I Tried the Cult-Favorite Grilling Accessory I Keep Seeing on TV — Here's What I Thought — Shopping

I have all the tools I could possibly need for my gas grill — a cast iron plancha, remote thermometer, metal box for wood chips — and I love them all. There's one thing I never really loved, though: the stainless steel vegetable basket. It definitely keeps small foods from falling through the grates, but it's too small itself to effectively grill these items without crowding.

However, a new breed of copper grill mats aims to solve this problem. They're super-thin, flexible sheets of heat-resistant material woven with copper threads and covered in a nonstick coating. They're big enough to allow foods to really spread out and they keep oils and marinades from dripping through, so there are no flare-ups. Plus, since the copper conducts heat, you get those all-important grill marks and browning.

Sounds great, but do they really work? I recently tried one out and the short answer is: sort of.

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