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The Meathead Method: A BBQ Hall of Famer's Secrets and Science on BBQ, Grilling, and Outdoor Cooking with 114 Recipes―A Barbecue Cookbook, Perfect for Father's Day
In his long-awaited follow-up to his New York Times bestselling Meathead, BBQ Hall of Famer and founder of Amazingribs.com Meathead presents an unmatched guide to the science of great barbecue, grilling, griddling, and outdoor cooking with the latest cutting-edge science, covering even more cooking techniques—plus more than 110 creative and inspiring recipes.
Let Meathead take you where barbecue goes next. In his long awaited, must-have companion book to Meathead, Meathead shares even more cutting-edge science and imaginative recipes in The Meathead Method.
You’ll find cooking methods and techniques not covered in his first book, like brinerades (combining brines and marinades), sous vide que (combining sous vide and the grill or smoker), grill frying (the grill is the perfect place for deep frying), faux frying (great crunchy breadings without all the oil), griddling, cooking with koji, stir-frying on a grill with a wok, tea smoking, tandoori cooking, pizza making, smoking cheeses, building rubs and sauce, and much more.
All along the way, Meathead busts even more myths, reveals little known facts, and shares hot tips to master your grill (or griddle or smoker).
Myth. Soak your wood for more smoke. Busted! There’s a reason they build boats out of wood—wood doesn’t absorb water and soaking it prevents smoke.Myth. Cook chicken until the juices run clear. Busted! Pink juice in cooked chicken is due to myoglobin and cytochrome, which may not turn clear until 180°F (which is overcooked).Myth. Marinades will penetrate faster under a vacuum. Busted! When you suck the air out from around the meat, you are creating a vacuum outside the meat and it will suck the juices out of the meat, not in.And he follows it all up with more than 110 tested creative recipes to inspire you to break out of the traditional barbecue box—experiment with new ingredients, techniques, and impressive recipes not covered in other barbecue books, with dishes like Championship Pork Ribs, Pho with Leftover Brisket and Smoked Bone Broth, Real Fried Chicken on a Gas Grill (It’s Safe!), The Ultimate Smash Burger, Mussels with Smoked Fettucine, Crawfish on Dirty Rice, Squash Bisque, and Drunken Peaches and Cream.
Let Meathead take you where barbecue goes next. In his long awaited, must-have companion book to Meathead, Meathead shares even more cutting-edge science and imaginative recipes in The Meathead Method.
You’ll find cooking methods and techniques not covered in his first book, like brinerades (combining brines and marinades), sous vide que (combining sous vide and the grill or smoker), grill frying (the grill is the perfect place for deep frying), faux frying (great crunchy breadings without all the oil), griddling, cooking with koji, stir-frying on a grill with a wok, tea smoking, tandoori cooking, pizza making, smoking cheeses, building rubs and sauce, and much more.
All along the way, Meathead busts even more myths, reveals little known facts, and shares hot tips to master your grill (or griddle or smoker).
Myth. Soak your wood for more smoke. Busted! There’s a reason they build boats out of wood—wood doesn’t absorb water and soaking it prevents smoke.Myth. Cook chicken until the juices run clear. Busted! Pink juice in cooked chicken is due to myoglobin and cytochrome, which may not turn clear until 180°F (which is overcooked).Myth. Marinades will penetrate faster under a vacuum. Busted! When you suck the air out from around the meat, you are creating a vacuum outside the meat and it will suck the juices out of the meat, not in.And he follows it all up with more than 110 tested creative recipes to inspire you to break out of the traditional barbecue box—experiment with new ingredients, techniques, and impressive recipes not covered in other barbecue books, with dishes like Championship Pork Ribs, Pho with Leftover Brisket and Smoked Bone Broth, Real Fried Chicken on a Gas Grill (It’s Safe!), The Ultimate Smash Burger, Mussels with Smoked Fettucine, Crawfish on Dirty Rice, Squash Bisque, and Drunken Peaches and Cream.
- GenresCookbooks
432 pages, Hardcover
Published May 13, 2025
33 people are currently reading
23 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 7, 2025
Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.
The Meathead Method is a comprehensive grilling/bbq tutorial guide with recipes written and curated by Meathead. Released 14th May 2025 by HarperCollins on their Wm. Morrow Harvest imprint, it's 432 pages and is available in hardcover and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.
This is an absolutely encyclopedic collection with a surprisingly thorough treatment of food science & outdoor cooking subjects from a crash course over the human neurology and anatomy of smell & taste (interesting and -accessible- facts here), to fats, oils, starches, nutrients, moving through gear/equipment/utensils/etc (what's necessary and what's nice), and all the way to recipes for barbecue (of course), but also all the trimmings: salads, desserts, dairy, and more. ALL the meats (including seafood, fowl, red meat, white meat, and veg (yes!). He's even included a fair number of breads/grain based dishes in the book.
Recipes are written with background/descriptions, a bullet list of ingredients, and step by step prep and cooking directions. Ingredient measures are given in imperial (American) units only, no metric. Most of the ingredients will be available at pretty much any well stocked grocery store in North America. Nutritional info is not included.
All of the recipes are accompanied by one or more photos. The photography is outstanding for this collection and all the photos are clear and in color. The theory chapters are also well-illustrated with explanatory graphs and understandable captions.
The book includes a QR code which links to supplementary online info and the author's website. Very helpful and especially a huge plus for visual learners.
Five stars. No barbecue-allied subject is missed out in the book. It really is comprehensive. It would be an excellent choice for public or home library acquisition, for cookbook aficionados, cookery venues/schools and the like. Alton Brown says in the intro that it's "honestly probably the only book on outdoor cookery you'll ever need".
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
The Meathead Method is a comprehensive grilling/bbq tutorial guide with recipes written and curated by Meathead. Released 14th May 2025 by HarperCollins on their Wm. Morrow Harvest imprint, it's 432 pages and is available in hardcover and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.
This is an absolutely encyclopedic collection with a surprisingly thorough treatment of food science & outdoor cooking subjects from a crash course over the human neurology and anatomy of smell & taste (interesting and -accessible- facts here), to fats, oils, starches, nutrients, moving through gear/equipment/utensils/etc (what's necessary and what's nice), and all the way to recipes for barbecue (of course), but also all the trimmings: salads, desserts, dairy, and more. ALL the meats (including seafood, fowl, red meat, white meat, and veg (yes!). He's even included a fair number of breads/grain based dishes in the book.
Recipes are written with background/descriptions, a bullet list of ingredients, and step by step prep and cooking directions. Ingredient measures are given in imperial (American) units only, no metric. Most of the ingredients will be available at pretty much any well stocked grocery store in North America. Nutritional info is not included.
All of the recipes are accompanied by one or more photos. The photography is outstanding for this collection and all the photos are clear and in color. The theory chapters are also well-illustrated with explanatory graphs and understandable captions.
The book includes a QR code which links to supplementary online info and the author's website. Very helpful and especially a huge plus for visual learners.
Five stars. No barbecue-allied subject is missed out in the book. It really is comprehensive. It would be an excellent choice for public or home library acquisition, for cookbook aficionados, cookery venues/schools and the like. Alton Brown says in the intro that it's "honestly probably the only book on outdoor cookery you'll ever need".
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
January 6, 2025
The Meathead Method is the most in-depth cookbook on outdoor cooking I have ever seen. I would call this more of a chemistry book with some recipes at the end. That is a good thing. Mr. “Meathead” walks you through every aspect of grilling you could possibly think of from type of meats to cooking methods. I have never seen a cookbook go into such depth. The first half of the book or so is explanation of all things cooking.
As mentioned above, this book has the answer to every question you could ever about outdoor cooking. I would use this book as a reference guide to look back on when you are cooking. There were a couple of things I really liked about the layout of the book. The first was the table of contents and index in the book. It was broken down well, and would allow you to quickly access the sections of the book you were looking for. The other part I like about the book was the side blurbs with hot takes or myths. The hot takes gave you some tips to help you have success when cooking. The myth blurbs took a number of common beliefs in the industrial and gives you reasons why the belief was a myth.
The book also has a number of recipes that cover the gambit of outdoor cooking. There are rubs, marinades, and recipes for almost every protein or course you might encounter. There are a number of pictures that show the end result of the recipes. They are well done and left me wanting to go out and grill up a some dinner.
If you get this book, you will never need to look elsewhere when you need to reference something with outdoor cooking. Everything is throughly explained often with pictures and diagrams to make it easy to follow. This cookbook is a must have for anyone who does a lot of outdoor cooking. It will answer all your questions and evaluate your grilling to the next level. Thank you to Netgalley, Mr. “Meathead”, and William Morrow for a free advanced readers copy for an honest review.
As mentioned above, this book has the answer to every question you could ever about outdoor cooking. I would use this book as a reference guide to look back on when you are cooking. There were a couple of things I really liked about the layout of the book. The first was the table of contents and index in the book. It was broken down well, and would allow you to quickly access the sections of the book you were looking for. The other part I like about the book was the side blurbs with hot takes or myths. The hot takes gave you some tips to help you have success when cooking. The myth blurbs took a number of common beliefs in the industrial and gives you reasons why the belief was a myth.
The book also has a number of recipes that cover the gambit of outdoor cooking. There are rubs, marinades, and recipes for almost every protein or course you might encounter. There are a number of pictures that show the end result of the recipes. They are well done and left me wanting to go out and grill up a some dinner.
If you get this book, you will never need to look elsewhere when you need to reference something with outdoor cooking. Everything is throughly explained often with pictures and diagrams to make it easy to follow. This cookbook is a must have for anyone who does a lot of outdoor cooking. It will answer all your questions and evaluate your grilling to the next level. Thank you to Netgalley, Mr. “Meathead”, and William Morrow for a free advanced readers copy for an honest review.
May 9, 2025
This is the cookbook of all cookbooks. It broke down the science of cooking to its core. This book was taking all the myths we have carried with us through the wisdom passed down to us and flipped it on its head. "Conventional wisdom is not so wise." was stated and was beyond true with each page that was turned. Even things taught in culinary school, was not safe here. Myths were "busted" on so many pages and had the science to back it up. It did not stop there! There was a break down on herbs and spice, and how to use them. Safety in not only cooking temperatures but equipment as well. These recipes were mouthwatering and beautiful to look at when accompanied with a photo.
The most precious thing though was near the beginning, the dedication to his wife. It set the tone for the cookbook and showed how much love and humor we as readers were about to encounter. As Alton Brown pointed out in his statement, "I hope they make a heatproof/waterproof edition." I could not agree more with him. As an avid cook, Culinary School graduate, mother and wife, this cookbook will be an essential in my home for many years to come. I even hope to pass it down to my son so he does not make the same mistakes that I have in the world of cooking.
The most precious thing though was near the beginning, the dedication to his wife. It set the tone for the cookbook and showed how much love and humor we as readers were about to encounter. As Alton Brown pointed out in his statement, "I hope they make a heatproof/waterproof edition." I could not agree more with him. As an avid cook, Culinary School graduate, mother and wife, this cookbook will be an essential in my home for many years to come. I even hope to pass it down to my son so he does not make the same mistakes that I have in the world of cooking.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews