Top 10 Barbecue Gifts for Christmas

As the saying goes, if you're looking you're not cooking, and holding open the lid on your cooker while that slow read thermometer does its job. While the Thermapen might be expensive (around $100USD), it reads internal temperatures in seconds and lets you get back to cooking before all the heat has escaped from your grill or smoker. the Thermapen is the choice of competition barbecue cooks, professional chefs, and pretty much anyone serious about food. If your Dad is a serious cook he will love this. If he is a bad cook then this will at least reduce your chances of getting food poisoning.

Maybe you've had this problem, you have long, straight skewers and a round grill. What if your basic metal skewer learned to relax a little and could take any shape you needed. Well, FireWire does just that. This is a stainless steel cable, looped at one end with a stainless steel threading needle on the other. You can load it up with whatever you want in a kebab and then lay it out on the grill however you want. This makes it very easy to grill long kebabs on a round grill.

Imagine the power of an infrared grill in a portable. This 14,000 BTU infrared grill packs more heat than any other portable grill and at 20 pounds you can take it almost anywhere. All stainless steel construction you can even get this grill in marine quality steel with a railing mount for boating. 155 square inches of grilling area. Uses either disposable propane bottles or can be converted to a full 20 pound tank or even natural gas.

If you light charcoal, whether for smoking or grilling, get the most useful charcoal tool there is, a Charcoal Chimney. This handy little gadget lights charcoal quickly and easily without lighter fluid and lets you get more charcoal going anytime you need it.

Get the gift that keeps on giving, a different barbecue sauce every month to try out. A subscription to the BBQ Sauce of the Month club will get great sauces delivered to the door step every month. There are also a wide range of gift packs to choose from.

This beer can kit includes a stainless steel stand and drip tray making it perfect not only for the grill or smoker, but the oven as well. If you know someone who loves Beer Can Chicken then this is the gift for them.

Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby are masters of grilling, barbecue and meat. This book is their first pairing and is the book that taught the world that backyard grill was more than burgers and steaks. This is probably the one book you have to have whether you are a serious master of the grill or just starting out. This book almost single-handedly changed the landscape of the cookout.

There are many great grilling books out there to choose from.

It would seem almost insane to change a smoker as popular at Weber's Smokey Mountain (WSM) Smoker, but Weber has listened to the fans and made only slight (requested) changes to this unit. The addition of a lid mounted thermometer and a bottom mounted heat shield doesn't affect how this unit works but gives you a better smoker. In the past you either had to drill a hole and put in your own thermometer or set one inside and lift the lid to check the temperature. Now you can see the cooking temperature easily. The heat shield will protect whatever surface you put your smoker on. All together, a better WSM.

If you know someone whose ready for some real barbecue then you need to consider shopping for Smokers.

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A good pair of tongs let you get a good grip on your food. They need to be easy to squeeze, yet bounce back quickly. Good tongs allow you to grip on to small and large items without crushing even the most delicate foods. Good tongs have a gripping edge that holds on but doesn't cut into meats. Find tongs that fit your hand and have enough reach to get deep into your grill without leaving your hand over the fire. Also avoid tongs that are too heavy. If you have a lot of cooking to do you don't want to add several pounds of tongs to the weight of the food you are flipping.

If tongs are not on the list try finding other great grilling tools.

If you were to make a list of the most important, influential, and best barbecue joints in America, somewhere towards the top of that list would be Big Bob Gibson's in Decatur, AL. For 85 years this restaurant has served up some of the best barbecue in the country. Famous for barbecue chicken served in a white barbecue sauce, aficionados continue to flock here to take their bite of history. These days Big Bob's Gibson's is in the hands of Chris Lilly who married into the family and worked his way from the bottom to the top of the barbecue world. This book, part cookbook, part history is the legacy of the Gibson dream.

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