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Brown is flavor and is what all the top steakhouses in the country do when they cook steaks. Second, he brushes his steak with beef fat. We all know fat is where the flavor is, so you might as well use fat directly from the source. As for seasoning, a simple blend of salt and pepper. •Meat stops accepting smoke at 140 degrees. Well, that isn’t exactly true. Smoke sticks to the surface of the meat best when the meat is cool (fresh into the smoker) or when it is moist. As meat warms or becomes less moist, less smoke will adhere or stick to its surface. Think about how steam fogs a cool mirror. Think about smoke as steam and meat as the mirror. If you warm up the mirror, the steam will longer adhere to it – same with meat. It is a well- known phenomenon called thermophoresis. •Favorite meat? – A USDA Prime ribeye (or spinalis ribeye cap) aged 28 days – preferably from Allen Brothers in his native Chicago. He likes it even better than Wagyu. •Salt? Salt doesn’t change the flavor of the meat – it am- plifies it! Salt is also unique in that it can penetrate the meat due to its molecular size and because when it gets wet it gets electrically charged. Spices cannot penetrate beyond the small pockmarks on the surface. That means rubs treat the surface of the meat and salt penetrates the meat. None of Meathead’s rub recipes contain salt for that reason. That doesn’t mean you don’t use salt; you apply salt de- pending on the weight of the meat so it will penetrate and season it all, while you apply spices depending on the sur- face area. By separating them you can apply more salt to a thick piece of meat like a pork butt than to a slab of ribs. I could go on and on because the knowledge Meathead shared was applicable to everyday BBQ cooking. It is inter- esting to note, that Meathead enjoys cooking, grilling and smoking seafood. He picked up his love for seafood when he was growing up on the east coast. One of his favorites is Chilean sea bass. I’ll bet there will be a few seafood techniques and recipes in his upcoming cook. Meathead is constantly in motion and looking for new ways to share is knowledge with everyday cooks. He just fin- ished production of several videos for the BBQ Stars series. The series includes videos from eleven chefs and pitmas- ters, ten workshops and over 100 videos. In addition to Meathead, the series features many of the household names of the BBQ world (Tuffy Stone and Harry Soo to name a few) and the SCA co-founders Brett Gallaway and Ken Phillips. In the videos, they share their techniques and recipes. Earlier in the article I mentioned Meathead’s latest en- deavor and that he is hosting a gathering of BBQ enthusi- asts in Memphis. The AmazingRibs.com Meat-Up in Memphis will be held July 31, 2020 through August 2, 2020. The purpose is to bring together the BBQ community of backyard cooks where they can share their common inter- est in cooking and BBQ. In typical Meathead style, this isn’t any ordinary event. First, it will be headquartered at the historic Peabody Hotel (the one with the famous daily duck parade) in the heart of downtown Memphis. The focus will be all things “porky” and attendees will hear from Meathead and other carefully selected speakers be- fore heading head out to visit many of the great BBQ restaurants including samples, tours and conversations with the pitmasters. It will be an amazing weekend of food, camaraderie and laughs for those lucky enough to reserve their slot before it is sold out. More information about the event is easy to find on AmazingRibs.com. I’ll leave you with one final thought. On the day we talked, Meathead had just purchased and sampled the Impossible Whop- per from Burger King (you know, the patty made from plant protein in- stead of real beef). I am still laughing from his telling me all about it. You can find out more by visiting Amazin- gRibs.com. In the world of BBQ ... it’s the people you meet ... and the friends you make. August 2, 2020 OCTOBER 2019 BarbecueNews.com - 35