Ceramic cookers Xmas recommended accessories gift ideal

Well with Christmas just around the corner I decided to do my Christmas BBQ Accessories recommended gift ideal for the avid BBQER that uses ceramic cookers such as the Big green Egg, Kamado Joe, Primo, etc,..  I summed it up to my 7 most recommended based on its practicability, and innovations that actually improves your grilling or takes your grilling to the next level without wasting your money for something you will never use again. 

1. Grillgrates: Have a nice raised rail design which allows a better surface area contact and better heat conduction which gives you perfect restaurant sear lines, while juices collect in the valleys then steam or sizzle adding even more flavor and moisture into your food. You can also add smoke pellets to the valley to add a hint of smoke to fish and vegetables. The shape of the Grillgrates radiates with heat for fast, even cooking and the bottom protects greasy food like chicken against any flare-ups and drying heat. The fat drains off and burns in the bottom of the grill grate and not on the outside of your food. The Grillgrate tools which comes with each set as custom design prongs that fits between and below the rails to lift delicate food such as fish without damaging it and it doubles as a cleaning tool to clear the valleys of build-up. GrillGrates cook via all methods of cooking: conduction, convection and infrared plus they provide you with a semi-indirect cooking method. Also Grillgrates has beyond phenomenal customer service and support! 

You can also flip the Grillgrates over and used them to reverse sear steaks, to cook buns on, or to cook burgers with a nice sear on them. 

You can order your Grillgrates here: Grillgrate Store You can use coupon code Grateful will save 15% off store wide.

2. Kick-Ash-Basket: This ash basket provides a quick and efficient way of cleaning ashes from your ceramic cooker. It also improves air flow which actually made it easier and faster to achieve any desired temps. It also helps in maintaining high temps for searing steaks or cooking pizzas. 

Review: kick-ash-basket-review

You can order your Kick Ash Basket here: kickashbasket

3. The Smokeware Chimney Cap: Well if you like grilling through rain and snow storm this is the perfect accessory to get. It works extremely well in keeping the rain and snow out of the cooker while grilling. It’s also controls the temperature just as easy as the regular daisy wheel vent does. Everyone also loves the fact that it actually pimps up the look of your cooker! It looks very sharp on any grill. Also after the fire is completely out just open the vent on the chimney a tad when the grill is not in use which in turn will reduced and prevent mold and mildew problems that its typical in a Kamado grill that sits idle for a couple of weeks. Another advantage of this cap is when opening your BBQ you don’t have to worry about the vent fully opening by itself like the original daisy wheel is known to do on ceramic cookers. 

Review: smokeware-chimney-vented-cap-review

You can order your Smokeware Chimney Cap here: Smokeware chimney Cap store

4. Tappecue Temperature Monitoring System:  I strongly recommend this temperature monitoring system if you do lots of low and slow cooks.  What I really like about this system is that you can actually monitor the temps of your grill and food from anywhere that there’s a wifi, 3G, 4G cell service or internet connection by using your phone or tablet. Imagine not being stuck watching you grill and to have the freedom to go anywhere while doing a long and slow cook and to be able to monitoring your food and pit from anywhere you go. During the summer I start my low and slow cook early in the morning and then went Kayak Fishing and always managed to monitor my grill in the middle of the lake while fishing which is quite amazing. This system is actually quite accurate whit its temperature reading. Another big bonus of this system is that you can graft the temp of your pit and of your food for further analysis for the next cook.  This system also sends you warning when the pit falls or go above your set points and lets you know when your food is ready.

Review: tappecue-temperature-monitoring-system

You can order your Tappecue Temperature Monitoring system here: Tappecue Store

5. Thermapen: Thermapen are the Cadillac’s of instant read thermometers. They are very fast and will give you accurate reading every time within 2 seconds flat. I found that lots of cheap meat thermometers take for ever to get accurate reading and lots of them are always off by a few degrees. This is one of the accessories that I wouldn’t cheap out on. These are used by Pitmasters world-wide and pro chefs in restaurants. They are made with a bio master anti-bacterial additive and they are splash proof. It has a long slim probe for taking temp in large piece of meat and large easy to read temp numbers. The company actually has excellent customer service and stand behind their products one hundred percent. Food safety is extremely important to me this is why I don’t cheap out on a meat thermometer. They are very easy to clean. Also the newer models now have a nice backlit LED display.  

The speed and accuracy of the Thermapen is unparalleled.  With a blazing 3 second reading and + or – of .7 degrees it’s going to get the temperature as fast as necessary. Its also has a water-resistance design and Biomaster anti-bacterial addictive. These thermometer are very rugged and can take a good beating!

Features:

3-second readings!
High accuracy to ±0.7°F (±0.4°C)
Water-resistant design
Biomaster anti-bacterial additive
°F to °C reconfigurable
Auto on/off—no buttons!
1,500 hour battery life

You can order your Thermapen here: thermapen

6. Kettle-Q Griddles: A good quality griddle gives you opportunity to expend your cooking limitation of your Big Green Egg, Kamado Joe, Primo and any other ceramic cooker. This griddles gives you a large enough cooking space to cook a few eggs, bacon and sausages at the same time. The griddle allows you to cook food such has pancakes, crepes, eggs, hash browns, Quadzillas, stir-fry, etc,.. with ease!

I highly recommend buying the Kettle-Q made by The Little Griddle Innovations because they make the highest quality griddle. Also they are made of 14 gauge 430 stainless steel which is pretty heavy duty stuff. You can also visually see the quality and craftsmanship that was put into the making of their high quality griddle. They are very easy to clean and use!

Review: Kettle Q

You can order you Kettle-Q griddle here: littlegriddle store

7. The BBQ Bravo Gloves: The best pair of BBQ gloves I ever used are definitely the BBQ Bravo Gloves by a mile due to the fact that they are pretty well insulated, good quality leather, and they are long in length offering protection to your arms from heat as well! These are the only gloves that have been actual able to use to handle hot pizza stones, head deflectors, plate setters, cast iron frying pan, etc. without burning myself or burning my gloves. 

Review: bbq-bravo-gloves review

You can order your BBQ Bravo Gloves here: BBQ_BRAVO_GLOVES_EXTRA_HEAVY_DUTY

I hope this list helps your Christmas shopping.

Enjoy and happy grilling!

The Perfect BBQ Tek Chimney Cap Review

A few weeks ago I was approached by Jack Piscetta from Perfect BBQ Tek to do a review of their Perfect BBQ Tek Chimney Cap which I gladly accepted. I never heard of them before or seen any of their caps before. So I was quite intrigued on this one.

Lots of you would wonder why we would need such a cap. Well one of the biggest flaws of ceramic cookers is when cooking in elements such as rain or snow some of it will make its way in through the top vent (Daisy Wheel) which in turn can affect your cooking. But bear in mind that in reality a little drizzles won’t affect your cook much unless you’re baking bread. Heavy rain however will affect your cooking and can pose the risk of putting out the fire.

In the pass I heard and tried the Smokeware Chimney Cap which I did a review of last year. Today I still use this cap lot. We will compare both of them further down in this review.

I received the Perfect BBQ TEK Chimney Cap via regular mail last week and it was well packaged to prevent any damaged during shipping. Well the first impression that came across my mind while looking at the chimney cap was wow this look like a mail box for the BBQ. My wife looked at it and said wow that’s a fugly mail box lol! Well before I keep going don’t let the look of it fool you. There’s reason why its design in this shape which we will get into later in the review. I just like being honest with the first impressions of a product.

Before we get in to this review here’s a little history of the company Perfect BBQ Tek which was provided by them:

"How we got started 

Several experienced indoor and outdoor cooking enthusiasts began a discussion about the difficulties of using our Big Green Eggs in the rain.  One of our founders came up with a design to curb these and we modified and modified and modified it until we had a simple, effective design.  We believe that we can make many correct choices on what makes grilling and smoking on your ceramic grill easiest to work on.”

The Perfect BBQ Tek chimney cap is made of good quality 5052 Aluminum which will resist the weather and will not rust on you. It’s made of the same material used for industrial vent cap which is proven to last in the elements. This cap should last many years of use and abuse. It has a “U” shape design with both ends open which makes it look like a mail box but is a very effective simple design.

The cap installation is quite easy and it’s completely installed within seconds. You just remove your top vent then re-install the top vent basically sandwich the vent and chimney cap together. As you can see installation is a snap! There’s just enough room inside to allow you to install the top vent and to do some adjustments of the top vent. The cap I received is the Big Green Egg version and I found it fitted perfectly on my Green Egg. When you order this cap ensure that you specify for which ceramic cooker its gone be used on since there’s various sizes available.

Install cap first

Then install top vent

Here's installation video made by Jack Piscetta from Perfect BBQ Tek. I was gone make another video but didn't want to re-invent the wheel. 

It’s available for the Big Green Egg, Kamado Joe, and Primo for all its available sizes.

 Source of picture: http://perfectbbqtek.com/

Source of picture: http://perfectbbqtek.com/

After playing with the chimney cap it has just the right amount of room for the daisy wheel to fully open. Well everyone is still probably wondering why the fugly “u” shape mail box design. Well after doing various temperature cooks with the Perfect BBQ Tek Chimney Cap I quickly discovered why its shaped this way. I believe the main reason is that its design this way to allow more air flow between vent and cap to better dissipates heats from the hot gases from the ceramic cooker which means the surface of the aluminum doesn’t get scorching hot. At a cooking temp of 700 degree Fahrenheit which I held for 30 minutes the hottest spot I could find on the cap was 75 degree Fahrenheit which is quite impressive. Because I love too compared products side by side I then repeated the same test using the Smokeware Chimney Cap and this cap reached 450 degree Fahrenheit. Beer in mind that the outside ambient air temperature was approximately 50 degrees Fahrenheit while conducting all of these tests. As you can see the Perfect BBQ Tek cap is a lot safer if you actually touch the aluminum by mistake while doing temp adjustments with the upper vent cap.

Like any cap I strongly recommend using BBQ gloves and tongs to do any adjustments. Remember safety first!

Daisy wheel fully open

Temp reading at various spot of the chimney cap with a BBQ internal temp of 700 degree Fahrenheit:

 Top left temp reading

 Top Right Temp reading

Mid section temp reading

 Temp of outside edge of bottom off top vent

Note: This product is intended for use at temperatures under 500 degrees and not intended for use during high temperature searing. Even do I tested it during a high temps cook.

Also the design of the mail box can be used to deflect the wind from the top vent by having the side of the cap facing against the wind. I actually tested this one and it actually helps a little in maintaining stable temps in windy conditions. When high wind passes across the top vent it actually causes a vacuum affect that causes a higher air flow especially if the wind is also blowing through the bottom vent. So if you eliminate one of them it makes it easier to control the temps. Its simple physics lol.

Cap turn around to deflect wind

Here's video made by Jack Piscetta from Perfect BBQ Tek of the chimney cap in the rain. I was gone make a video but didn't get any rain so I decided to use is video.

A friend of mine told me that I should paint it the color of my BBQ with high temp paint which is actually a good ideal since it would blend better with the BBQ and give it a better appearance.

Another point that I really like about this product is that it’s actually made in the US not China.

Lots of us has experience mold growth in our ceramic cooker and moisture build up inside when not used in a while. But this chimney cap can prevent this mold and moisture build up by leaving it on the BBQ and have the top vent opened up slightly and it will allow a little airflow, which in turn will prevent this issue. (Before doing this insure your fire is completely out or you will waste you left over lump charcoal)

The only minor flaws I could find about the Perfect BBQ Tek Chimney cap is that Aluminum 5052 will encourages galvanic corrosion with the cast iron top vent. This was pointed out to me by a co-worker that’s works with steel and metals for a living and is a structure engineer. He said this can quickly be fixed by using a gasket as a spacer or using a good quality Stainless steel.

Here’s a comparison chart of the Perfect BBQ Teck Chimney Cap and Smokeware Chimney Cap:

Perfect BBQ Teck Chimney Cap	Smokeware Chimney Cap
Made of 5052 aluminum	Made of 304 Stainless steel
Made in the US	Made in China
Looks like a mail box	Sharp looking
Comes in one piece	Comes in two piece plus a gasket
Can block winds from top vent	Can’t block wind from top vent
Stops rain from entering perfectly	Stops rain from entering perfectly
Doesn’t get scorching hot during cooks	Gets scorching hot during cooks
Intended for temps up to 500 degrees F	Intended for temps up to 900 degrees F

Price: $32.95

Price: $37.95

As you can see the Perfect BBQ Teck Chimney cap is an excellent product in preventing the elements from entering your ceramic cooker. Its simple design is excellent in blocking wind from entering the top vent and to prevent mold growth inside the cooker when not in use. I also like the fact that you can still use the original top vent fully to control the temp which was design to be used with the specific ceramic cooker. I didn't get any rain yet to try it with but will report back on it at a later date. Well if you live in area that rain or snows a lot like me then this cap is definitely excellent investment for your BBQ. Don’t let its look fool you. I was actually quite impressed in its performance and its height and width was perfect in keeping the elements out during the testing. I definitely recommend this cap. I would like to take the time and say thanks to Jack Piscetta from Perfect BBQ Tek for providing me with a sample of the chimnney cap to make this review possible.

You can order your Perfect BBQ Teck Chimney cap here:          The perfect BBQ Tek Chimney Cap

The company contact info:

Email: perfertbbqtek@gmail.com

Phone: (404) 220-7190