Basting is the perfect cooking technique for preventing food from drying out whether you’re making beef, pork chops, scallops, or even vegetables. Using a basting bulb or brush, you take the released fat from your meat as it cooks and pour it back on top to add flavor and turn the skin golden brown. But which is better?

A basting bulb (or turkey baster) resembles a large eye dropper, and it sucks up the rendered fat and drippings in the pan for you to pour back onto the meat. While using a basting bulb can capture all the juices from the pan because of its impressive suction abilities, it doesn't give good coverage when releasing the juices onto the meat.

A basting brush, on the other hand, has the opposite ability, in that it can't scoop up any juices but has the precision of achieving full coverage when it's time to coat the meat. Both a basting bulb and brush have their advantages, but if your basting liquid isn't thick enough to adhere to the brush, a basting bulb is the best option.