Top-Quality Grilling, BBQ, Camping, and Meat Recipes for the Home Cook
established in 2013 · 1,000+ Tested Recipes · Millions of Readers & home Cooks
This week
Tuesday · October 13, 2026
Apple Butter BBQ Wings (Sticky, Crispy, Oven-Baked)
You are about to be the wings person at every tailgate this fall. These apple butter BBQ wings do not survive the first quarter, and nobody guesses the sauce.
45 minovenfeeds 8
Easy Dutch Oven Venison Chili
The first thing to cook with what came out of the freezer.
2 lb groundDutch oven
Creamy Italian Chicken Gnocchi Soup in One Pot
One pot, done before the oven would have preheated.
30 minone pot
Start with the bird and work backward from Thursday
Seven steps in the order you need them, not the order they were published.
How to Plan the Perfect Thanksgiving Menu
Six weeks out the job is not cooking, it is deciding. What, how much, and in what order. The shopping list comes with it.
- 01
Dry brine it
Salt it Sunday. No bucket, no cooler, no clearing a shelf for a bird in a bath.
- 02
Roast it in the oven
The one most people need. Temps, times, and when to tent it.
- 03
Or smoke it spatchcocked
Flat on the grate it cooks in half the time, evenly, with crisp skin all the way across.
- 04
Or cook the breast alone
Four to six people and no leftovers nobody wanted. Slow cooker, hands off.
- 05
Build the stuffing
Make it Tuesday, bake it Thursday. Sage, sausage and Honeycrisp.
- 06
Make giblet gravy
Built from the giblets while the bird rests. The part people remember.
- 07
Pull stock off the carcass
The frame is worth more than the leftovers. Forty minutes in the Instant Pot.
Every cut we have cooked, sorted the way a butcher would. You bought a chuck roast, not a dinner idea. Pick what is in front of you and we will tell you what it wants.From nose to tail
Start with the cut, not the recipe
Steak, roasts, ground and the cheap cuts worth braising. Start with the cut you already have, not the recipe you saw. Shoulder, loin, belly and ribs. Which cuts reward low and slow, and which ones want fast and hot. Whole birds, thighs, wings and the turkey that has to land on the fourth Thursday. Temperatures included, because that is where it goes wrong. Leg, shoulder, rack and ground. Start here if you are fairly sure you do not like lamb. Shrimp, salmon, crab and the fish that stops being intimidating the moment you know when to pull it.Beef Recipes
Pork Recipes
Chicken and Turkey Recipes
Lamb Recipes
Seafood Recipes
What to do with what you brought home
Ground first, because that is what fills the freezer before anything else does.
Venison Meatloaf
Lean meat, fat you add back on purpose.
Herb Crusted Roasted Rack of Venison
The one worth saving for company.
Juicy Ground Venison Burgers
The grind-to-fat ratio that stops it drying.
Buttermilk Marinated Venison Steaks
Buttermilk overnight takes the edge off.
Grilled Elk Steaks
Hotter and faster than beef. Do not walk away.
Bison Meatloaf
Half the fat of beef, none of the dryness.
Every recipe here failed at least once first
- We cook it.
- We write down what went wrong.
- We cook it again until nothing does.
Kita has run Girl Carnivore since 2013. She learned the supply side from the NCBA, Certified Angus Beef and Meat by Linz, and the fire side cooking for crowds at Smokeslam and the Jack. Every recipe here is cooked, written down and cooked again, by her or by a tester she trained. If a recipe says 203°F, somebody stood there and took that reading.
- Since 2013
- testing in our own kitchen
- 1,000+
- recipes tested and published
- Every primal
- chuck to shank, nose to tail
- NCBA certified
- trained where the standards are set
Lamb from Freedom Run Farm. Beef ribs and plate cuts from Porter Road. We name our sources because you should be able to buy what we cooked.
Cooked one of these and it did not work? Tell us and we will retest it.
Three things worth knowing before the recipe. None of them are about a recipe. The chart that answers what done looks like. Stays here year round. Prime, Choice, grass fed, Angus. What is a grade, what is a brand, and what is marketing. Where every steak comes from on the animal, and why that decides how you cook it. Most people do not ruin a steak because they cannot cook. They ruin it because nobody ever showed them the number. Pull it at the low end of the range: it climbs while it rests. Use an instant-read thermometer through the side into the center, tip surrounded by meat, away from bone, gristle and fat. Not beef? These numbers are for whole-muscle beef. They do not transfer. The USDA safe minimums are 165°F for all poultry, 145°F plus a three minute rest for whole-muscle pork, and 160°F for any ground meat.Learn the skills that make meat work
Mastering Steak Temperature
What the Labels on Beef Mean
Steak Cuts 101
What done looks like on a steak
Doneness Internal temp What you will see How it feels Blue 115 to 120°F Bluish red inside, a thin quick sear outside Chewy, depending on the cut Rare 120 to 125°F Bright red center, slight char outside Very soft Medium rareour pick 130 to 135°F Warm red center, more browning at the edges Evenly soft and tender Medium 135 to 145°F Light pink center, thicker ring of brown Soft in the center, firm edges Medium well 145 to 155°F Light brown, a touch of pink in the center Stiff Well done 155°F plus Brown all the way through Firm and chewy
The six we would teach you first
Not a popularity chart. These are the six that teach the most technique per hour you spend on them.
