There’s something primal about grilling. The act of a man cooking meat over a fire connects him to previous generations back through the millennia to the first pyres of Neolithic humans. While our technology improves along with our tastes and recipes, the essential nature of grilling remains constant.
Still, that doesn’t mean we need to still remain wholly primitive about it. There are necessary modern improvements to the art and process of outdoor cooking that any “man of the grill” should explore and study if he really wants to properly rep his caveman ancestors.
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In the guide below, we’ll begin with the essential hardware (grills) and move through a few additional options aimed at contributing to the best possible grilling experience. All of the following items were weighed in the balance of our own grilling efforts and proved themselves worthy.
Traeger Wood Fired Grills Pro Series 34 Grill
Amidst the ongoing debate between gas or charcoal, a true man of the grill never forgets about wood. This Traeger Wood Fired Grill is far from primitive with a new Digital Pro Controller and an Advanced Grilling Logic system that which maintains an accurate goal temperature from +/- 15 degree F. And, the Pro Series grills from Traeger are built like tanks, so you’ll be wood fire grilling for a while.
Char-Griller Akorn 20-Inch Kamado 16620
Japanese Komodo-style cooking focuses maximum controlled heat over a smaller grilling space. This ergonomic Char-Griller Kamado utilizes a 20-inch cooking diameter with a 314 square inch central cooking area. The design helps the coals heat quickly and retain heat longer.
Napoleon Pro 285X Portable Gas BBQ with Cart
This Napoleon takes portable grilling to a very serious level. The scissoring stand and lightweight materials makes it easy to load up for transport. Once on location, there’s nothing “portable” about the 285X’s grilling performance as it’ll stand hot shoulder to hot shoulder with any stationary or built-in grill.
KettlePizza Oven Kit
It’s a simple, but long overdue concept — a grilling add-in appliance that allows a man to make a traditional, wood-fire style pizza on any home grill. The KettlePizza Oven Kit comes in different sizes and shapes to fit multiple grill designs and works with heat or charcoal. And, it’s idiot proof, so any man of the grill can successfully turn out a pizza first time.
Grill Daddy
An invention beautiful in its simplicity and invaluable in its function, the Grill Daddy is a sort of grill scrubber mated with a squirt gun. It’s not powered, and there are few moving parts. You fill its reservoir with water and simply go about scrubbing your hot grill. The motion of scraping sprinkles water against the cooking service, which then becomes steam. That’s physics — and the power of steams gets the grill clean. Every time.
Dean & DeLuca
Unless you’re a vegetarian or vegan (and, thus eligible for a charge of crimes against humanity), you might just need a little meat or seafood on your grill to justify its presence and your existence. The gourmet services over at Dean & DeLuca provide everything from baskets to themed gifts. But, for our purposes, Dean & DeLuca will bring top quality grilling fair directly to your manly door.
Epic Provisions
The folks over an Epic Provisions initially specialized in protein bars using only the most natural of ingredients. But, their cooking products, like their pure Animal Oils and slow-cooked Bone Broth, offers great options for grill preparation and marinade.
Dynatrap
No one here is suggesting you should grill insects, unless your culture is into that sort of thing. We don’t judge. But, we assume your outdoor grilling space can be haunted by the deadliest animal in the history of the planet — the mosquito. The Dynatrap uses no pesticide and quietly traps mosquitoes, flies, beetles, wasps, hornets, yellow jackets, moths, stink bugs, sprites and fairies for a range of one acre. Your species may vary.
