Meathead: The Science of Great BBQ & Grilling

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Top Reviews

Hate the advertisements
by jg (1 out of 5 stars)
August 27, 2018

Never ever would have purchased the digital version if I would have known about the advertisements on every page. Have to pay $23.95 per year to join the Pitmaster Club to block the ads? Very wrong, IMHO. If I had known that up-front, I would have purchased the printed book instead. Disappointed, to say the least.
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The finest book ever on outdoor cooking.
by BBQ Bill Wyko (5 out of 5 stars)
May 12, 2016

For years I have bought book after book to learn every secret I can about BBQ. Of all the books I've bought, this one is by far, leaps and bounds ahead of the rest. Honestly, you will find every trick you will find in the rest Righetti here in one book. The sauces, rubs, techniques and even methods not commonly thought of as the norm but are far better than what is commonly used. This book will take your BBQ skills right into the professional level . If you only buy one BBQ book in your life, this is the one hands down. I personally have over 1/2 a dozen various smokers & grills I cook outdoors more than indoors so trust me when I say, this is the finest publication on BBQ of all time.
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The Meathead Bible---Bingo!
by JohnBBQ (5 out of 5 stars)
May 11, 2016

I am an old BBQ cook, a certified BBQ Judge, and a reader of Meathead's columns. He is the expert in ALL the many types of BBQ's that exist and he reports not about emotion or promotion of a cooker but about it from a technical basis and you really do learn wonderful ways to do BBQ.

Over my 30 some years of BBQ cooking, I have changed types and styles of cookers from plain to fancy pellet rigs and now back to the fantastic Pit Barrel Cooker using just old fashioned charcoal. There are very few cookers that can cook the quality and quantity of meat that a Pit Barrel can turn out and taste so spectacularly good.

I own over 130 BBQ cook books and this one is the Bible and the ideas, suggestions and recipes are always dead on. Meathead has cooked them.

You will enjoy this book and it will make a grand gift to a new BBQ fan. Remember, BBQ is America's gift to the culinary world.
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Meathead upped my grill, smoker, and rotisserie game right out of the box! Must have!
by Jennifer Guerrero (5 out of 5 stars)
June 5, 2016

Meathead upped my grill, smoker, and rotisserie game right out of the box! This book is great!

I tried three of his recipes in the past three days and they were all fantastic, and better than my usual outdoor cooking results. The Last Meal Ribs made the table giddy and quiet, inhaling those bad boys! He did not overpromise with that name! All of the usual suspects are in this volume, but then there are surprising entries like a French Rotisserie Chicken which is fantastic, and loaded with tasty produce, and Baha Tacos that are killer! I can't wait to try the rest of this book.

Buy it! You wont be disappointed!

Pictured below:
1) Last-Meal Ribs - p 206.
2) Baha Fish Tacos - p 332.
3) Rotisserie Chicken Provençal - p 304.
4) Texas Beef Brisket - p 260. This was 28 pounds of it. I love to make ridiculous amounts of it, so that I can have lots of 1-2 cup baggies of leftovers in the freezer for killer pizza, nachos, migas...
5) Migas with the leftover brisket
6-7) Touchdown Tailgate Brat Tub - p 279. I grew up in Cheeseland. I hadn't seen the bbq sauce and liquid smoke addition before, but it's a fun, tasty variation that I'll definitely keep in the rotation!
8-9) Perfect Pulled Pork - p 198. (Corn and mac are from Masterbuilt cause I wanted to keep it all in the smoker. I stir 1 lb cooked bacon, 2 big jalapeños sautéed in the bacon fat, and one big clove of minced garlic into the macaroni before it goes in the smoker.)
10) Really Loaded Potato Canoes - p 202. You need some of the leftover pulled pork to make this deliciousness. Totally leftover smoked meat worthy!
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Read the reviews
by Valarie (3 out of 5 stars)
February 1, 2019

The Science of BBQ is the key. This book debunks centuries of tried and true French and Italian methods. By his own admission, Meathead says he prefers a thick bark and/or consistently covered seared meat. Not in my house. Secondly, after explaining the professional BBQ'er at the competitions, I doubt that i'll ever go to one because it is not realistic for the everyday cook. Apparently like everything else, it is sponsor driven and geared for only the people in the BBQ circuit. The only thing good about the book is the explanation of the different hardware needed but for good recipes... go somewhere else... especially if you like grill marks and not thick bark.
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A GREAT READ AND EVEN BETTER REFERENCE FOR THOSE WHO LOVE COOKING
by L. E. Roberts (5 out of 5 stars)
April 20, 2017

Bought the book after finding Mr. Goldwyn's recipe for corning your own corned beef online. In his recipe, I noticed that his comments about nutrition and chemistry were spot on (I have at least the rudiments of a scientific education) rather than the collection of anecdotes and old wive's tales that seem to permeate much of the cookbook genre. While still involved in the brining of my first batch of homemade corned beef, I have read a good deal of his book, and decided that I definitely made the right decision to buy it. I'm still awaiting the results of Corned Beef a la Meathead, and may expand on my review depending on the result! For the present, my reading has convinced me that he knows, not only the recipes and tried and true mechanics of barbecuing (and brining/smoking), but the actual science behind the art. Since cooking is both an art and a science, I regard this, so far, as a classic of no mean proportions.

I've now made three batches of corned beef (about ten pounds per batch) with his method, and have decided that I'll never buy corned beef in the package again. I followed his online recipe religiously and have never tasted better. All of the people I've shared my product with agree.
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Get this book, get better at grilling and smoking and cooking.
by PghDrake (5 out of 5 stars)
August 10, 2016

This, and Franklin's book, will always have a place on my shelf.

I own 3 smokers. A barrel wood/charcoal, an upright wood/charcoal and an electric. Where Franklin changed how I make Brisket, Meathead changed how I do many other things. Every year I pick out a new thing to grill/smoke and "perfect". This year I picked burgers (because honestly before I might as well have been making mini meatloafs and throwing them on buns because I'm really not that much of a burger buy). Following his advice and methods, I've made some darn good burgers this year already and am still working on getting everything just right. But there's so much more in this book, so many concepts, descriptions, and I particularly like how he plays mythbuster on so many things (for example, no real need to let meat rest before slicing, which is huge to me).

Get this, and get better at what you cook, whatever it is.
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The First Step to becoming that Grill Master you want to be...
by The Marshal (5 out of 5 stars)
August 30, 2016

What a great book, from someone that has a fun style to share BBQ secrets.

Since I started following Meathead's website, I have completely changed from Meat Waster to Grill Master!

My Wife used to scold me when I brought home Thick porkchops because I would make a mess of them on the grill. Now thanks to learning about Reverse Sear and having a Good Thermometer, the family is buying the Thick Porkchops for me. Ha.

I really can't say enough about this book, or Meathead. He has a fun teaching style, and if you pay attention you learn about cooking, not just recipes.

Learning about the Myths and How to Do It Right are enough. But then you get invaluable advice on grills, tools, and how to use them. Bonus is the recipes that he has developed, along with rubs and sides.

This would make a Fantastic Gift for anyone that has a grill...
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This book deserves 7 stars....so much to learn.
by James (5 out of 5 stars)
January 7, 2017

My wife got me a smoker for Christmas and I can't wait to use it. So while I wait (6 degrees F as I write this review) until a little warmer weather I thought I should look for a book that would provide me with rubs, sauces, and recipes plus some how to do it best methods for smoking. After reading the reviews on this book I downloaded and began looking through it....boy, do I have a lot to learn about grilling and smoking. I always thought myself a pretty good griller....I bought an IR grill two years ago and it was a learning curve. This book was just what I needed to up my game and turn out some of the best tasting meat imaginable.

I know, you say...."wait, you said you just downloaded so how can you make that statement". Well, after reading the science behind cooking meat I took two 2 in thick beef filets out of the freezer and used Meathead's indirect cooking method in my oven. I cooked them at 225 degrees in a cast iron skillet (not preheated) and checked them every 10 minutes until the internal temperature was 130 degrees on my thermometer. I then turned on my burner, took out the filets and preheated the skillet for about 3 minutes, put the filets back in and watched them sizzle, turning them every minute for about 5 minutes. I took them off the heat and directly to the plate, NO RESTING PERIOD. Oh, forgot i used the cowboy java rub from the book. When i sliced into the steak I was amazed at how nice and pink the entire filet was. Just a thin tan line from searing them AFTER I cooked them.

That filet was so tender and juicy my wife said it was the best filet I had ever cooked and one of the best she had ever tasted. And that includes places like Morton's and Ruth's. I could cut it with my fork. Talk about tasty.....I can't wait for spring so I am going to the butcher and getting some baby backs to smoke.

If you really want to up your game in the grilling department or you have a husband who thinks he knows all there is about grilling or smoking (but you know it isn't true) get this book. I plan on finding one for my son in law who got me into smoking. He could use the science behind the why and how it all works. I plan on using my same method on my IR grill this summer at the lake and intend to impress my whole family.

Get this book you won't regret it.
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Pseudo-science?
by James Hodkinson (4 out of 5 stars)
August 21, 2018

Firstly this was a great book, an entertaining read and full of tips & advice from Meathead. I really enjoyed the style with different sections and loads of information at the start of the book. My one dislike is that some of the science/experiments behind the myth busting doesn't quite stack up. It may well be partially true, but I would have liked to see or read a few more details to be convinced. For example the study using dyes to show that marinades won't penetrate meat will depend largely on the type of dye used, some dyes have larger molecules than others, and when doing the meat resting experiment I have seen many others do the same experiment to prove that resting the meat does result in loosing less juices and doesn't cause carryover cooking, science experiments should be repeatable otherwise they don't count.

Having said all that Meathead may well be right and perhaps the argument is more just that marinades won't penetrate all the way or that resting the meat doesn't make a big difference, but does make some difference...

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