Chef Chat: Getting fired up over grilling with Meathead Goldwyn

Kristine M. Kierzek
Special to the Journal Sentinel
View Comments

Like so many others, Meathead Goldwyn's first grilling experiences were in the backyard with his dad. Over the years, he's taken his interest from hobby to serious study.

When he started getting more involved in the intense world of barbecue and grilling in 2005, he created the site Testing smokers, grills and every tool you might ever need, he's spent endless hours barbecuing and amassed a large collection of equipment. He'll tell you all you need to know about the fancy, high-end equipment that can cost into the thousands. He's also convinced you can do everything you need with the simple Weber kettle grill, the most popular grill sold.

Putting all his experience into one place, the 66-year-old Goldwyn has written 'Meathead: The Science of Great Barbecue and Grilling' with Greg Blonder ($35, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), which arrives in stores this week.

Goldwyn lives in Brookfield, Ill., with his wife of 41 years, Lou. He brings his book tour to Wisconsin at 6 p.m. June 8 for an author dinner with Boswell Book Co. and Atlas BBQ, 1304 12th Ave., Grafton. For tickets and information, see this website or call (262) 618-2181.

Q. Do you really go by the name Meathead?

A. I'm like Cher or Madonna or Lady Gaga. I'm Meathead to everyone who knows me except my wife and mother. They have other names for me. It started back during the Archie Bunker days when my dad and I were on opposite sides of the political world. It stuck when I got into the world of barbecue. I'm happy to be known as Meathead.

Q. How did you get into the world of barbecue?

A. I worked my way through college in a wine shop. I was wine critic for the Chicago Tribune and Washington Post for a number of years. Wine and food have been a part of me for all my adult life.

Somewhere around 2000, I was publishing a wine magazine and had an offer to sell it. I was trying to figure out what to do with the rest of my life.

(I thought), let's try solid food for a change. I was into barbecue, and a neighbor challenged me to a ribs cook-off. I went looking for recipes. There were no books on the subject. In 2005, I started a site just about ribs.

I named it, because in those days Amazon listed everything alphabetically. Now it is more than 1,000 pages, and I have a man full time who tests grills and smokers.

Q. Tell us about this book. Where did you start?

A. The science of cooking and food has been a strong interest of mine for a long time. The book is about half recipes, then technique and concepts, science. There's a whole section on heat, fire, and on smoke and meat science.

Q. What have you noticed with the rising interest in barbecue?

A. One of the reasons I left the wine world, despite the protestations of wine experts, there is a lot of snobbery and I got tired of it. I got tired of the preciousness, the us vs. them.

I'm seeing a bit of that in barbecue now and it distresses me. The language shouldn't be that difficult. A grill is an oven, an outdoor oven and it has a lousy thermometer. That's all.

Q. Barbecue and grill. Can you use them interchangeably?

A. A lot of people, and I fear this is part of the snobbery, like to say barbecue and grilling are different. I've heard people say this in grocery stores, I'm going to barbecue some hot dogs and hamburgers. Then, well, that's not barbecue.

There's this misconception barbecue is low and slow. That's a style that arrived from southern barbecue, but the word barbecue itself covers a large territory. There are many, many styles of barbecue. Barbecue is a large umbrella world that includes grilling.

It is a bit of semantics to split the hairs because a barbecue is by definition fire and smoke. Smoke is the determining factor. ... If there is smoke involved, by my definition, and about this I am pedantic, it is barbecue. Grilling and Korean barbecue, Santa Maria style, they're all barbecue, but southern barbecue tends to be indirect heat, low and slow, large cuts of meat.

There are exceptions to every rule. In Tuscaloosa, Ala., one of the most popular barbecue joints in the world, he cooks his meat over direct heat. You go and tell him it's not barbecue and if you come out alive, you're lucky. There are all sorts of exceptions.

Q. What do people need to know about equipment?

A. They need to determine what style they want. If they're doing mostly hamburger, steaks, go charcoal. Chicken or fish, gas works better for them, but charcoal does just fine. It is not so much the equipment, but technique.

People need to understand there are different kinds of heat: convection, radiant and direct heat. With all three they can get anything. That has to do with how you set up the grill. You need to almost always use a two-zone set up, one side that is really hot and one that is not.

Q. What is worth the investment?

A. Thermometers. You can buy a really, really good digital meat thermometer that gives a precise reading in five seconds. That's the way to keep from killing your family. Ninety percent of all chicken purchased in a grocery store has bacteria in it, and half have antibiotic-resistant pathogens. That is scary. Nothing to be worried about it if you cook it properly. Get it to 165 degrees, you kill all the bacteria in seven seconds.

All the books that tell you to cook it 'til the juices run clear are wrong. That may have been true 20 years ago, but today chickens go from egg to chicken in seven to eight weeks. The juices do not run clear, and you need a digital thermometer.

A medium-rare steak is 130 degrees. Period. If you want a good medium-rare steak, get a digital thermometer and you'll never be embarrassed to serve a well-done steak again.

Q. Do you remember the first things you learned to grill?

A. Very vividly. I was raised in Florida, and we had the opportunity to grill year-round. Dad had a Weber kettle and liked to grill. My favorite was beef ribs. He'd stand there with the tongs and the meat and the smell. It was quality time with dad. I loved that.

Q. What's your favorite cut of meat?

A. If I was placed equidistant between a good lamb loin and a good steak I would probably die of starvation trying to decide which one to cook.

Q. What's a myth you'd like to dispel?

A. You don't have to soak your wood. Learn how to use smoke. Smoke is a spice, but it is not on your spice rack. It is something you can only get outdoors, not indoors, and it has a wonderful elegant flavor....

You don't need a smoker. Smokers are nice to have. I have a bunch of them. If you like smoked meats, then you might consider a smoker, but you can smoke just fine on a gas grill or a regular Weber kettle. You just need to learn (how).

Joe's Fireproof Grilled Shrimp

"Joe Parajecki is a butcher I admire in Madison," writes Meathead Goldwyn in his cookbook "Meathead." "He's the operation manager of the Kettle Range Meat Co., but he also knows seafood. He cuts his shrimp shells down the back with scissors and removes the vein, leaving the shells on.

"He says, 'Burnt shells, nobody cares. Burnt shrimp, everybody cares. The shells also keep moisture in. As you eat them, when you peel the shrimp, the smoky, garlicky oil gets on your fingers and then onto the shrimp.'"

Makes: 2 main-dish servings


1 pound shell-on large (at least 16/20 count) wild Gulf shrimp, split down the back and deveined (see note)
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 garlic cloves, crushed or minced
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Minced fresh flat-leaf parsley, thyme or cilantro for garnish (optional)


Prep: Put the shrimp in a zipper-top bag and add the olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper. Swoosh everything around to mix and coat the shrimp. Put bag in refrigerator to marinate 15 or 20 minutes.

Fire up: Set up the grill in a two-zone configuration and get the direct zone up to medium-high. If your shrimp are small, you might want to use a grill topper.

Cook: Place shrimp on direct-heat side and cook 2 to 3 minutes per side, until meat is pearly white and opaque. If grill flares up from dripping oil, move shrimp to indirect side for a few minutes.

Serve: Put shrimp in a large bowl and garnish with the herbs, if desired. Serve immediately and let everyone peel their own.

Note: Cut shrimp shells down the back with a scissors and remove the vein, leaving the shells on.

View Comments