Meathead Pushes the Boundaries of BBQ in New Book

In his book The Meathead Method, Meathead of AmazingRibs.com presents new outdoor cooking and grilling techniques, plus 114 creative recipes.

It’s no secret that Meathead keeps busy and rarely, if ever, takes vacation. The BBQ Hall of Famer, founder of AmazingRibs.com, and book author is always cooking up something that meets the moment.

His latest project is The Meathead Method, now available for purchase, a book that Meathead has been working on full-time for about three years, but is also an “accumulation of a lifetime of experience and cooking.” Meathead originally wrote enough material for two books but had to edit it down to one 400+ page tome.

The Meathead Method follows the tremendously successful Meathead: The Science of Great Barbecue and Grilling from 2016. The first Meathead cookbook has sold nearly 300,000 copies, a monumental number in the cookbook world, where one is doing well if they’ve sold 20,000 copies. So no pressure, Meathead!

I chatted with Meathead recently about his new book, what’s happening with AmazingRibs.com, the impact of AI on barbecue, and more. This conversation has been edited for clarity.

Sean Ludwig: You’re following up a massive hit with the new book. What does The Meathead Method cover?
Meathead: The layout of the new book and the old book are similar. That is, the first half is mostly narrative, science, technique, and ideas. Then the second half is recipes that utilize the concepts in the first half. But we go beyond that. I'm still up to my old mischief by busting myths, but it's focused on methodology, technique, and things that maybe you haven't thought about doing on a grill.

SL: What are some examples of that?
MH: One thing I talk about in the book is that the best way to make Chinese food is on a charcoal chimney with a wok in your backyard. Chinese food is now grilling, and it's fantastic. So I have a little section on the technique. … Another is how to make fried chicken using a gas grill. You take a big Dutch oven, put two inches of oil in the bottom, bring it out to your gas grill, and set up in two zones of cooking. When the chicken is beautiful and golden, you take it out, put it on the indirect side, and temp it. And if it's not quite done, that's okay, because you close the lid, and it continues to roast. It’s fantastic fried chicken, and when you bring it in, it's hot, fresh, and crunchy.

SL: It seems like one of the things you set out to do with the book was also to capture the “now” of barbecue. What’s the future of barbecue looking like?
MH: The future of barbecue will be heavily influenced by Mexican flavors, Asian flavors, Spanish flavors, Italian flavors, and more. And there are barbecue joints all over America that are showcasing this, like Panther City Barbecue, Smoke'N Ash BBQ, and many others. I know this will cause agita and significant pain to the hardcore all-American barbecue enthusiasts, but for people who love food, who enjoy dining around and experimenting, this is great news. It's going to be fun out there. And so I've tried to show in this book a little bit about where barbecue goes next.

SL: The book clearly took an incredible amount of time. Are you taking a break after this?
MH: I'm 76 years old, and I have been an entrepreneur all my adult life. Since I turned 23 or so, I haven't had a nine-to-five job. I've started my own businesses, and they require a great deal of energy and attention. When I'm done with dinner, the door is open, I can see my computer, and it's calling me. ‘You've got work to do.’ And I work seven days a week, 10 hours or more a day, and I've been doing this for 50 years, and I'm tired of it. There is this new concept that starts with a V. Vacation! I've heard of it, and I think I'm going to try it this year.

Ryan and Sean have greatly enjoyed chatting with Meathead over the years.

SL: What’s the latest with AmazingRibs.com?
MH: Clint Cantwell is a really smart and talented guy, and he's running the website now. He calls me up with questions, and I help with major decisions, but he's running the show. We’ve also got David Joachim, a James Beard award-winning cookbook author. He’s a brilliant cook, and he’s running the editorial side, editing all the articles.

SL: And how is AmazingRibs.com doing in this increasingly competitive digital landscape?
MH: We get about 1-2 million visitors a month on average. During the summer, it's more. And we have 14,000 paid members at our Pitmaster Club, which is down from 17,000 at its peak, but we have an 88% renewal rate. It's declined slightly because Google keeps changing its search algorithms, and traffic has slipped a bit. But we're catching up now. … Plus, there's just a bazillion daddy bloggers out there who are stealing traffic. They're building websites and cribbing recipes and traffic from us, so it's competitive out there.

SL: For much of your career, you’ve been ahead of technology trends. What impact do you think AI will have on the barbecue industry?
MH: I saw immediately the impact of AI, particularly on the internet. Everybody who has a website depends on Google. It's Google's world. We just live in it, and if Google doesn't send traffic to you, you go out of business. And we have enjoyed Google's love for many years. That's really what got us rolling. But with new competition and Google changing its algorithms, every aspect is going to influence everything. … If you're a manufacturer, it's going to affect your website. We're already seeing where ChatGPT and others are encroaching on the search world. We have seen where Google has launched Gemini, which alters the search functions of Google. You search for a topic, and instead of a list of links, it gives you an answer. How do I cook ribs? Instead of saying, ‘go to AmazingRibs.com, here's a recipe,’ the question now is, can you rely on that recipe? These AIs are smart, but do they understand exactly when something is different or that it takes longer to cook spare ribs than baby backs? Maybe they do. Maybe they don't. They're not tasting it, and so I'm not sure whether we can rely on them for recipes. I hope not.

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Thank you, Meathead, for the time and the insights!

Sean Ludwig
Co-Founder, The Smoke Sheet