If you even want to consider yourself a pitmaster, you will need a pair of great gloves. Insulated gloves protect you from the heat, and allow you greater freedom of movement. While tongs are often sufficient, with a terrific pair of BBQ gloves you can rearrange the coals and move the food around much more easily. These things are super-useful, as you’ll find a lot of use for it in the kitchen as well.
But not all grill gloves are good, and some are just bad (and therefore dangerous). To help you out, here are some actually great gloves for grilling.
Best Pick: The Pit Glove Waterproof BBQ Glove
One of the main problems with many of the good grill gloves is that they don’t like to get wet. When they get wet, they lose a lot of the heat protection they offer. But that’s not a problem with waterproof grill gloves, and this is an excellent example.
The Pit Glove company offers extreme heat resistance with these gloves, and at the same time offers nice levels of dexterity and comfort.
The premium neoprene rubber coating provides the heat resistance, and it’s water-resistant as well. It protects your hands from steam from boiling food or water, and from grease. And this coating material also offers a very secure grip.
These gloves are 13-inches long, so they protect a large portion of your wrists as well. These are only available in XL (size 10), with the assumption that one size fits all. That may not be accurate if you have really small hands (or extremely large hands, for that matter).
They fit most people well enough. The gloves are knitted and feature a soft jersey cotton liner. These features give you more freedom of movement for your hands and fingers than you’d get from a regular pair of silicone gloves.
They’re easy to clean as well. Just wash them with soap and hot water. The dye may run out a bit, so wash them on their own so you don’t ruin your other stuff.
Alternate #1: Extreme Heat Resistant Grill Heat Aid Gloves
These gloves don’t work when they get wet, so they’re not very useful for kitchen tasks such as picking up lobster or eggs from a pot of boiling water. But since they won’t get wet when you’re grilling your steaks, this works perfectly for backyard grilling.
The gloves feature protective Aramid fiber with a coating of silicone strips, and as a result you get heat resistance of up to 1,472 degrees F. You can directly handle burning logs and hot coal. Grills can get really hot, and these gloves can handle it.
At the same time, they’re flexible and lightweight. The grip is terrific. Several sizes are also available.
Alternate #2: Grillaholics Silicone Barbecue Gloves
Again, you need to keep these gloves from getting wet. But aside from that, they’re excellent.
The 100% Aramid 1313 / Kevlar insulated fibers offer protection for up to 660 degrees F. The 100% cotton lining offers great comfort and flexibility, and the good fit allows for dexterous handling of the food. It offers a great grip as well.
Conclusion
Sure, you can always visit a Peter Luger Steakhouse and not bother with gloves. And some people find the idea of grill gloves a bit silly. But you can do a lot more with a great pair of grill gloves than with a set of tongs alone!