Malcom Reed

Malcom Reed grew up in DeSoto County, Mississippi, going to Springfest in Southaven every year as a kid. He went to college, then spent his early career at a commercial architecture firm before BBQ went full-time. In 2001-2002, he and his brother Waylon started competing as Killer Hogs — the patio division first, then the full circuit.

He and his wife Rachelle launched HowToBBQRight.com in 2007 as a recipe site. The YouTube channel followed in May 2010. Two layoffs during the 2009 recession turned the side project into a full-time business; the family built it out from there. The 2016 Memphis in May World Championship win in the vinegar sauce division cemented the competition credential — the sauce still sells under that championship branding.

Today the operation runs out of Hernando, Mississippi. The YouTube channel is at ~1.88M subscribers and is the largest dedicated BBQ instructional channel on the platform. The HowToBBQRight Podcast launched in 2018. Malcom's Shop, the retail storefront for Killer Hogs rubs and sauces, sits at 496 Whitfield Drive in Hernando. Killer Hogs still competes at Memphis in May, the Jack Daniels World Invitational, and the American Royal in Kansas City.

Competition technique, backyard scale. Reed's signature move is taking what wins on the comp circuit — the rubs, the binder, the wrap, the rest — and demonstrating it on a Weber kettle, a pellet grill, or a backyard offset. Most videos run under ten minutes. The pacing is demonstration-first: here's the meat, here's the trim, here's the rub, here's the smoker at 250°F, here's the wrap at the stall, here's the slice.

The big four cuts. Brisket, pork shoulder, ribs, and chicken are where the channel is at its strongest — the most-viewed videos cluster there, and each cut has multiple iterations across different cookers. His brisket video is the canonical entry point for understanding how he works through bark, the stall, and the rest.

Rubs, sauces, and the business behind it. Killer Hogs is the rub and sauce line. The Hot Rub, the AP, the Vinegar Sauce, the BBQ Sauce — they show up across nearly every video on the channel because that's what Reed actually cooks with. The integration is overt, not hidden; the rubs and sauces are sold at H2Q Shop and the retail location.

Where Aaron Franklin is the Texas auteur and Meathead is the science deep-dive, Reed is the demo-driven everyman. The camera is in his backyard. The cooker is something a viewer can actually buy. The narration is matter-of-fact: do this, then do this, then do this. No jargon walls, no regional purism, no technique snobbery.

That accessibility is the whole reason the channel is the biggest in the category. Most BBQ media skews expert-to-expert — Reed skews expert-to-beginner. A first-time smoker user can follow along; a competition cook can pick up a wrap or a mop timing they hadn't tried. The same video works on both ends.

The Killer Hogs product line sits inside the editorial, not next to it. Reed cooks with his own rubs and sells what he uses — closer to a working pitmaster with a storefront than a media personality with a merch deal. The competition results give the product line its credential; the channel sells the channel.

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