When it comes to grilling, the spatula and tongs are the main tools of the trade. A fireman can not do his job without a hose and water, the spatula and tongs are the two tools a griller has to have for grilling.
Some may ask, “Yeah, we know this. Can’t I just take a spatula from my kitchen and take it tailgating and that will do the job?”. Sure, you could, but why would you want to? You are not just your run of the mill tailgater. Why would you want a run of the mill grilling tool? We recently tested out the Grill Daddy Heat Shield Stainless-Steel Spatula to see if it was worth the upgrade from your regular spatula.
The basic spatula has a handle on one end and a flat surface to turn your meats on the other. The Grill Daddy Heat Shield Spatula has taken that basic concept and made four major improvements.
The first improvement is that the folks at Grill Daddy added a swiveling heat shield that is weighted and always faces down. No matter where your hand is positioned, the heat shield is blocking the heat radiating up from your grill. How many times have you gone to get those last few burgers on the back of the grill grate only to come back with the hairs on your knuckles singed off? The rotating heat shield now prevents that from happening and you don’t have to fear working on a really hot grill.
The second improvement is the spatula adjusts to the size of your grill. For tight spaces, keep the Grill Daddy Heat Shield Spatula at normal length. For larger grills, the spatula has a telescoping shaft for extended reach and adds 5.5 inches of length of the spatula. Most spatulas do not give you the option of length adjustment. Most are either regular length or a long handled model. The Grill Daddy Heat Shield Spatula gives you the option of a regular spatula when you want it and a long handled one when you need it.
The third improvement we found with the Grill Daddy Heat Shield Spatula was the flat spatula end is removable. We found this to be a great feature in that normally this is the only part of the spatula that gets dirty and needs to be placed in the dishwasher. Just remove the stainless steel spatula head from the shaft and place it in the dishwasher. No need to take up a large area in there if you only need one smaller piece to be cleaned. Because the spatula head is removable, there are an array of other attachments you can place in the telescoping shaft including a basting brush, fork, slider flipper and a wider spatula flipper for fish. All you do is push a button to release the attachment and replace it with one of the ones you want to use for whatever grilling application you are doing. Each of the different grilling attachments are sold separately.
The final improvement we found was the Grill Daddy Heat Shield Stainless-Steel Spatula comes with a food thermometer in the handle. Simply pull it out and remove it from the handle to test the temperature of meats you are grilling. Place it back in the handle after sanitizing it for use the next time you need to check your food’s temperature. No more fumbling around in the tailgating kit to find your meat thermometer because this one is right there in the handle.
We took the Grill Daddy Heat Shield Spatula out tailgating to the San Diego Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl on December 26th. We grabbed our Sizzle-Q and made some grilled cheese sandwiches for the kids. This was a perfect opportunity to test out the Grill Daddy Heat Shield Spatula in a real tailgating environment. We also cooked some hamburgers and brats on our original Freedom Grill FG-50 to thoroughly test out the spatula.
Cut to the chase, the spatula worked flawlessly. We enjoyed the ergonomic handle and the way the heat shield swiveled to always point down and protect our hand from the heat. The shaft slid in and out easily whenever we needed some extra length to reach those items on the back of the grill. After thoroughly running the Grill Daddy Heat Shield Stainless-Steel Spatula through it’s paces, we are going to definitely deem it “Tailgate Approved”.
The Grill Daddy Heat Shield Stainless-Steel Spatula normally costs about $25 but right now they cost $17.99 at Amazon. I would highly recommend this grilling spatula to any and all tailgaters that are looking to not only get a handle on their parking lot grilling but to protect their hands from burns and to be the king of the grilling space. It may be too late to give this as a gift for Christmas but Father’s Day is about six months away and this would make a perfect gift for the dad that loves to grill.