Guest post by Martin Goffin, Pitmaster & Owner, Red Gum BBQ

Essential Equipment is the first of many weekly instalments on my tips and tricks of the BBQ trade. These tidbits should help make any backyard BBQ’er a pro.

A Pitmaster needs some essential kit. These are my must-haves to cook the perfect Q:

A Heat Beads^® chimney starter and a bag of Heat Beads^® briquettes
You will need to get your fire started and I have found no better product out there. I cook a lot of BBQ and each cook starts the same way – with a bag of their briquettes and chimney starter.

Meat probe
This tells you the internal temperature of your meat. This is important as you are looking for the perfect temperature to create the perfect BBQ. I will share the best temps for BBQ in an upcoming post – stay tuned.

Heavy duty heat-proof gloves
I use mine all the time to move cuts around the pit and to pull pork. These are a definite must-have.

Apron
Being a Pitmaster is dirty business so if you value your clothes invest in an apron.

Basting brush, spray bottle and mops
Use this to keep your meat moist. My preference is a food safe spray bottle but I do use a silicon basting brush for ribs.

Foil trays
I get through a million of these whether as a marinade dish, water tray in the pit or to serve up my delicious BBQ meal.

Aluminium foil
I use a lot of foil, especially to line the bottom of my BBQ pit – it saves time & energy during the cleaning process (less scrubbing!) as it collects all the fat and juices.

Knives
Invest in some good knives. I have a boning knife, an 18cm chef’s knife and a carving knife for brisket.

Most Pitmasters will have their own list of essentials but I couldn’t get by without these. Keep on smokin’!

Thanks Martin! Visit Martin & the Red Gum BBQ team at facebook.com/redgumbbq