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Testimonials
I used your "Magic Dust" and "Kansas City Classic" sauce recipes and followed your "Best Ribs Ever" procedure and the results were darned near magical - perhaps even miraculous for a first timer effort!
Tripper, Stow, MA
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I'm a pretty competent cook, but I was intimidated by ribs! Now that I have your site as "back up" I feel a lot more confident. For me, it's all about the details and explanations. I like to know the "why" of things, that's why I dig your site.
Melissa D, Pulaski, NY
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Let me know if the house next door to you ever goes up for sale. I kinda think being your neighbor would not be a bad thing. I think maybe you might be a little crazy, but I'd put up with that if you had me over for a barbeque every so often.
Russ Granata, Lancaster, NY
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I was, after years and years, and many wasted slabs of burnt to a crisp, or tough as leather ribs, afraid to attempt them again. But after finding your web site, with all the tips and techniques, I to can proudly call myself a RIB MASTER. You have even brought me back to my old faithful charcoal grill. Honestly I haven't used it in probably 3 or 4 years.
Brynne Wright, Breaux Bridge, LA
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Thank you for the Lexington Dip recipe. I'm from East Alabama and most of the small town BBQ joints from when I was a kid have either shut down or changed owners and all the new ones use Kansas City style sauce. I've searched the internet and experimented for years trying to figure out the sauce these old places used and this is it. I didn't even need to modify it. I can't believe it was so simple. Thank you for making my backyard BBQs much more enjoyable now.
Joey McDaniel, Ranburne, AL
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I tried your Chinese Char Sui Ribs on my Weber kettle last night after marinating about 20 hours. Without a doubt the best Asian flavored dish I have ever BBQ'd.
Adam Dameron, Taylors, SC
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[You have] raised my BBQ skills to the next level.
Edward L Jackson, M.D., Newark, DE
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I was pensive regarding smoking brisket and having 12 people looking at me while I called for pizza had something gone awry. Nothing did, and there were people from Texas that said it was as good, or better than what they had had in Austin and Houston.
Jim Hubbell, Goldsboro, NC
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Click here for more testimonials and pix from readers
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Show Me Yours
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I've been getting wonderful emails and pix from you. Man, you folks
know how to party! Send me pix of your versions of my recipes or your party and I might publish them on my site.
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Be My FB Friend
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| Smoke Signals is Free
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About Smoke Signals
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 Smoke Signals is the free email from AmazingRibs.com and Hedonism Evangelist Craig "Meathead" Goldwyn. Please send me feedback, especially if you think an article or recipe is
confusing, if you know a better way, or if I made a mistake. Daddy
taught me that "praise is cheap, criticism priceless." If you like my website, please click here to forward a copy of this to a friend. And remember: No rules in the bedroom or the kitchen!
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A Hot Dog Road Trip
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 Every dog has its day, and for hot dogs that day is July 4.
Approximately 150 million hot dogs were consumed last Independence Day, enough to stretch from DC to LA more than five times, according to the National Hot Dog & Sausage Council.
If you're planning a cookout for this most patriotic of days, here's an opportunity to celebrate the American dream. Because hot dog culture is American history.
Although there are scores of recipes for cooking and dressing frankfurters and hundreds of hole-in-the-wall hot dog stands have earned life-long followers with their unique house concoctions, many cities and regions have evolved a local design that has become their signature breed of dog. It has become part of their community and the populace cannot stand to eat them any other way. For them the unique scent and taste of their tribal genre conjures powerful memories of home and childhood. They are devoted, even addicted, to their hometown dogs.
So I have mapped out a Hot Dog Road Trip and I invite you to hop in and explore this tasty bite of Americana and the 24 articles I have posted on hot doggery this week, enough to fill a book! See if your hometown dog made the list.
Sounds like a good theme for your All-American cookout, right?
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Cooking franks, preparing the buns, making chili
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 You thought cooking hot dogs was simple right? Well it is, if you know what you're doing. Here are the best strategies for char dogs on the grill, on the griddle, split dogs, dirty water dogs, steamers, and nukes.
Believe it or not, there are several ways to handle buns. Here's how.
Like chili dogs? Here's my favorite recipe for hot dog chili sauce.
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Recipes for the Regional Classics Classics
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 Recipe: The Chicago Hot Dog. In Chicago, where hot dog stands far out number hamburger joints, there
is one and only one classic recipe, and very little variation from it.
It is the perfect hot dog [can you guess where I live?].
Recipe: The New York Dog. The story of American hot doggery begins on Coney Island with Nathan's Famous griddled dog and moves a dozen miles north to Midtown for the Sabrett with the classic orange sweet tart onion sauce on their pushcarts. Here's hot to make them including a recipe for the Sabrett Onion Sauce.
 Recipe: The West Virginia Slawdog.
Skip the sauerkraut and ladle the cole slaw on top of the meat
sauce.
Recipe: The Detroit Coney. Detroit is home of the Coney Dog, smothered in an all meat chili made from beef heart. Here is the recipe for the Classic Detroit Coney.
 Recipe: The Cincinnati Cheese Coney. Smother the frank with boiled chili, add onions, and then pile on the shredded cheddar.
Recipe: Sandra's Candied Cocktail Wienies. This is the famous recipe in Mom's recipe box. Don't forget the frilly toothpicks.
Recipe: The Wisconsin Brat Tub. Bratwurst are the official food of University of Wisconsin fans and Green Bay Packer fans. They are great tailgate food. Unlike hot dogs, brats are not precooked at the factory. In this recipe we take a classic Wisconsin technique and riff on it slightly. The brats are simmered first in beer, then grilled, then the beer is made into a sauce, and the brats simmer in the sauce. Touchdown!
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No ketchup!
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 Kids may love sweet stuff on their hot dogs, but nobody over 18 should put ketchup on a hot dog. We'll let Dirty Harry explain.
In the film "Sudden Impact", Clint Eastwood, playing detective Harry Callahan, a.k.a. Dirty Harry, appearing at a crime scene, blows his top while watching a cop munching on a hot dog: "Nah, this stuff isn't getting to me, the shootings, the knifings, the beatings, old ladies being bashed in the head for their social security checks. Nah, that doesn't bother me. But you know what does bother me? You know what makes me really sick to my stomach? It's watching you stuff your face with those hotdogs. Nobody, I mean nobody puts ketchup on a hot dog." Click here for more testimony on the subject.
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Top Dogs: Chicago's best hot dog stands |
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There are more than 1,800 hot dog stands in Meathead's home town, far more than the sum of McDonald's, Burger King, and Wendy's.
Some Chicago hot dog stands are practically institutions, decades old, handed down over the generations, with a devoted local following and diaspora of fans around the nation who make the pilgrimage back as soon as they get off the plane. Here are my faves.
In case you get the itch, we do the math on how much you can make with a pushcart and how much it costs to start up.
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Sausagology
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Historians think the first sausages of any kind were made about 5,000 years ago in what is now Iraq, and they are mentioned in Homer's Odyssey, written around 800 B.C. Here are a few of the many kinds of sausages that you might find in a local grocery and how they are made.
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What's in a hot dog?
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 What's in a hot dog?
You're not supposed to ask, but now that you have, here are the facts about the ingredients and nitrates and nitrites. And did you know that the frank is
only about half the calories on the sandwich?
The all-beef frank is the premier frank in this cook's opinion, and here are my ratings of more than 30 of them in a blind tasting.
And while we're at it, let's dispel some myths about how hot dogs got the name, where they were invented, and more hot dog history and links lore.
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My ride in the Wienermobile
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In March, this hot dog got to ride shotbun in the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile in the St. Patrick's Day Parade!
Learn about what's inside, under the hood, the bitchin sound system, why they don't publish the schedule of their appearances, and the very cool "Hotdoggers" whose first job out of college is driving cross country in a giant fiberglass wiener.
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Any book publishers out there?
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Well I think I'm finally ready to pitch my book to a publisher. There's more work to be done, but I have the core material complete and it's time to get Amazing Ribs, the book, moving towards print. If any of you are book publishers ore know someone who is, I'm ready to talk. Please contact me.
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An Art Show to See
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If you're anywhere near Rockport, ME, between July 6 and July 30, check out the Next Step Alumni Group Exhibit at the Maine Media Workshops. Two of my prints will be hanging alongside the works of several other members of the NextStep Group, an online confederation of photo artists who have all studied at one time or another under the estimable John Paul Caponigro. I've seen the work and it is very impressive. Click here for more info.
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Be a Recipe Test Pilot!
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 Testing is the final step before I release a recipe to the public. On my Recipe Test Pilot page I post links to recipes that are ready for prime time but need testing. Volunteers try the recipe and send me feedback. If they fill out the recipe tester's form, I send them an "Official Recipe Test Pilot" Flying Pig Certificate (above) suitable for framing and give you appropriate credit on the website.
Click here to go to my Recipe Test Pilot page and get links to my recipes in need of testing. They include Drunk Chuck, Crowing Chicken Piccata, Ciao Down Grilled Eggplant Parm, Italian Sausage Bomb, Charmoula Herb Paste and Ras el Hanout Spice Mix and Moroccan Lamb Mechoui, Pecan Tassies, Mu Shu Pork Burgers, and New Orleans Red Beans & Rice.
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Great gifts for the barbecue fan
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 Last month I completely renovated the AmazingRibs.com Gift Shop with new designs and more than 100 humorous captions. The ribs-themed designs are better looking, there is a series of more than 30 steak-themed designs, about 20 hotdog-themed designs, and more than 30 wine-themed designs.
You can now order aprons, hats, shirts, sweatshirts, intimate wear, and
other apparel for men, women, kids and pets, beer mugs, posters, and
other tschotschkes. Many of the shirts can now be printed front and back. Why not get Dad an apron or shirt for Father's Day? Order now to make sure it arrives in time.
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