Top BBQ finds from the 2024 National Hardware Show

Pitmaster Christie Vanover explored the 2024 National Hardware Show in Las Vegas to find what’s new in the outdoor BBQ and grilling space.

So this week I got to go to the National Hardware Show, which was held in Las Vegas, Nevada. Unlike some of the other trade shows that I’ve been to recently, this one is dedicated to all things hardware, outdoor, and barbecue and smoking.

So I’m going to touch on a few of the barbecues and grills and other outdoor cooking appliances that I saw this week.

Zwilling Flammkraft

The first grill that I want to touch on is the Flammkraft.

Now, if you listened to my episode about the Kitchen and Bath Show, you know that I’ve already talked about the Flammkraft, and I’ve talked about the German engineering and how unique it is.

The burners are actually inside the grill on the bottom, but to the sides, which leaves the underside of your grill grates completely open. So you always have indirect heat cooking, but it also gets hot enough that you get nice sears on things.

Well, the reason I wanted to bring it back up is because they were back at the show, but this time they were showing off their pizza stone.

So it’s a pizza stone that actually sits where the grill grates lie. And it’s always got the indirect cooking because of the way the burners are set up.

What makes this pizza stone different from the dozens of other pizza ovens that were probably on display at the National Hardware show, is the surface itself.

A lot of pizza stones are made of cordierite. And so is this one. But what makes it different is that it’s glazed. So it has a surface over it that actually protects the stone.

The reason that’s important is because if you just had bare cordierite, what’s going to happen if you add something fatty on it like a burger is the grease is actually going to soak into the stone and it’s just going to tarnish the flavor of your stone, which is going to affect future cooks.

By having a glazed surface, it doesn’t actually penetrate the stone itself. But you get that same conductivity of heat that you get with the stone with the easy-to-clean surface.

You can sear steaks on this, you can sear burgers on it. So it really makes it like a griddle, but it also conducts heat like a pizza stone.

I was a little skeptical. I saw the chef put the pizza right there on that glazed stone, and I was really curious how the crust was going to be, because that’s what a pizza is all about.

Well, when he pulled it off and he sliced through it, I could hear the crunch as he was slicing.

First thing I did was lift up a piece and look underneath. It was perfectly crispy brown. No burn marks, no charring, and everything bubbled up beautifully. The crust was still tender inside, but it was nice and crispy on the outside, so it definitely performed really well.

They have the stone in varying sizes, depending on which model of their grill that you buy, and you can now pick up a Flammkraft grill at BBQGuys.com.

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Kenmore Retro Portable Gas Grill

Sticking with grills, I’m going to move on to the new Kenmore Retro Portable Gas Grill.

Now, I’ve had several portable gas grills and they all work okay. But this one is really unique.

First, on the outside it’s really cute. It’s retro. It comes in seven different colors and styles, either with the chrome knobs and handles or a beautiful copper color knob and handle.

They have a black and copper mix that’s going to be exclusive to Lowe’s, and then they have some other pretty colors.

But obviously what’s more important than the exterior is what’s on the inside when it comes to a grill. What makes this unique compared to other portable gas grills that I’ve cooked on is it actually has two burners.

They both have 7,000 BTUs for a combined total of 14,000 BTUs, and you get 343 square inches of cooking space, because not only do you have the two grill grates, but you also have a warming rack, which I don’t ever see in portable gas grills.

So why is all of that important?

Well, it’s so much easier if you have the ability to cook with direct heat and indirect heat. When you have a one-burner portable gas grill, you just have one level of heat, especially if you don’t have a warming rack.

And the problem with some of those grills is that they burn extra hot, and it’s really hard to get them down to a low temperature. So it’s hard to get even cooking sometimes on portable gas grills.

Well, with the Kenmore, you can now turn one burner on and leave one burner off.

So that gives you that indirect cooking zone. Plus you have the warming rack. So you can also raise things up there.

It is portable, so the legs fold down. And then you can clamp the lid to the base so that it stays tight. And then for the hose, there’s a little hook that will connect to the handle. So you can just carry it around wherever you want to take it.

As far as dimensions, it’s about 15 inches tall when the legs are extended and it is 22.5 inches wide and about 18.5 inches deep.

Some other features that I liked about the Kenmore is it’s made of cast aluminum, so it feels really sturdy. It has a temperature gauge on top so you can monitor your grill temperatures. Plus, it has a grease tray in the bottom that pulls out for easy cleaning.

The Kenmore is going to be available soon, and it will retail for $199.

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Cuisinart Outdoor Wok

Let’s move on to cookers that are not in the traditional outdoor cooking space. So Cuisinart Outdoors unveiled their new Outdoor Wok.

That’s something that I never imagined would be in an outdoor space. Let me talk to you a little bit about the design.

So first of all, the wok sits on a stainless steel cart. The cart has a ton of storage.

There’s bottom storage. There’s tons of prep area to the side of the wok area. There are hooks to hang your tools. There’s a paper towel holder, and it has wheels so you can wheel it around your backyard. Or you can take it to a tailgate or to a catering event.

The way the whole wok system works is that there’s a 50,000 BTU burner, and then there’s a 14-inch carbon steel hammered wok that sits on top.

It’s all powered by propane, so there’s a spot where you can connect to your propane and let that sit on the cart itself. Then you just crank it up, control your heat levels, and you can get cooking with a wok.

I’ll be honest, when I first saw this, I thought: Is a wok, something that I would go out and buy? Is this something that I would really want to use in my backyard?

But then Chris Joe from CJ Eats was using it for the National Hardware Show Celebrity Cook-Off competition, and he showed me all the amazing things that you can actually do with it.

So he started by just simmering some liquid to make a pickling brine for some pickles. Then he used it to fry chicken and a fry shrimp, and then he used the dry wok to toast up some buns for his sliders. And also to toast up some tortillas for his tacos. So it’s really versatile.

You can also obviously boil water, steam things, anything that you can do with a pot, you can do with this wok.

But because it has the wok shape, it also has the advantages of doing things like stir fry.

I do like frying things in small batches, so it actually does make sense to have a wok outdoors, especially because when I fry things inside, my house tends to smell, especially if it’s fish. And the grease will splatter either on my counters or on my stove.

So having a wok outside where I can do small batch frying is actually something I think I might be interested in.

So this is going to come out in May and I’ll have to check it out.

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Mack’s Fryers

If you like to do big batch frying though, you might want to check out Mack’s Fryers.

They just came out with these new portable fryers and they’re pretty big. There’s a four gallon and a six gallon, and it’s a little bit different than what you traditionally think of when you’re doing big batch frying outdoors.

Usually when I fry things outdoors like a turkey, I have a propane burner and I set a big pot on top of it, fill it with oil and then fry everything.

And then usually I have to toss that oil out. You can only use it so many times.

The Mack’s Fryers are a little bit different because the 90,000 BTU burner is actually encased in metal and inside the fryer itself.

So when you add your oil to it, all of the oil above the burner burns at 350 to 375 F, which is an ideal temperature for a frying. But below the burner is 110 F degrees.

What’s important about that is when you put your fryer baskets in. If things drop out, like small French fries and onion rings or breading or anything, all of that’s actually going to fall to the bottom of the fryer down there in that 110-degrees zone.

When it’s in that zone, it’s not going to burn, and it’s not going to tarnish the taste of your oil.

So everything that’s frying on top is at the right temp, but everything that falls at the bottom is an ideal temp for just kind of resting it.

Then once you’re done frying, you turn the propane tank off. You let your oil cool, and then there’s a hose that connects to the back and you can drain out the oil and filter it.

And Mack’s Fryers says that you can reuse that oil up to 30 times if you do that. They said that’s an oil savings of $1,400 on there four-gallon model, and up to $2,000 on their six-gallon model.

The Mack’s Fryers are priced at $377 to $446 for just the unit itself. You can also get an optional cart that you can set it on that has wheels, and that way you can take it on the go.

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Bradley Raven Smoker

In the smoker category, Bradley is launching a new smoker called their Raven Smoker. What I like about this is the size and the new features that it has.

So the size is much bigger than most of their other models, and it’s a little bit more square instead of rectangular.

It holds up to four racks, and the racks are about 18.5 inches by 17.5 inches, which means that you can put on whole slabs of ribs. You can do a whole pack of brisket. And again, there are four levels, so you can really load it up with meat if you want to.

At the top of the smoker you’ll find all the control settings.

Like the other Bradley Smokers this is an electric cabinet smoker. And the way that it gets the smoke is from their hardwood Bisquettes that load in and then burn and create the smoke inside of the chamber.

With the new model, you can adjust the smoke intensity to a higher level all the way to no smoke at all.

Another feature that I really like is that the settings go down to 86 F degrees, all the way up to 320 F degrees. So at 86 F degrees you can actually cold smoke.

Once you’re done smoking regular food, if you want to use it as a holding chamber, it will go to 140 F degrees.

That’s one thing I touched on with the GE Profile Indoor Smoker that I saw earlier this year. I loved that it had the holding capacity. Well, now the Raven Smoker will as well.

The Raven also comes with two meat probes so you can insert those into your meat, set the temperature using the Bluetooth connected app, and then once your meat reaches temp, the grill will automatically turn off.

Keep an eye out for the Raven Smoker. It’s going to be released in a few months.

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MEAT! Grinders, slicers and more

The last brand I want to touch on today is MEAT!

If you’re ready to dabble into sausage making or jerky making, this is the company for you.

I have used my KitchenAid grinder in the past to try to grind meat, and that is not ideal because it takes too long to load your meat through and then the fats start to melt.

And if you have melted fat when you’re making sausage, it ends up dry and crumbly. So you need something that’s got a little bit more juice.

Well, MEAT! offers a few different varieties, ranging from .5 horsepower all the way up to two horsepower, if you’re really trying to do some serious sausage making.

They also have a little 500-watt grinder that will crank out 4 pounds per minute. So it’s still ideal if you want to do some small batch sausage making.

In addition to their meat grinders, they have other things for meat, like meat mixers, 5 and 15-pound stuffers, jerky gun kits, dehydrators, vacuum sealers, knives, meat saws, you name it.

But one of the other things you’re definitely going to want to keep an eye out for are their meat slicers. They have two varieties, a 7.5 inch and a 10 inch.

I have a pretty cheap meat slicer that I got on Amazon and it works okay, but I’m definitely ready to upgrade. So I’ve got my eyes on these slicers from MEAT!

If you’re interested in making thinly sliced meat for jerky, making homemade bacon or even making homemade lunch meat, having a meat slicer is a definite must.

Honestly, this year when people ask me what I want for Christmas, I’m just going to send them to the MEAT! website because anything off of there would make me happy.

Well, those are my top finds from the 2024 National Hardware Show. I hope you guys are interested in some of those. Until next time guys, happy grilling!

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