Books: Barbecue & The Meathead Method
It is quite the tome. The clue in the title is as heavy as the book itself. It is called Barbecue and after around 280 recipes across 80 countries you feel like the Phileas Fogg of fire cooking.
Its full name is Barbecue: Smoked & Grilled Recipes from across the globe, by Hugh Mangum – American chef, pitmaster and live-fire expert. Originally a musician and raised in Los Angeles, Mangum co-founded the American restaurant chain Mighty Quinn’s. The book is his ‘love letter to fire and smoke’.
Mangum, who wrote the book with Shana Liebman, layers cultures over the cooking. There are Singapore shrimp skewers, the snags (sausages) of Australia, smoked pork butt from Germany, the tiger beef from Thailand, and a whole hog from North Carolina in the USA. There is something for everyone, from everywhere, with easy-to-follow instructions.
Skewers, mains, sides, sauces and rubs, and desserts form five digestible chapters, while the book also comes with a list of the essential tools needed for your BBQ, as well as a Pantry List, a guide to what wood and charcoal to use and some barbecue FAQs.
The introduction tells us plenty about the author and ignores AI or the Oxford English Dictionary. Mangum’s two definitions for BBQ should be adopted forthwith:
• To cook, most often meat, through the use of wood fire or smoke.
• A celebratory event, revolving around friends, family, food and fire.
Mangum’s fire was lit in 1975, about a half mile north of Sunset Boulevard on Doheny Drive in West Hollywood, California.
“A stocky Texan who looked a bit like Orson Welles, smoked meat, producing faint bluish plumes with the sweetest smell,” writes Mangum in his introduction. “I can’t remember what particular cuts of meat my father, Hugh Mangum III, used to smoke, but I do remember the smell. It was my introduction to the world of barbecue.”
Following his father’s death in 1999, Mangum embarked on a BBQ voyage of posthumous connection, studying the recipes and notes dad had left. He learnt along the way that while BBQ “presents as bold, assertive and primal, what separates good barbecue from truly great barbecue is the nuanced details: the burn rate of the rate; the amount of coals below the burning wood. Barbecue perfection exists in consistency; it exists only if the cook is fully present.”
But, ultimately, Mangum says: “If you learn to barbecue, you will eat well, feed friends and family and ultimately make people happy. It’s really simple.”
There are contributions from guest chefs too, including Jess Pryles of Hardcore Carnivore with her salted beef fat caramel pie, Dave Pynt of Burnt Ends, Singapore, with a Western Australian marron, tobiko and kombu beurre blanc, and Tomos Parry of London restaurants Brat and Mountain, serving up beef with charred scallion sauce, with all three chefs having featured extensively in the pages of BBQ magazine over the years.
Barbecue by Hugh Mangum with Shana Liebman is published by Phaidon. Photography by Nico Shinco.
The Meathead Method
Once you’ve devoured over 400 pages of Barbecue, pick up a copy of The Meathead Method and discover ‘a BBQ Hall of Famer’s secrets and science on BBQ, grilling and outdoor cooking’. This also tops out at around 400 pages and with 114 recipes.
Meathead is Craig Goldwyn, who also holds the monikers The BBQ Whisperer and Myth Buster.
Living in Chicago, Meathead is the founder of AmazingRibs.com, recognised as one of the world’s leading resources for BBQ and grilling. The Meathead Method is extraordinary in its detail and depth; this is nerd heaven. “Every time you step in front of your grill or set foot in your kitchen, you commence a physics and chemistry experiment,” says Meathead.
If this had been my text book at school, rather than abject failure in the science subjects, I would have passed with flying colours through my sheer love of food, so hungry would I have been to devour its knowledge.
Enzymes, the Maillard reaction, wet brining, conduction energy, the inverse square law are all explained, before you get to more familiar terms such as reverse sear, caramelisation and zone cooking. I’m not sure how partial Merlin the wizard was to grilling, but if he ever threw a BBQ, he’d ask Meathead to explain it – and cook it.
I am in no position to challenge any of the cooking myths he busts along the way, but if I had to vote for a professor of the pit to mark my dissertation, it would be Meathead. However, beyond all the science and the art, Meathead’s messaging is simple. As he says, almost anything you can cook indoors can be cooked outdoors – “only better” – and fire remains “the most important discovery of all time” and, most importantly of all, fire enabled cooking.
“This awe-inspiring magical phenomenon kept our ancestors warm, illuminated the dark and scared away predators,” writes Meathead in the book’s introduction. “Huddling around the hypnotic campfire transformed herds of humans into communities and bred cooperation. The most destructive power on earth became the most constructive power on earth.”
To the recipes. Slather my pork ribs with the Kansas City sweet red sauce – be generous with the bourbon. Bring me the boneless breasts of the Paris chicken with a creamy mushroom sauce – no wonder it’s the city of love. Another favourite is the tea-smoked black cod fillets with nutty lemon brown butter.
Two big books, two BBQ greats and nearly 400 recipes. See you in a year. Come on, it’s only just over one a day.
The Meathead Method, by Meathead. Published by Harvest.
Rupert Bates
