The Most Useful BBQ Accessories (and the Ones That Collect Dust)

Every backyard cook has that drawer. The one full of gadgets that looked great in a holiday ad and have not been near a fire since. I have one too, which is exactly why this episode needed to happen. On Episode 97 of the Backyard SmokeMaster BBQ Podcast, we walked through the barbecue accessories that actually earn their keep, and then the ones that sound great and end up buried in that drawer. Whether you have been running an offset for years or you just brought home your first smoker, the goal is the same: spend your money on the tools that make your cooking more consistent, and skip the rest. ## How these accessories were judged Nothing made this list because it was trendy, and nothing in this episode was a paid placement. Every accessory here is either something I own and use or something I researched heavily before I felt comfortable recommending it. The filter was simple. An accessory earns a spot if it does at least one of these things: - Solves a real barbecue problem - Improves consistency or efficiency - Is durable and proven rather than hype driven We all fall for the hype sometimes. It is easy to do. These are the tools that survive contact with an actual cook. They fall into five buckets: fire and temperature control, prep and workflow, monitoring and feedback, cook and turn, and resting, holding, and serving. Then we will get into the ones I consider overrated or situational. One quick note before we get into the list. Some of the product links in this post are affiliate links, which means Backyard SmokeMaster BBQ earns a small commission if you buy through them. It does not cost you a penny extra, and it does not change what makes this list or where anything ranks. Nobody paid to be included. If a link here helps support the podcast, I appreciate it. ## Fire and temperature control These are the accessories that stabilize heat. If your temperatures are swinging, nothing downstream of that is going to save the cook. ### Water pans Starting with one that costs you nothing, because you already have it at home. A water pan adds thermal mass inside the cooker, absorbing and releasing heat gradually. That smooths out temperature swings and gives you a more stable cooking chamber. Best used in: bullet smokers like the Weber Smokey Mountain, cabinet smokers, and offsets in dry conditions. ### Fire bricks Another cheap one. You can pick up a brick at the hardware store for four or five dollars. Fire bricks store and radiate heat slowly once they come up to temperature, which helps hold your temps through long cooks, reduces recovery time after you open the lid, and improves fuel efficiency. Best used in: kamados, gas grills when you are cooking indirect, and kettle grills. ### Gasket kits and door seals This one is genuinely practical. Gaskets and seals eliminate the air leaks that cause temperature swings. Close the leaks and your fuel goes further, and every vent adjustment you make actually means something. Best used in: older offsets, kamados with worn seals, and budget smokers. That is my friendly way of saying the cheaper cooker some of us bought when we first got excited about barbecue. If your gaskets are worn down or peeling away, this is your upgrade. You cannot control the heat if air is leaking everywhere. That is the whole problem gaskets solve. ### Insulation blankets When it is freezing or windy outside, an insulation blanket reduces heat loss, stabilizes your temperatures, and cuts your fuel consumption. Depending on how cold and how windy it gets where you live, this can be the difference between cooking in winter and giving up until spring. Best used on: pellet grills and kettles. ### Charcoal baskets A charcoal basket controls your fuel burn rate and the airflow around the fire. It prevents uneven fuel consumption, enables longer and steadier burns, and helps you maintain a consistent coal bed. Think of it this way: a clean, contained fire is a stable fire, and a basket goes a long way toward getting you there. ## Prep and workflow These are the accessories that save you time before the food ever hits the grate. ### Disposable cutting boards I want to spend real time on this one, because it is one of the cheapest upgrades on this entire list and one of the most useful. Here is what disposable cutting boards do for you: - **They speed up transitions.** When you are prepping multiple proteins back to back, any time you do not have to stop and reset is time saved. - **They reduce cross contamination risk.** Raw poultry, pork, and beef can each get their own board. No wondering whether the board was fully sanitized between proteins. - **They protect your good boards.** The fat and the constant cutting wear down the expensive board you bought. Let the cheap one take that abuse. - **They are ideal for high mess trimming.** Brisket and poultry trimming is messy by nature, and a disposable board contains it. - **They simplify cleanup.** Roll it up, toss it, you are done. - **They are great for outdoor prep.** They are thin and light, about like a piece of cardboard, so they are easy to carry outside and you never have to haul a heavy board back in to wash it. One question that came up from the live crew was disposal. They are pliable enough that I fold mine down small and they go straight into a regular kitchen trash bag without any trouble. No need for contractor bags. ### A dedicated prep cart or rolling table Walking back and forth to the house is wasted motion, and it wears on you over a long cook. A dedicated barbecue prep cart or rolling table keeps everything in arm’s reach so you are not making ten trips inside for the one thing you forgot. Best used for: outdoor prep setups and high volume or repeat cooks. Want to go deeper on any of this? We talk about our favorite accessories, grills, smokers, and technique all week long inside the free Backyard SmokeMaster Society. There is no reason to go through your barbecue journey alone. It takes about 30 seconds to join at backyardsmokemaster.com/society. ## Monitoring and feedback This category is about taking the guesswork out of barbecue, and it is where I would tell most people to spend their money first. ### The instant-read thermometer If you buy one thing on this list, buy this. An instant-read tells you when to act, not just what temperature you are at. It confirms doneness so you are not guessing, and it gives you objective information instead of a hunch. A leave-in probe monitors the trend during the cook, but it sits in one spot in one piece of meat. An instant-read lets you check several locations and see which part of the protein is running ahead of the rest. Probes tell you the story. Instant-reads confirm the ending. Where it earns its keep: - **Thin or fast-cooking proteins.** Chicken, turkey breast, steaks, chops, and fish cook too fast for leave-in probes to be practical. - **Spot checking for evenness.** Large cuts cook unevenly, and one probe location never gives you the whole picture. - **Learning your pit.** Every read teaches you something about your cooker’s hot spots, its airflow, and how your fire management is actually behaving. This is one of the few tools that genuinely pays for itself. Save one cook from overcooking and it has covered its cost. And the probe is thin enough that it leaves no noticeable mark in your meat. I run the Typhur instant-read, the ThermoWorks Thermapen, and the Fireboard Spark, and they are all excellent. You can also get a solid instant-read for 20 or 25 dollars. I do not have a strong preference here. Just get one. ### Remote ambient temperature probes These give you real-time pit temperature feedback without opening the lid. Less unnecessary lid lifting, more proactive adjustments, and over time a real feel for how your pit behaves. Best used on: every type of smoker and grill. Knowing the ambient temperature in your cooking chamber is valuable no matter what you are cooking on. ### My two favorite accessories right now Neither of these was on my radar, and both turned into unexpected hits. Again, neither is sponsored or endorsed. I just like them. **Typhur Gold wireless probes.** This set comes with four probes, and they are numbered, which is far handier than it sounds once you have them inserted into several different proteins. They are not as thin as the ThermoWorks RFX, but they are not thick either. The charging base doubles as a display, so I get instant readings on the unit itself without reaching for my phone, and the connection has been solid. The app is easy, you can set the cook up on the handheld or in the app, and it will estimate a finish time. I do not lean on the prediction much, but it gives you a general idea. I expected the RFX to be my favorite wireless probe this year. The Typhur took that spot. If you could combine the RFX probe design with the app experience some of the others offer, you would have the perfect wireless probe, and I think the Typhur gets closest. For the record, I also bought the Fireboard Pulse earlier this year and it left me a little underwhelmed. That is my experience with it, and your mileage may vary. I have liked just about everything else Fireboard has done. **ChefsTemp ProTemp S1.** This one replaces the built-in thermometer in whatever grill or smoker you have. It screws right in where the factory dome thermometer was and gives you a big, backlit digital readout of the ambient temperature that is easy to read from across the yard. I liked it enough that I bought two for my full-size Smokeslinger, one for my Liberty 94 offset, and then a fourth that is probably going into my Weber Smokey Mountain. Between the two, the ChefsTemp tells me what my cooking chamber is doing and the Typhur tells me what the meat is doing. That is most of what I need to know during a cook. ## Cook and turn Tools that make handling food safer and cleaner. ### Long locking barbecue tongs Cheap, easy to find, and they matter. Long tongs keep your hands away from the heat and flare-ups, and the locking feature keeps the business end off the table when you set them down. Good tongs give you distance and control, and both of those matter. ### Food-grade nitrile gloves Clean transitions between tasks. They limit cross contamination and keep your handling and hygiene consistent from prep through service. We are big on food safety around here, and this is one of the easiest ways to protect yourself. ## Resting, holding, and serving This category is about carryover control, which really means keeping food hot without overcooking it after it leaves the pit. ### Breathable wraps, also known as pink butcher paper Butcher paper slows heat loss without sealing it in, balancing carryover and moisture retention. In the age-old butcher paper versus foil debate, I come down on butcher paper for most cooks because it breathes and it does not change how the meat finishes. Foil still has its place with certain proteins, especially if you want ribs more tender. But for most of what I cook, it is paper. ### Cambro-style insulated carriers, used correctly Cambros are outstanding for holding, and they can hold as many full-size hotel pans as you can stack. But they should only be used after carryover has already stabilized, and this is where people get burned. Here is the scenario. You smoke a brisket for 14 hours, pull it at 203 or 204 internal, let it rest for what feels like long enough, and put it in the Cambro at 190. A hot box locks in whatever temperature you put into it. Six hours later you pull that brisket out and it is still 190 degrees, and when you go to slice it, it falls apart. You end up with chopped brisket instead of slices that hold together when you drape them over your finger. Monitor the internal temperature and let carryover finish before the meat goes into the Cambro. They are a little pricey, but this is another accessory that pays for itself over time. ### A cooler and dry towels If a Cambro is not in the budget, you probably already have a cooler. Dry towels, not steaming towels, add gentle insulation and prevent rapid heat loss after venting. Towels will not stop carryover, but they are good for holding. ### Heavy-gauge aluminum sheet pans This one I learned while researching the episode. Heavy aluminum sheet pans conduct heat away from the meat faster than a cutting board does, which helps stabilize the temperature early in the rest. Metal pulls heat out of the meat more quickly than wood or plastic sitting under it. ### Leave the probe in during the rest This is something I started doing and I am glad I did. Do not pull your leave-in probe when the meat comes off the pit. Leave it in and watch the rest. You will see the temperature keep climbing, you will see exactly where the peak of the carryover is, and you will see the moment it starts falling back. If you are not watching the rest, you are guessing. We have the technology to stop guessing. ## Overrated or situational accessories These are the tools that sound useful and rarely get used. ### Oversized rib racks The pitch is that a high-capacity rack holds more racks at once and maximizes your grill space. In practice they promote uneven cooking, loading them is awkward, and your ribs usually need to be rotated anyway depending on where they sit in the smoker, which often means pulling them out and repositioning them. They may save space at the start, but they cost you control. ### Built-in grill lights The pitch is hands-free lighting that is always attached to the grill. The reality is usually a poor lighting angle, dim output, and batteries that die quickly. A headlamp beats a built-in grill light every time, and a good one does not cost much. ### Multi-tool barbecue utensils These show up in my social feeds every year around Black Friday. One tool that does everything, fewer items to manage. But they tend to be heavy, the grip is awkward, and a tool that does five things usually does none of them especially well. ### Dedicated burger presses The pitch is uniform patties and faster prep. In practice, hand forming is faster, and presses often overcompact the meat. Uniformity is not always better. ### Built-in smoker boxes on gas grills Gas grills are not designed to produce smoke flavor, and a built-in smoker box is how some manufacturers try to address that. The smoke production tends to be limited and they need frequent refills. An inexpensive foil packet often works better. Built-in does not always mean better. ## The question to ask before you buy Here is the filter I keep coming back to. If a tool does not reduce your time, your effort, or your risk, it usually ends up in the drawer. Run any accessory through that question before you spend the money. The ones that clear it, like a good instant-read thermometer, a stack of disposable cutting boards, or a set of long locking tongs, will keep earning their place on your table for years. Now I want to hear from you. What accessory do you reach for on every single cook, and what did you buy that is collecting dust? Drop it in the comments. And if you want to keep the conversation going all week, come join us in the free Backyard SmokeMaster Society at backyardsmokemaster.com/society.