Book Recommendation: "How to Grill: The Complete Illustrated Book of Barbecue Techniques" by Steven Raichlen

August 27, 2007

Amazon.com: How to Grill: The Complete Illustrated Book of Barbecue Techniques: Books: Steven Raichlen

I realized when I was writing this post about a pork butt I smoked (sometimes called a Boston butt), that I sure do recommend Steven Raichlen’s “How to Grill Book” pretty often. I usually rattle off to the person some of the recipes I made, but if I create this little review of it, then I can just point people to it.

Not only do I recommend this book, but I’ve purchased this book for others as gifts, I’ve recommended it to at least a dozen people before I made this page. Heck, I’ve almost worn out my copy of it, and I may be buying another copy soon.

Steven Raichlen’s books are what really taught me how to grill. Before I discovered “How to Grill”, I knew how to cook hamburgers, steaks, potatoes, and other basic stuff, or at least I thought I did.

Although the title, “How to Grill”, sounds pretty basic, it is anything but. I bet that you will learn an incredible amount from it.

Steven covers the basics, like how to use Zone fires to cook on, how to determine the temperature of your fire without a thermometer (the Mississippi test), but he gets into various cooking techniques for popular meats and vegetables.

Steven explains how to cook using the direct or indirect method on both charcoal and gas grills, as well as giving a rundown on how to use other types of grills and smokers. Each recipe is accompanied with direction for both gas and charcoal, as well as variations to the recipe, and many recipes include alternate instructions for a smoker.

The book covers the Holy Trinity of American barbecue, Pulled Pork, Brisket, and Ribs. There are also sauce and rub recipes to go along with the meats, and more vegetable recipes than you can shake a stick at.

Really, I love this book, and looking through it for this review, I thought of about a dozen favorites that I have. Just to name a few, the Pulled Pork and Brisket are always crowd pleasers, there is a Bourbon brined pork chop recipe that is to die for, and the mustard barbecue sauce, which goes well with the pulled pork, is still one of the very best sauces that I have ever had.