The best ice cream sandwiches
And Sam Sifton on grill prep
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The Recommendation

May 16, 2025

Hi there. Today, NYT Cooking’s Sam Sifton is here to usher us into peak grilling season with a takeover from his own newsletter, which you can sign up for here.

Grilling season is upon us. Are you ready?

A couple of our picks for best gas grill set up with hamburger meat and buns, ready for a bbq.
Marki Williams/NYT Wirecutter
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By Sam Sifton

Sam is an assistant managing editor of The New York Times. He recently joined Wirecutter’s kitchen experts in testing gas grills and griddles — and made a mean bacon and egg sandwich.

Good afternoon. We’re a week out from Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start of summer grill season. For those who take part in the festivities, first with a holiday cookout and then with regular meals cooked outside over flames and coal, as many as they can manage for the next few months, the next two days are important.

Because how’s that grill looking, after half a year spent alone and untouched in the yard, on the deck, in the garage, under the stoop? Did you clean it the last time you used it? Do you have charcoal? Do you have propane? Wood chips? Pellets? (Do you even grill, bro?)

This is the weekend to get everything sorted, cleaned, and prepped, so that you can head into the holiday with confidence, with equipment that’s ready to serve you as you desire to serve others, in memory of those who gave their lives in service to us all.

I can help because I’m bossy. I can say with confidence (and experience) that if you spend a few hours tomorrow outside and at the hardware store, if you scrub and scrape and test and look around for that great spatula you haven’t used since late September, you can make grilled hamburgers for dinner and count yourself prepared for the season ahead.

So get your work done, then raise the flames high. Some Memorial Day recipes to get you started: burgers, yes, but ribs and cabbage too, as well as yakitori and tofu and whatever else you want to kiss with flame. (I particularly like these grilled, soy-basted chicken thighs with spicy cashews.) Moderate labor this weekend will leave you happy through Labor Day at least.

Wirecutter’s new favorite gas grills→

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More for grilling from Wirecutter

Our pick for best lightweight camping chair, the Helinox Chair One, on a yellow background.

A featherlight camping chair you can bring anywhere

It’s comfortable, fits in a bag, and sets up in under a minute. And it’s on sale right now→

Grill tools lined up with a burger and burger toppings.

The 10 best accessories and tools for grilling

Including a burger-flipping spatula that prompted Sam to exclaim, “Holy cow, it’s a good tool”→

Two fire extinguishers on a grill.

How to grill safely

Advice from Wirecutter’s experts on smothering and preventing grease fires→

The best charcoal grill

After spending two days cooking 40 pounds of burgers, BBQ, and whole chickens, we found our favorites→

A person using a Great Scrape Woody Shovel on top of a grill.

How to clean your grill

If this is your first time breaking it out this year, you’ll probably need to get in there and scrub→

Your daily deal: A headlamp we’ve loved since 2012 is $13 off

The Black Diamond Spot 400 Headlamp on a blue circular background.

In case your grill party stretches into the night: This headlamp is easy to use and more than bright enough. And it weighs 3 ounces, so you’ll likely forget you have a light on your head.

Get the deal here→

MORE DEALS WE’RE EXCITED ABOUT

“I’m an outdoor expert at Wirecutter. Here’s every deal I’m eyeing from REI’s anniversary sale”→

One last thing: The best ice cream sandwiches

Ice cream sandwiches arranged side-by-side against a blue background.
Rozette Rago for NYT Wirecutter

End the cookout on a sweet note: We taste-tested a dozen nationally available old-school-style ice cream sandwiches (including a few dairy-free options!) to find these standout sammies.

Creamy, custardy, and chocolatey

Thanks for reading.

You can reach the Wirecutter Newsletters team at newsletters@wirecutter.com. We can’t always respond, but we do love to hear from you.

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