Hello Dead Meat Society,
Ten years ago this week, Mark Zuckerberg went live smoking meats and chanting “Sweet Baby Rays,” and the Internet never recovered. Happy anniversary to a legend. Show us what meats you’re smoking in the Dead Meat Society Facebook group or tag us on Instagram.
Now, here’s what we’ve been cooking up all week…
First up, a decade of Zuck smoking meats, and the grilling tips we can learn from him, despite the memes. Plus, the Ontario man who caught a court-ordered barbecue ban.
And down in the recipes, Kansas City pork burnt ends drowning in, what else, Sweet Baby Ray’s.
Every week, we crown the DMS champion of BBQ. And there are only two ways to enter: 1) Submit a pic to the Dead Meat Society Facebook Group 2) Tag us on Instagram. If you aren’t sharing (and competing), what the hell are you waiting for?
And remember, the stakes have never been higher!
Our weekly DMS Smokeshow winner will receive a FREE Stars & Stripes DMS T-shirt, PLUS…
Each month, one of the weekly DMS Smokeshow winners (the best of the best) will have $1,000 donated to their local food bank
👑 This Week’s Champ
This week’s Smoke Show Champ is Ross Gibson for the birthday ribs. Happy Birthday! Seeing father and son smoking meats together in full DMS gear… that just makes us tear up 🥹 That’s what it’s all about, ain’t it? Shared via the Dead Meat Society Facebook Group.
🥈 Honorable Mention #1
Honorable mention to Peter Anselmo for the gorgeous surf and turf. Shared via the Dead Meat Society Facebook Group.
🥉 Honorable Mention #2
Honorable mention to Corey Martin for the saucy wings. Shared via the Dead Meat Society Facebook Group.
Have a Smoke Show submission? Stop wasting your time posting on all those other sites and share it with the Facebook group that gives a damn: Dead Meat Society. Or just tag us on Instagram.
That one story that will make you infinitely more interesting than your know-it-all brother-in-law. Seriously, wtf is that guy’s deal?
SMOKIN’ MEATS TURNS 10
Ten years ago this week, Mark Zuckerberg fired up his backyard, went live on Facebook, and smoked meats while giving Sweet Baby Ray’s the greatest free advertising of ALL TIME.
The Internet did what the Internet always does, and several thousand memes were born that day.
Heck, for some of us (maybe even millions of people), those memes alone might be the reason people got into smoking meats.
If you somehow missed the original over the last 10 years, here is the meme in full, and yes, it is his own favorite meme about himself.
This week, the probably too-powerful Zuck posted a fresh video celebrating a decade of smoking meats, which means the richest nerd alive is, in this one specific way, exactly like us.
BUT DON’T GET DISTRACTED BY THE JOKES…
The truth is, Zuck is an actual BBQ nerd. Matter of fact, he probably belongs in the Dead Meat Society (Zuck, you reading this right now?).
We did some deep-diving research (you deserve nothing less) and went all the way back to 2016, when Eater got his real grilling tips.
Thing is… they still hold up. Here’s the Meta-millionaire’s top smoking tips for the Dead Meat Society:
Pick good proteins. Zuck skips fish and goes pork and beef, ribs and brisket, and swears it tastes doubly better when you had a hand in it from the start (aka hunting makes smoking meats even better). It’s a good point, although some of us enjoy smoking fish…
Buy the right smoker. Listen carefully: one of the richest men on earth uses a Big Green Egg for low-effort cooks plus a bigger smoker he named “The General” for big loads and heavy smoke. (Game recognize game: The man named his smoker. Respect.)
Do not overthink the furniture. For a guy worth tens of billions, Zuck runs the whole smoking operation from a twenty-dollar folding chair. Spend money on the smoker, not the chairs…
VERY FEW THINGS ARE THIS SPECIAL.
Most of us couldn’t be living different lives than the top 1% tech bros, but the truth is, there’s always something that keeps us connected as humans…
We all crave great meat. Matter of fact, it’s probably what makes us human.
While the world tries to divide us by net worth, neighborhood, politics, and a million other excuses to tear people apart, the fact is that we all share one thing in common.
When the smoker fires up and someone starts spreading Sweet Baby Rays on some ribs…
We all want to be invited.
One of the richest people on the planet chooses to spend his weekends sweating over a smoker and chanting sauce brands.
Us too. Although…
C’mon, Zuck, you’re better than the Sweet Baby Ray’s. Let’s ALL be better than the Sweet Baby Ray’s.
Go smoke some meats this weekend. And sauce them up with something unique.
Like the memes you send back and forth in your group chat, except these won’t get you canceled. Oh, and lots more grill marks.
🥩 SMOKE WAR: An Ontario man caught a court-ordered barbecue ban after a judge called his grill a weapon of nuisance.
🥩 JERKY JUDGED: Fourteen beef jerky brands went head to head blind, and a gas-station classic took the crown.
🥩 OLD SCHOOL: A Goldee’s pitmaster’s pop-up cooks over direct heat with grandma-food sides, and it just might revive a dying method.
🥩 COMEBACK Q: A new Houston smokehouse is already a top destination, a redemption story to love.
🥩 TACO FIRE: The No. 1 tacos in America, 15 hours and 1,000-degree fires 👇
Did we miss something? Share it in the Dead Meat Society Facebook group or tag us on Instagram for a chance to be featured.
Tips, tech & gear that’ll help you beat your friend’s meat. Wait, that came out wrong…
🥓 CRUST HACK: Grind the dry-aged trim most people toss into your burger for a deeper, beefier crust, per the science.
🥓 CHEAP EGG: A kamado that stands toe to toe with the Kamado Joe for eighty percent less money.
🥓 MIX MASTER: Pit Boss now lets you blend your own custom wood pellets in a bucket.
🥓 METAL MYTH: Why you should not marinate meat in metal, with one stainless-steel exception.
🥓 FIRE FEST: An entire steer cooked overnight into birria at Texas’s wildest open-fire BBQ meetup 👇
Did we miss something? Share it in the Dead Meat Society Facebook group or tag us on Instagram for a chance to be featured.
Like a Paula Deen cookbook, but with less butter and more BBQ sauce.
Smoked pork butt drowned in Sweet Baby Ray’s. Zuck would approve.
Sage sausage and Honeycrisp. Fall on a fork.
Cobbler straight off the grill, cast-iron style.
Have a recipe you want to share? Share it in the Dead Meat Society Facebook group or tag us on Instagram for a chance to be featured.
A happy ending just for you.
That’s it for this week. If you make any of the recipes above, you’re legally obligated to share pics on the DMS Facebook Group or tag us on Instagram so we can feature them next week (sorry, we don’t make the rules).
And since the only thing that is better than grill marks and ice-cold beer is grill marks and ice-cold beer with a side of dad jokes, we’ll leave this right here…
The Butcher Shop
Dead Meat Society Merch in the wild.
DMS steel in the wild. Thanks for the share, @tailgate_foodie_recipes
Clean freaks, rejoice. Knife nerds, consider this a test of loyalty.
The Dead Board is a 304 stainless steel, double-sided cutting surface built for grillers who want zero bacteria and savage cleanup. Non-porous, 14 by 10 inches, and it will not crack, warp, or stain like that sad wood board you have been babying. Fair warning: it is hard on your good knives, so keep a backup blade handy.
Pristine prep, bulletproof build. Just don’t cry when your knife edge taps out.
As part of our commitment to community, we will donate 10% of net profits to charities that matter.