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GRILL GLOVES. Grilling means working with intense heat. Insulated heat-resistant gloves will protect your hands. Leather makes a good choice, but we prefer silicone gloves, which are waterproof and heat resistant to about 500°F. Wear them and you can grab a hot grill grate, grill rack, or roasted turkey right off the grill.

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COAL RAKE. Use this to quickly rake coals into beds of varying thicknesses and varying heat levels. Most stiff garden rakes are too long and large for the typical kettle grill. A children’s garden rake is just the right size.

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COAL SHOVEL. A small shovel lets you easily shovel hot or spent coals and ashes from the firebox. Again, a child-size metal garden shovel works best for backyard grills. But the bigger the grill, the bigger the coal shovel should be.

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COAL POKER. This is not strictly necessary, but you might like one if you grill in a wood-burning grill, over a campfire, or in a fireplace. Look for a coal poker that’s long, metal, and curved at the end to easily hook coals and logs for repositioning.

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DISPOSABLE ALUMINUM PANS. A disposable aluminum pan has multiple uses on the grill: a drip pan to catch grease; a roasting pan to retain juices for making a pan sauce; a sauté pan for simmering foods in liquid, such as boiled shrimp or brats in beer; a warming container for grilled food; and a soaking container for wood chips or chunks or bamboo skewers. Keep several sizes on hand.

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TOOLS FOR THE FOOD

TONGS. These are perhaps the most important item in your grilling toolbox. Basic grill tongs should have long, sturdy handles, be spring-loaded so that the tongs close only with pressure, and have scalloped ends to get a better grip on foods. Avoid tongs with thin handles; they tend to bend when pressed, rendering them useless for grabbing food. Some practical variations on the theme: Fish tongs have extremely wide ends to match the dimensions of fish and make it easier to handle small whole fish or fillets. Tongulas have a flat spatula on one end of the tongs and a typical scalloped end on the other. A hybrid of tongs and a spatula, a good tongula can be used to both grab a steak and flip a burger.

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SPATULA. Another key grill tool, a spatula excels at flipping small, delicate foods like burgers and fish fillets. Look for a stiff, long-handled spatula with a wide blade and beveled edge to easily reach beneath foods without mangling them. An offset grill spatula is the most ergonomic, and most have slats to prevent steam buildup while handling grilled food. A few also have a jagged edge on one side of the blade to tenderize meat and a bottle opener in the handle to release the carbonation of frosty beverages.

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SKEWERS. Keep a few types on hand for kebabs and satays: metal, bamboo, and two-pronged. Flat metal skewers help to keep the food from spinning around the skewer. Two-pronged skewers do a slightly better job but may not evenly pierce small foods such as cherry tomatoes. Bamboo skewers make a more authentic presentation of Asian, Middle Eastern, and South American kebabs. But decorative metal skewers may be more your style. Almost any long, thin, stiff object will do the job: Try thick rosemary stems or even long twigs. Soak any wooden skewer in water for 30 minutes before grilling to keep it from burning.

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GRILL TRAYS, GRATES, AND SCREENS. Often made of enameled metal, these perforated grill toppers allow you to cook small or delicate foods such as cut vegetables, meat chunks, and shrimp or scallops without letting them fall into the fire and without the use of skewers. They often include handles on both sides and can also be used to cook doughs right on the grill (see Grilled Rosemary and Prosciutto Focaccia, page 337). Grill purists may scoff, but these grill toppers expand the possibilities of your grill.

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GRILL SKILLET AND WOK. Similar to vegetable grill trays, these perforated pans also include a long handle on one side. Often the handle