Meathead

February 15, 2016
Readers will be delighted to learn that a man who willingly calls himself Meathead can still be trusted with a collection that has science in the subtitle. Goldwyn, whose day job is running the website amazingribs.com, explores the complexity of heat, meat, and smoke in the first half of his book, with a sense of humor sharper than his nickname suggests and a stack of scientific research provided by physicist Greg Blonder. Then he offers more than 100 recipes to take to the grill. Much of the discussion involves myth busting widely practiced techniques such as letting meat rest after cooking and searing steaks to seal in their juices. There is also instruction on how to achieve the ultimate goal of “golden brown deliciousness,” which takes into account both caramelization and the process of how meat browns, known as the Maillard reaction. The recipe section begins with numerous sauces and rubs. One might think that Goldwyn combined parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme just so that he could call it Simon & Garfunkel Rub, except that he makes wide use of it in dishes as varied as stuffed pork loin roast, buffalo chicken wings, and grilled duck breasts. Instruction and technique permeate much of the recipe section. The specifics of simmering brats in beer are charted in the excellent guidebook, and there is an 18-page master class on dealing with a whole hog. Agent: Sally Ekus, Lisa Ekus Group.

May 15, 2016

Goldwyn is the founder of AmazingRibs.com, a website dedicated to barbecue delicacies, techniques, and equipment. In this impressive debut, the author disproves widely believed cooking myths, critically examines countless tools, and explains cooking concepts in plain, often humorous language. He draws on the skills of many well-known experts--including J. Kenji Lopez-Alt (The Food Lab), Harold McGee (On Food and Cooking), and Nathan Myhrvold (Modernist Cuisine)--to strengthen this volume, which contains more than 100 classic recipes, including East Carolina mop sauce, suckling pig, Texas beef brisket, and smoked oysters. VERDICT This highly recommended food-science focused guide to grilling and barbecue will satisfy amateurs and professionals alike.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from June 1, 2016
Barbecue and grilling trigger more adamant opinionating than any other cooking procedure. Testosterone-fueled backyard chefs spend hundreds of dollars on grills and smokers to outdo their neighbors. The current big guy looming over that Weber kettle is Meathead Goldwyn, whose intense devotion to all things smoky springs from a rigorously empirical approach that backs up his opinions with broad and deep scientific knowledge. Here the chef shares his hard-won wisdom with anyone who takes grilling seriously and is committed to perfectly cooked meats, poultry, and fish. Goldwyn fearlessly but with healthy humor dismisses as inferior such backyard icons as beer-can chicken. His technique of reverse searing may cause many to rethink their approach to steaks. Although Goldwyn offers some vegetable side dishes such as grilled asparagus and barbecue's invariable partner, coleslaw, he aims his text squarely at the carnivore. This intriguing and provocative book promises to become an indispensable standard for any aspiring grill master.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)