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Sliding a basic carving fork between the grill grate lets you gently test and lift grilled food without mangling it\u2014no fancy gear required.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Keeping a carving fork by the grill might seem obvious\u2014you\u2019ll need it when it\u2019s time to carve, right? But it\u2019s far more useful during<\/em> grilling than after. In fact, it might be the most underrated grill tool out there. That’s because a carving fork solves a major grilling problem: Freeing stuck food, especially delicate food, without tearing it to shreds.\n<\/p>\n I learned this trick from the chef Dave Pasternack many years ago while working on a story about grilling fish. Pasternack showed me how you can insert the long tines of a carving fork down between the bars of a grill grate to get below the food (in this case, he was cooking a whole fish), and then lift gently from below to flip it to the other side.\n<\/p>\n Lifting the food from below with a carving fork accomplishes a couple of key things that can otherwise be difficult to do with standard grilling gear:\n<\/p>\n I’ve written about this technique before in my whole grilled fish recipe<\/a>, but it’s just as useful for skin-on chicken, tofu, eggplant, or tomatoes\u2014anything that might tear or crumble when stuck. So this grilling season, don’t wait until carving time to reach for the fork: Use it from the start.<\/p>\n
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June 2025<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n