker IS rather than making it more convenient.
When it earns its place
- ▲Any kamado cook that is not a sear — which, for most owners, is most cooks.
- ▲Roasting or smoking on a cooker whose fire sits directly below the grate.
- ▲Baking on a barbecue, where direct radiant heat from below would burn the base before the top set.
What it will not do
- ▼It will not convert every cooker. A cooker with no room between the fire and the grate has nowhere to put one.
- ▼It will not come up to temperature quickly. It is a thermal mass, and putting food on before it has stabilised gives an unpredictable cook.
- ▼It will not sit in place and also let you sear. Taking it out mid-cook means handling a very hot ceramic plate.
No published source behind this one — it is BBQHQ’s own account, which is why it is not listed as essential.
Smoker box
Making the cooker do something elseIt exists because energy and smoke are separate questions, which is the distinction this whole equipment model is built on. A gas barbecue produces heat and no smoke, because burning propane makes none. A box of wood chips over a burner adds the missing half — the chips smoulder rather than burn, and the smoke goes to the food while the heat still comes from the gas. It is the same mechanism as the electric cabinet smoker's chip tray, on a cooker nobody thinks of as a smoker.
When it earns its place
- ▲Any gas cook where smoke is wanted, which gas cannot supply on its own.
- ▲Long indirect cooks on a hooded gas barbecue, where there is time for smoke to do something.
- ▲Trying smoking at all without buying a second cooker.
What it will not do
- ▼It will not turn a gas barbecue into a smoker. The chips give smoke for a stretch of the cook rather than for its length.
- ▼It will not smoke at all if the chips get hot enough to flame, which is the usual failure — smouldering and burning are different things.
- ▼It does not change the fact that smouldering wood produces carbon monoxide, which is why a gas cooker with one in it is no more an indoor appliance than it was before.
No published source behind this one — it is BBQHQ’s own account, which is why it is not listed as essential.
Nothing on this page is a product recommendation and nothing here is paid for. Where BBQHQ holds published evidence for a statement it is shown under the entry; where it does not, the entry says so. How BBQHQ decides what counts as evidence.