One thing about barbecuing: whoever is manning the grill (and it's usually you) is stuck there during the party. Leave to go socialize, and stuff can burn. Or worse, some chucklehead decides he's gonna take over starts poking at your steaks with a fork like some over-caffeinated woodpecker, releasing all the seared-in juices.

Use a convection cooker or smoker instead of a grill, and you can get the food to the table in a fraction of the time, without having to stand watch over the flame. The cooker from Orion uses convection, steam and smoke to cut cooking times down dramatically, and the indirect heat means you don't have to stand around flipping your meat while everyone else is partying.

Fill the top and bottom rings with charcoal and a constant convection current circulates around the food inside the cooking cylinder. (If you paid attention during high school science, this would all make sense.) Since the heat is circulating around the food, you don't need to turn it or flip it. It'll cook evenly on all sides. And because it never comes in contact with the flame, there's no danger of accidental charring.

Not only can you spend more time chatting up your female guests but you can get eating quicker as well. How much quicker? You can cook a 20 lb. turkey in just over two hours. Or six full racks of baby backs in an hour and 15 minutes. Beats spending all night playing Grillmaster.

$149
www.orionoutdoors.com