Meat hook... Yay or Nay?


 
MichaelM

MichaelM

TVWBB Super Fan
I've always been a tongs kind of guy. Or, occasionally a spatula. But tongs seem to be the most versatile and least likely to damage my food. Binging some YouTube chicken vids today, since it's raining pretty hard here and more than a few of them featured a hook for turning food. I've never used one but poking holes into my food, and possibly pulling skin off of chicken seems like a poor idea.

Thoughts??
 
Well, uncle Jed, I’m pretty much in agreement but, I have seen a lot of people use “Pig Tail” hooks too. They seem to try to keep the hook as close to the edge as possible. So, maybe that’s the trick with them. I’ve seen the guys at the great Peter Luger’s use big forks the same way. I’m more or less of the opinion that with practice the “Tail” or fork might be perfectly fine. But, with practice.
 
Tongs are also my favorite. But I've damaged the bark of pork butt using them. Nowadays, I use a clean kitchen towel to remove pork or brisket. Supposedly long cooking tweezers are handy, but I've never tried them.
 
Different tools for different tasks. Personally, I find the large tongs cumbersome for flipping small items like roasting potatoes on a sheep pan, obviously, tweezers won't be very useful for picking up a whole packer brisket.

As far as the pig tail hook goes, I can see it being useful on large cuts that aren't fully cooked (and thus on the edge of falling apart,) on large pits. I don't think my cooking methods and gear aren't well suited for such.
 
While I do employ a spatula (sometimes two) to move larger cuts towards the end of a cook, it seems easier to use just one utensil the rest of the time. A hook might prove nice (fun) at the beginning but I would surely switch to something else towards the end. Tongs seem to be far more universal.
 
BFletcher said:
Good question, and my answer may not be extremely meaningful because I'm by no means an expert chef, but for the way I use tongs and pigtails the advantage is that I don't lose the bark or seasonings with a pigtail. When I use tongs I tend to lose a hunk of that goodness.
Click to expand...
Interesting... I can see that as one possible advantage...
 
I’d be willing to add one to the tool arsenal but, I think they are “hand specific” so, I guess I need to get one for each hand, sometimes my left handedness takes serious precedence.
Maybe I need to talk to the elves?
 
I just browsed Amazon a bit.. I didn't see any difference in the direction of the curve. Maybe it's like trying to find left handed scissors?

Also see different lengths. 12" and 18" seem most common.
 
On a related note: Does anyone remember an old cooking show on PBS with a Italian chef who used a spoon and a fork or maybe two forks like a spatula to flip food?
I always admired his dexterity.
 
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