Christine M. Kizhek
From his home in Brookfield, Illinois, Meathead Goldwyn has created the world’s most popular barbecue and grill site: amazingribs.com.
The lesson №1 he learned? The success of grilling and barbecue comes down to science.
He is also a member of the Barbecue Hall of Fame and author of Meathead: The Science of Great Barbecue and Grilling. On June 25, he gave his best advice and shattered some popular myths about barbecue with a presentation at 11 a.m. and a book signing at a public market in Milwaukee. Tickets for the event are $ 25. Autographed books are an additional $ 20. To order tickets, go to milwaukeepublicmarket.org.
Goldwyn is working on his next book, The Meathead, which is expected to be published in 2024.
What brings him to Milwaukee
The book we published in May 2016, Meathead: The Science of Great Barbecue and Grilling, is still in circulation and has surpassed more than 250,000 copies. … The book is divided into two parts. The first part is a scientific book. I explain the science and theory of what happens to a grill or a smoker. The second half are recipes that use techniques.
Determining barbecue and grill
The line is very blurred and anyone who tries to give me a definition can destroy it in 30 seconds. They overlap. I see the barbecue as a large umbrella that encompasses many cooking styles from around the world. This is not an entirely American technique, as some people mistakenly believe. People are barbecuing all over the world, and under this umbrella comes a grill. They all include smoke and flames.
Moving to a global scale
Barbecue and grilling, which I gather together, are practiced all over the world, but it seems that the love of outdoor cooking is greater in this country than anywhere else … Beyond that, there are still regional styles.
Spread the sauce styles
In exactly the same way that we have become a global society, regional styles cross regional boundaries. The barbecue sauce for most of the country is ketchup on steroids, red sauce with molasses, liquid smoke and all sorts of things. We usually call this style Kansas because it usually comes from Kansas City.
If you go to parts of South Carolina, you will find that the barbecue sauce is yellow and made with mustard as a base. Go to North Carolina, it’s neither ketchup nor mustard, it’s vinegar. If you go to a barbecue spot in Milwaukee or anywhere, you can probably find it all.
If you do only one thing, do it
What message do I want to convey to readers who want to improve their game and become better at outdoor cooking? If you have one of these thermometers with a dial in the kitchen drawer, go outside, place it in the driveway, and return it by car. It’s not true. This is a technology that was invented in 1800.… It’s 2022 and for under $ 30 you can get a digital thermometer with an accuracy of less than 5 seconds.
The science of steaks
Medium rare steak is the most tender and juicy. How do I get to medium rare? It is easy, option from 130 to 135 degrees. Not four minutes on one side or something. This is the temperature. This is the most important.
Control and cooking
Cooking involves temperature control. Unfortunately, most grills and smokers do not have good temperature control. My internal oven has a thermostat, I set it to 375 and it’s getting pretty close. My grill doesn’t.
Now there are some outdoor cookers that have digital control, new pellet smokers. 20 years ago there were none. Joe Traiger invented the first. He is now in the Barbecue Hall of Fame. It was the first and it is the most popular to this day, but there are 30 to 40 different brands out there and they have precise temperature control. You can even control them from your smart phone.
Trend in time
One of the things that’s happening today, and it’s disappointing, the world of barbecue is getting a little snobbish. … Before my deep barbecue dive, a career that began in 2001, I was a wine critic at the Washington Post and the Chicago Tribune. I know about snobbery. I recognize him when I see him, and he’s already deep in the barbecue …
The main publications have found barbecue and grill. They would never have covered it before. Just yesterday I was interviewed by Helen Rosner of The New Yorker.
One tool can boost your cooking
We preach thermometers everywhere we go. It’s all about temperature control. This is a message I would like to convey to anyone who grills their steak, which is really expensive these days. … You won’t have this problem with gray, toasted steaks if you have this digital thermometer for $ 30.
I think it’s so important that I hired an electrical engineer and buy every thermometer I can. He tests them, beats them. We have about 200 thermometers in our database. Someone who buys can see what grade she received from our engineer. Even the poorly rated ones are better than dial thermometers. No one will get sick and you will not roast chicken again.
Maintaining the number
I don’t know how many grills I’ve owned. My wife told me that one enters and one leaves or you leave. This is the rule.
I try to have one of the main types of cookers, so if I test a recipe, I can try it on green egg, charcoal, gas grill, pellet smoker.
Testing and tracking
The manufacturers send us models to try in the hope that we will say good things about them. amazingribs.com has a full-time grill tester, Max Good. … When the grills come out, he lets them go. If readers are shopping for a new grill to replace the old rust bucket, this is a searchable database.
What to Expect When You Visit the Milwaukee Public Market
My presentation is “Tales of old husbands: myths about barbecue that deserve to die.” The world of barbecue is full of mythology that is wrong.
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