Readers often ask what kind of grill I use. Well, I test recipes on several different cookers trying to anticipate the problems you might encounter. In addition, manufacturers frequently send me toys to test. As of 5/17/2010, my current inventory, with links to my reviews:
Chicago has a really fun and useful restaurant review show on WTTW Channel 11. They invite three foodies to pick a favorite restaurant, and separately, unannounced, all three try the other restaurants. Then they get together on air and discuss their experiences. I picked Honey 1 BBQ. Here's an excerpt from the conversation.
Words of wisdom
I remember, when I was a boy, sitting at the dinner table looking askance at something Mom had cooked that day. I mumbled "Something smells funny" to which my Dad instantly replied, "Take a walk around the block. If it follows you, you know what it is." I have always taken that to mean that when I have a problem, look for the solution in the mirror.
Dad was a serial entrepreneur (click here to read his WWII memoir). Not a bigtime wheeler dealer, just an ambitious hard worker trying to carve out a niche. He was always starting something. He started a dogfood processing plant after college, a frozen foods production company, a restaurant, a life insurance brokerage, a stock brokerage, and he made stops in between as a frozen foods sales rep, a women's hair products sales rep, food safety inspector for the USDA in a blueberry plant in Maine, at a shrimp processor in Tampa, and at an orange juice plant in Bradenton. I learned not to be afraid to make mistakes. When I found myself walking the same path and launching a wine magazine in 1984, I hung a guidepost on my office door. "Don't be afraid to make mistakes. Just don't make the same mistake twice."
Mom has a similar personality. She was an art major, and that clearly rubbed off on me. She did commercial art for a while and later became an elementary school teacher.
I once thought I could change the world. I have since learned I'm not as smart and powerful as I thought. I have learned that the universe is a giant puzzle, and before I leave I would like to put just one small piece in its place. I think this website has a chance of accomplishing that goal.
Dad also taught me "Praise is cheap. Criticism is priceless." So as much as I appreciate your kudos, it you spot errors, ambiguity, typos, please let me know!
Glad you stopped by. Sit a spell and take some time to visit. There's a lot to, ahem, consume on this site.
My given name is Craig Goldwyn, but everyone calls me "Meathead" or "Meat" for short. Sometimes they call me other things that I can't print here. Dad was the first to call me Meathead after watching Archie Bunker. You don't want to know what my editors and my wife call me. If you've read this far, you're my buddy and you can call me whatever you want.
Why am I writing Amazing Ribs? Because I am a Barbecue Whisperer and Hedonism Evangelist. An eater, drinker, writer, photographer, and teacher based in the Chicago area and I loooovvvve cooking. Almost as much as eating. Especially outdoor cooking. The Roman god Bacchus is my paragon.
Along the way I have tried to share my love of the sensory. I was a journalism major at the University of Florida and I have written hundreds of articles about food and drink for consumers as a syndicated columnist for the Washington Post, and the Chicago Tribune, and scores more for Restaurant Hospitality, a trade magazine. The Trib and Post still occasionally buy rants on politics and whatever else ails me for their editorial pages, and I post them to my blog, "Thought for Food," on this site and on Huffington Post. I consider myself an old school journalist and I carefully avoid doing business with food and drink producers in order to avoid conflicts of interest. For example, I do not accept ads from products that I review such as grills, charcoal, etc. Click here for more on my advertising policy.
I've been helping folks learn about food and drink online since 1990 when I started Wine & Dine Online as part of LAOnline, long before anybody typed "w" three times in a row or a dot followed by a com. I then hosted the Food & Drink Network on America Online from 1992-2000, built Tastings.com in 1998, and then built this site in 2006.
I lectured for more than a decade on wine at Cornell University's famous Hotel School in Ithaca, NY, and I was an adjunct teaching art at Le Cordon Bleu in Chicago for three years. As founder of the Beverage Testing Institute I produced seven books on wine, beer, and spirits.
Somewhere along the way I studied photography with the great Jerry N. Uelsmann and picked up the world's first Masters degree in Art in Technology from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. My photos have been bought by a lot of folks from TIME to Playboy, and my first one man show was at the gallery at Robert Mondavi Winery. Here's an article about my food photography with tips on technique and a list of my tools.
Among my most powerful childhood memories is the seductive scent of sweetly-sauced ribs sizzling and crisping on Dad's grill. In cooler weather Mom would roast them in the oven and serve them swimming in sauce. My interest in cooking began when I was about 10 and Mom and Dad opened a restaurant and I got to be a real jerk, a soda jerk. They named the place after a beautiful flower, the Oleander. We later learned it was poisonous, and eventually the restaurant failed. If you ever hear that I'm opening a restaurant, hunt me down and shoot me.
When I was at the University of Florida in the '60s I first discovered real barbecued ribs, smoked over wood, at a rickety joint named Y.T. Parker's Bar-B-Q in Gainesville. I also discovered hot pepper sauce at Y.T.’s. He put four sauces on the wobbly tables, mild, regular, hot, and one more. If hot was not potent enough for you, he would whup one up even more flammable. If you could eat one hotter than anyone else had eaten before, he let you name it, and that was the fourth bottle. Last time I was there, in the 1970s, he was up to "Super Sabre Jet". My parents had warned me that smoking marijuana would lead to harder stuff. Well, they were right. I gave up weed and took up smoking pork.
Since then I have become an omnivore, eating and drinking for a living since 1970. It's a dirty job, but somebody’s gotta do it. And I've got wine and sauce stains on all my shirts and the well-marbled waistline to prove I do it well.
Over the years, outdoor cooking has become my passion (my wife would call it my obsession). A radio interviewer introduced me once as a "Barbecue Whisperer" a moniker I kinda like. My ambition to make what I call "Amazing Ribs" is what has fired me to bring this website and forthcoming book to fruition. Please let me know how I'm doing.
Tell Meathead what you think, or ask him a question
But please, please, please read this first:
1) Please use the sitemap or the search box, at the top of every page. There's a good chance the answer is already on this site.
2) Please read this article about thermometers.Chances are your thermometer is the problem! I cannot help you troubleshoot unless you tell me that you are using a digital oven thermometer at meat level (not in the lid), and/or a digital meat thermometer. You simply cannot believe your grill's built-in bi-metal dial thermometer. They are often off by as much as 50°F!
3) Please tell me everything I need to know to answer your question.
4) Please don't ask me "What grill (or smoker) should I buy?" Read my Buyer's Guides and follow the links. I've shared just about everything I know on those pages. I cannot pick the right cooker for you any more than you could pick the right car for me. But I've explained everything you need to know to make your decision.
AmazingRibs.com is all about the Zen of barbecue, grilling, and outdoor cooking, with great BBQ recipes and techniques: Barbecue baby back ribs, spareribs, pulled pork, beef brisket, steak, burgers, chicken, smoked turkey, lamb, barbecue sauces, rubs, and side dishes, with the net's best buying guide to barbecue smokers and grills. It is written, photographed, illustrated, and coded solely by Meathead.
My philosophy about food is simple. First of all it must taste great. It must be easy to make and emphasize fresh seasonal products with a minimum of processed ingredients. I think that people need to know why as well as how, and that there are no rules in the bedroom or dining room.
About Product Reviews and Meathead's Hot Stuff Awards. Meathead's Hot Stuff Awards are highly recommended products that I have tested personally or that have been tested by reliable sources. Awards are based on features, quality, and value. Rest assured that when I recommend a product, it is really because I like it, not because someone has paid me to say so or because the company is an advertiser or sponsor. I purchase most products I review although occasionally suppliers send me samples.
About links on this site. Other than clearly marked ads, links and recommendations on this site are all products, services, and websites I truly admire, and are never paid endorsements. Your suggestions are always welcome. If you would like me to link to your website, click here to read my links policy first. Advertising policy. I do not accept ads from products that I review such as grills, charcoal, etc. Click here for more on my advertising policy.
Meathead's Personal Privacy Promise.I promise to never sell or distribute any info about you individually without your express permission, and I promise not to, ahem, pepper you with email or make you eat spam. Click here for more details of my privacy promise.
Disclaimer. The information on this website is for educational purposes only. All material within comes without warranties of any kind. I am human, and capable of mistakes, so I make no guarantees as to the accuracy, completeness, or safety of the information. Under no circumstances am I liable for any damages that result from use of the site (so you can't sue me if you burn your tongue on hot ribs, or get a tummy ache, OK?).
GrillGrates are the best new product I have tested in years and the best thing to happen to beef since salt and pepper. The base superheats, eliminates hot spots, smokes, and blocks flareups. This is the concept behind the expensive new infrared grills. Click here for more about GrillGrates.
The Smokenator:
A Necessity For Weber Kettles
If you have a Weber Kettle, you need the amazing Smokenator and Hovergrill. The Smokenator turns your grill into a first class smoker, and the Hovergrill can add capacity or be used to create steakhouse steaks. Click here to read more.
ThermoWorks Pocket Thermometer - No More Guessing
A good thermometer is why I never serve overcooked or undercooked food. No more guesswork. This one has a very thin tip with a tiny thermocouple so it gives an accurate reading in just six seconds. I cannot recommend it more highly. It will improve your cooking overnight. And it is inexpensive. Click here for more about thermometers.
This link takes you to Amazon.com and tags anything you buy with my affiliate code so I get a small referral fee. It works on anything from grills to diapers and it has zero impact on the price you pay. Low prices, fast delivery (often free), good refund policies, and often there is no sales tax, are the best reasons to buy from Amazon.com, but clicking on that link before you shop helps me devote more time and money to you. Thanks!
With a $25 donation you'll get a 100% cotton brushed twill adjustable low profile cap with the AmazingRibs patch sewn on. I'll even toss in a small bag of 
