Amy

I’ve been running an outdoor cooking test lab out of my garage for the past six years, and the single question I get most often from friends and readers is simple: what is the best electric smoker I can buy right now? After spending over 200 hours running ribs, briskets, pork shoulders, salmon, and jerky … Read more

Last Saturday morning, our team cooked breakfast for 14 people on three different outdoor griddles at once. Pancakes on one, eggs and bacon on another, hash browns on the third. By the time the coffee was poured, we knew which models deserved a spot on our best outdoor griddles for families list. Over the past … Read more

I’ve spent the last three months testing flat top griddles in my backyard, running over 200 smash burger patties through each one to find out which griddles actually deliver that crispy, lacy crust that makes smash burgers legendary. The science is simple: a flat top creates more surface contact than grill grates, and that extra … Read more

I have spent the last three months running pancakes, smash burgers, and bacon across a stack of flat top griddles in my driveway. Some were lightning-fast preheaters with perfectly even heat. A few struggled when the breeze picked up or left me scrubbing rust spots the next morning. Our team reviewed the best flat top … Read more

When I moved into my apartment three years ago, I had to give up my backyard charcoal grill. The lease said no open flame, my building manager said no propane tanks over a pound, and my downstairs neighbor made it clear smoke would not fly. So I went down the rabbit hole to find the … Read more

I have owned three separate grills in my backyard over the past decade, and switching between them every weekend was driving me crazy. When I finally tested a true hybrid grill that runs both propane and charcoal in one frame, the convenience alone changed how my family cooks outdoors. That experience is what pushed our … Read more

Feeding a family of four or more from a tiny two-burner grill is an exercise in patience that nobody signed up for. By the time the last batch of burgers comes off, the first batch is cold and the kids have already raided the snack cabinet. That is exactly why we spent weeks testing and … Read more

I live in a third-floor apartment with a 6×8 ft balcony, and finding the best 2-burner gas grills for small patios became my personal obsession last summer. After burning through two cheap grills in one season (rusty grates, wobbly wheels, one igniter that quit on day three), I started tracking everything: BTU output, cooking area, … Read more

Last summer, I pulled a brisket off my smoker after 14 hours. The bark looked perfect, the smell was right, and I was already telling my neighbors to come over. Then I cut into it. The middle was raw. I lost $85 worth of beef that night. That is the moment I started obsessively testing … Read more

I pulled a 14-pound brisket off my smoker at 11 PM last October, served it to a hungry crowd, and felt pretty pleased with myself. Then I realized I had been checking the pit every 20 minutes for the last 6 hours because my old wireless thermometer kept dropping signal. That night sent me down … Read more