3 Incredibly Useless Grilling Tools

Uncommongoods.com
Uncommongoods.com

When it comes to grilling, and cooking in general, it's easy to get wrapped up in buying fun gadgets and kitchen products. But when you stock your house with a bunch of useless tools that you only use once, you end up having a graveyard of novelty items collecting dust (think golf-themed BBQ tools).

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Sure, it's fun to have some cool gadgets, but there has to be a limit - and they should be ones you actually use. To help you avoid wasting your money and precious storage space, we asked The Cooking Guy Sam Zien and Food Network's Aaron McCargo what they thought were some of the more ridiculous tools out there and came up with a few of our own.

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McCargo has some words of advice for the hard-core grilling people who have all the specialty tools: "People get way too sensitive and paranoid about what's going on out there. You don't have to be gentle, nothing you do on a barbecue is really tender anyway." So this summer, put away the briefcase of tools and "let grilling be grilling."

Rib Racks

While Steven Raichlen's rib rack might have a big name attached to it, it's probably not something Aaron McCargo is going to buy. His thoughts? "I was the sucker who bought one of those rib racks that you put on your grill, and you're supposed to slide the ribs between these columns. But it fell apart, the ribs fell, and it was just a piece of junk."

He says that people go over-the-top and buy steam baskets to steam vegetables on the grill. "Let grilling be grilling. Grill your vegetables."

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Griller Bags

Bags that promise to make perfect grill marks and can be washed and re-used. Our thoughts? Maybe just use a grill.

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Mini Raclette

Similar to the idea of fondue, these mini pans allow you to heat cheese on the grill in perfect single-sized portions. Now, there's nothing wrong with gooey, melted cheese, but aren't there so many other foods that can be made on a grill that don't require a special pan?

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-Yasmin Fahr, The Daily Meal

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