The Meathead Method: A BBQ Hall of Famer's Secrets and Science on BBQ, Grilling, and Outdoor Cooking With 114 Recipes

“The only book on outdoor cookery you’ll ever need.” —Alton Brown

National BBQ and Grilling Association BBQ Book of the Year 2026
Amazon May 2025 Best of the Month Pick

The Meathead Method is where barbecue goes next. In the follow-up to his New York Times bestseller Meathead: The Science of Great Barbecue and Grilling, BBQ Hall of Famer and founder of AmazingRibs.com, Meathead presents a guide to new methods for great outdoor cooking with 114 creative and inspiring recipes. The Meathead Method is a toolbox to elevate all your cooking, outdoors and indoors.

Learn the basics of great barbecue, grilling, and griddling plus new methods and science not covered in his first book (or any other): brinerades; sous vide que; koji; wok cooking on a charcoal chimney; smoking with tea, herbs, and spices; building your own rubs and sauces; why foods stick to metal; how to safely deep fry on a gas grill; how enzymes work; dry brining; the inverse square law; the hockey stick; 2- and 3-zone setups; the reverse sear; how to beat the stall; the Smoking Gun; injections; why butter basting doesn’t work the way you think it does; neither does beer can chicken; nor do marinades; ponassing and spatchcocking (get your mind out of the gutter); and much more!

You’ll also learn how to use out-of-the-BBQ-box ingredients like black garlic, gochujang, yuzu, miso, zhug, and tare sauce, and recipes showcasing Meathead’s methods, including:

• The secret recipes of competition champions
• The Ultimate Prime Rib
• Pho with Leftover Brisket and Smoked Bone Broth
• Mussels on Smoked Fettucine
• Miso Maple Black Cod à la Nobu
• Vichyssoise
• Improved Nashville Hot Chicken
• Red Pepper Risotto
• Pineapple Foster

Meathead is the New York Times bestselling author of Meathead: The Science of Great Barbecue and Grilling, named “One of the 100 Best Cookbooks of All Time” by Southern Living Magazine, and called an “indispensable guide” by The New Yorker. He has taken 10 years to publish this valuable companion, The Meathead Method. Meathead is the founder of AmazingRibs.com, the world’s largest and most popular barbecue and grilling website, and one of only 40 living members of the BBQ Hall of Fame. He has penned hundreds of articles about food and drink for the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, among others, and his photos have appeared in such publications as Time and Playboy. He has judged food and drink from Kansas City to Italy. The Chicago Tribune called him “as brainy as Food Network’s Alton Brown.”