I'm Meathead Goldwyn, the creator of AmazingRibs.com, and this is how I approach eating.

It's clear that Meathead Goldwyn has mastered the art of meat, but let's not forget—after nearly 50 years of tasting and critiquing food and drinks professionally, he’s well-versed in many other areas. His website, AmazingRibs.com, offers not just a wealth of BBQ and meat-grilling wisdom, but also valuable insights on food safety, cocktail recipes, and food science. Generously, Meathead took the time to chat and share some of his vast knowledge, including his passion for authentic balsamic, his aversion to trussing, and the secrets behind making a perfect grilled cheese sandwich.

Location: Chicago, Illinois

Current role: Cookbook author, recipe developer, and founder of AmazingRibs.com

First off, I have to say I really enjoyed the video of your fridge that you sent over.

I was about to snap a photo of my fridge when I thought, why not make a video instead? And while I’m at it, why stop with just the fridge?

I’ve got some specific questions about what’s inside your fridge, but let’s kick things off with a broad question: what’s your usual breakfast routine?

I’m not typically hungry in the mornings. I usually don’t eat anything until around 11 a.m., when I have some fruit. Then, around 1 or 2, I might throw together a sandwich. I’m a big fan of shakshuka—eggs cracked into tomato sauce, it’s amazing. I also do the occasional grilled cheese or a simple tuna bowl, with some chopped pickles or maybe even egg salad. That’s usually my lunch.

Do you prefer sweet pickles or dill pickles?

My wife makes her own sweet pickle relish. We’re both into gardening, though I’ll admit, she’s the real gardener—she’s actually studying to become a master gardener. We’ve been gardening together ever since we met over 40 years ago. One of my favorite fridge finds is the pickled green tomatoes, a common feature in Jewish delis. In the fall, when the green tomatoes on the vine don’t ripen, she turns them into jam. And you know what? It was actually really good. I guess it’s proof that if you add enough sugar to anything, you can make a jam.

And by the way, she’s the best cook in the house. No bias here—she’s not even within earshot. She’s a jazz cook, I’m more of a symphonic one. She’ll grab a bit of this, a little of that, and in 30 minutes, she’s got an amazing dish. Me? I need a recipe, like a conductor needs a score. If I’m creating something new, I can improvise, but I always start by writing it down. She’s like Miles Davis, and I’m Tchaikovsky.

What kind of cheese do you use for your grilled cheese?

Whatever I’ve got multiples of in the cheese bin. I love exploring the cheese department, always picking up interesting ones. I usually begin with cheddar, but we keep Swiss, Colby, and pepperjack in stock, so sometimes I mix them all together. I also love to grill my grilled cheese. I mean, come on—it's called grilled cheese for a reason, and you're talking to Meathead here. I like using thick Texas toast, with mayonnaise on the outside, and I grill it right on the barbecue, flipping it a few times. It comes out golden, with a couple of nice grill marks and a bit of smoky flavor. It’s incredible. My gas grill is just outside the back door, which is just a few steps from the kitchen, so it’s easy—just swing open the door, toss it on the grill, and you're good to go.

How many grills do you own?

I have more grills than I can count. It's a constantly changing lineup. About a year ago, my wife set some ground rules: One grill comes in, one goes out, because the deck can barely handle the weight of everything out there. But there’s always a trusty Weber Kettle. If you're cooking for the public, you have to be able to make it work on a Weber kettle. I also have a gas grill—the absolute best, coolest gas grill ever made. It’s a Hestan. Plus, I’ve got a pellet smoker, a gas smoker, a charcoal smoker, and a Big Green Egg.

Back to cheeses for a moment: What’s your top pick for burger cheese?

American cheese is the go-to for cheeseburgers. It has the perfect flavor and melting ability. There’s real science behind why some cheeses melt better than others—I’ve written about it. But when it comes to making a cheeseburger, you need something that melts as soon as it hits hot ground beef. Sure, you can cover it with a dome to speed up the process, but many cheeses just don’t melt fast enough. You’ve got a brief window between flipping the burger and it being done, and you need that cheese melted. American cheese is the ideal choice. And let’s be honest, it tastes like a cheeseburger! It’s like making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich—you wouldn’t use sunflower seed butter, you use peanut butter.

Do you prefer crunchy or creamy peanut butter?

Crunchy!

And what kind of jelly do you prefer?

We always have a variety of jellies around, and we even make our own. I’ve got grape vines—specifically a seedless green variety called “Himrod” from the New York Agricultural Experiment Station. It’s ideal for colder climates like ours. A couple of years ago, we had a bumper crop. I only had six vines, but managed to pick nearly a bushel. We made fantastic juice and jelly, and then I cooked it down to make cotto, which is what real balsamic vinegar is made from. It makes for a delightful jam or jelly. As for store-bought, the red raspberry from Smuckers is a favorite, and fig jam is up there too. While we were in Florida recently, we found a delicious pineapple and orange marmalade.

What exactly is 'real balsamic'?

In Modena, the birthplace of balsamic, there aren’t strict regulations around the name, so it’s easy to find industrial vinegar labeled as 'balsamic' by simply cooking red wine vinegar, adding some sugar, food coloring, and calling it a day. I’ve written about it extensively, but real balsamico tradizionale is made from specific grape varieties in a very precise process. The grapes are cooked down into cotto and then aged in what’s called a 'batteria'—a battery of barrels, sometimes up to 13 or 14, made from various woods like walnut, chestnut, cherry, and oak. It takes years to make. When you see an age on balsamic, it’s not true balsamic. It’s made similarly to sherry—put into a barrel, moved to the next barrel as it ages, and topped off with the new crop. The oldest barrel can have balsamic that’s 25-30 years old, but it’s a blend of multiple vintages.

It’s one of those rare, exotic foods like truffles or caviar. Since we’re gardeners, we grow fresh tomatoes, which make the most extraordinary caprese. We don’t use it every day, but I always keep a bottle of it around. It’s perfect on ice cream or fresh strawberries. It’s thinner than syrup but just amazing—very sweet yet incredibly tart. I can even drink it straight from the bottle, and you can too. It’s almost like a liqueur.

Do you have a wine cellar?

I’ve got a small wine cellar with room for about fifteen cases. I sometimes attend charity auctions where I pick up something special to age, but most of the wine I buy is under 15 bucks. Anyone can get great wine for $20 or more, but the real challenge is finding a great bottle for under $15. We have wine with dinner every night, and I can’t afford to drink fine Bordeaux every evening. So, we do a lot of searching and experimenting. A good wine merchant is more valuable than knowing a good stockbroker—it's on par with knowing a skilled butcher. I’ve got a fantastic wine merchant who always introduces me to great finds.

Do you drink many cocktails?

I’m mostly a wine drinker, but not too long ago, I discovered Negronis and now I’m hooked. They strike that perfect balance of bitter, sweet, and tart. The color is lovely, and the fragrance is great. I don’t usually have many cocktails, but my next book will feature an entire chapter on cocktails infused with fire and smoke.

I noticed you've been called a 'hedonism evangelist.'

I actually put that on my business card. I’m not sure why I gave myself that title, but it’s definitely caused some controversy, especially from Christian fundamentalists. I’m all about pleasure. Let me share some philosophy: I’m an old man now, and I’ve earned the right to have one. You go through life with only five senses. Everything we know about the world comes through those senses. It would be criminal not to use all of them.

There’s this misconception that food has to be bad for you in order to be pleasurable, but that’s not the case.

Good lord, a perfectly ripe tomato? Put that next to a perfectly cooked steak, and I’m torn. I love them both equally. As for sweet corn, I don’t use butter or salt. We just steam or grill it and eat it as is. When our garden is in full swing, we sometimes go a week or more without meat. Once, I went 30 days without meat just as a dare. It was part of my protest against CAFOs and the mistreatment of animals in food factories. It wasn’t difficult. We have eggplants, zucchinis, tomatoes, beans, peas, cucumbers—all of it! And the peppers—oh, we’re all about the peppers. We preserve them, I smoke them to make pimento, smoked paprika, and chipotle. My partner makes pickled relish and amazing tomato sauces. Our homemade tomato sauces blow anything you’d get in a jar out of the water.

Going back to the jars in your fridge: I noticed you have both margarine and butter, and mayonnaise and Miracle Whip.

I’m AC/DC. I go both ways. We also have both creamy and crunchy peanut butter. Sometimes you just want something easy to spread, but when you need to slather some butter on a slice of bread and the butter is as hard as a rock, margarine comes in handy. A lot of Europeans leave butter out, but that’s not something we do in our house. I’m married to a food safety expert, so we’re pretty cautious about that stuff—maybe even a little over the top. Besides, American butter is different from European butter.

How do you decide between mayonnaise and Miracle Whip?

Oh, God, I was hoping you wouldn’t ask that. My wife is all about the mayonnaise, while I’m a Miracle Whip guy. I’ve got a sweet tooth, so I love Miracle Whip. But listen, do not put Miracle Whip on a grilled cheese sandwich—only mayonnaise works for that. You know that hack, right? I actually prefer mayonnaise to butter for grilling. And speaking of mayonnaise, have you ever tried it on fish? It works great as an anti-stick for fish, especially on the grill. I wrote about this in my book years ago, and now it’s starting to catch on.

Ahead of the curve.

We were ahead of the curve on reverse sear, too. Way ahead of the curve. We’re experimental. We’re all about the science.

Is reverse sear your favorite way to cook a steak?

Only for thick steaks. It's not the right technique for thin steaks—those need a hot, fast flash. But for a thick steak, absolutely. We like to call it 'redneck sous vide.'

How do you cook a chicken? 

A lot of the chickens are spatchcocked and grilled. Some are done in the convection oven, which gets the skin perfectly crispy. I’m obsessed with crispy chicken skin. What surprises me is how many chefs insist on trussing the legs. The thing is, if you truss them, you’re essentially pulling the legs in, making them part of the thermal mass, which means they cook less. You end up with overcooked breasts. If you leave the legs untrussed, they cook faster, and air circulates better around them. Even Thomas Keller does it, trussing and roasting in pans. But I never cook a chicken in a roasting pan. I always use a rack to lift it above the pan so that the hot air can circulate underneath and cook the bottom. That’s the secret.

You absolutely must have a digital thermometer, especially when cooking poultry. It’s the single most essential tool in the kitchen. This is 2020, after all. If you’re not using one, you don’t truly know how to cook, and you’re jeopardizing the health of your loved ones. In the BBQ world, you’ll hear some macho folks claim they don’t need a thermometer. Well, we’ve managed to change their minds. My wife jokingly says we’ve probably sold more thermometers than the USDA and FDA combined, because every recipe we post emphasizes the importance of knowing the right temperature. You can’t afford to overcook steak, especially with beef prices where they are. Even worse, you don’t want to send someone to the hospital with undercooked chicken, especially around holidays. Poultry is a ticking time bomb if not cooked properly, and the coldest part is always the spot where the thigh meets the body.

Another key thing to understand is the different types of energy involved in cooking. When you cook on a grill, there are three types: conduction, airflow, and radiation. Conduction is what happens when food touches metal that’s often very hot. Then there’s airflow, and radiation from the heat source. You can hold your hand in a 200-degree oven for quite some time without burning yourself, but touch the side of that oven—which is also 200 degrees—and you’ll be headed to the hospital. The lesson? It’s not just the temperature—it’s the energy. Warm air doesn’t burn the same way hot metal does, even if they’re both at 200 degrees. Once you get a grasp of the three different energy types, you can really start mastering your cooking technique.