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9 Essential Grilling Tools

Our barbecue experts recommend their must-have tools for grilling season (11 Photos)

Josey Miller on May 14, 2010 at 12:07PM

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Grilling4All.com

Tongs

"Tongs are the most essential tool you need on the grill. I'm very particular about tongs," says Julie Reinhardt, author of She-Smoke: A Backyard Barbecue Book. Jason Day, coauthor of BBQ Makes Everything Better, is pretty picky himself:

"I use Steven Raichlen's [Best of Barbecue Lumatong with Grab Light]. They're extra-long to protect your hand from the heat of the grill, and they're sturdy enough to stand up to repeated use," he says. Tongs are often the culprit behind food contamination if they're used to handle both raw and cooked meats, but Elizabeth Karmel, author of Soaked, Slathered, and Seasoned: A Complete Guide to Flavoring Food for the Grill, says there's an easy solution: "Remembering which tongs came in contact with raw food can be difficult. So buy two sets of tongs and label one with red tape (stop! raw food has touched these tongs!) and the other with green tape."

$19.99 at Grilling4All.com