Rating: 
Summary: a reader from maine
Review: I will get alot of use from this book during the summer! Lots of great information and easy recipes. The buffalo wing sauce was terrific and got rave reviews from everyone at dinner.
Rating: 
Summary: Good for grillers looking to step up
Review: If you are have a metal charcoal or gas grill, and are looking to expand your horizons beyond basic grilling, this is a good book. If you own an offset firebox or ceramic kamado type smoker, but are still buying your rub and sauces, 'Smoke & Spice' is a better investment. If you already own 'Smoke & Spice' you have better versions of all of the traditional recipes already. The author includes Liquid Smoke in many of his sauce recipes, something that would make most experienced pitmasters cringe. Why put artificial tasting smoke flavor in a sauce when the food is being smoked already? There are indeed some interesting recipes from other cultures, and there is a useful though somewhat out of date listing for shopping sources for some of the more exotic ingredients. The chart of the effects of various common ingredients is very good, and would be very useful to any newcomer I should think. It is also a nice reference to have even for experienced pitmasters when thinking over new recipes. In general however, I found that the recipes make use of too many ingredients, and yet when prepared tasted no better than traditional recipes I've been using for years and that are considerably less complicated. The reason is simple. Good barbecue gets it's flavor from being slow cooked at low temperatures with just the right amount of smoke, not because the cook used a dozen ingredients in the rub and another two dozen in the sauce. Everything from the cover layout to the number of ingredients called for and the sheer number of recipes makes me feel the author went for quantity rather than balance or quality.
Rating: 
Summary: Your Search Stops Here....
Review: If you have been looking for that cookbook on sauces, rubs, etc... you have finally landed at the right spot. I purchased this book about a year ago and have tried about 25% of the recipes with great success.
The recipes are easy to use and simple to understand. The book offers a good variety/balance of wet/dry finishes for your meat. You will have a general sense of what the sauce/rub will taste like before you even get started. My favorite is a recipe that condenses down ("reduce") 2 liters of root beer into about a cup or two of sauce (after you add additional ingredients).
You cannot go wrong with this book.
Rating:
Summary: Barbecue For Yuppies
Review: Mr. Raichlen has become an industry onto himself, complete with retail website. This book will sell a ton of copies no matter what I say, but I have some serious reservations about this cookbook. The author has the gift of gab, which is a very good thing in this case. He has spent considerable time with the best of the barbecue pros, and it shows. Just reading through this one picks up a wealth of information, and you can't help but learn. One problem is the recipes. A dirty trick is to present a fantastic recipe that relies on an obscure or hard to get ingredient, and this book is full of them. Most of these recipes will not become a part of your cooking repetoire. Another problem is that the majority of the recipes cover a wide range of international recipes. Traditional, american barbecue gets a scant 50 pages of the nearly 300 pages of this book. Even here, he favors the upscale and chic. There is a tendency to favor the trendy, like flavor injectors and chutneys. He also goes through topics such as compound butters and flavored oils. Also, if you believe his side comments, all of his recipes go with all types of meats, seafoods and vegetables. In one of the more interesting sections, he has some rare recipes for mustards, ketchup, and hot sauces. I also have one beef with the graphics of this book: many pages have a sidebar that is colored brown. As a result, it is hard to read the text in them. This book seems to have been aimed at people who will probably never get within a country mile of a smoker. It covers a lot of ancillary subjects, and the topics covered range all over the place. This makes for very good reading, but little hard information. This book is closer to a personal diary than a cookbook. I can recommend this book because it is so interesting. However, if you are serious about barbecue, you will need a few other books beside this one in your collection. It certainly is not a "bible".
Rating:
Summary: Essential to advance from Neanderthal cooking
Review: Once you get this book, you will look back on your grilling and barbecuing with sheepish embarrassment if all you do is slather store-bought sauce on a piece of meat and fiddle with it over a flame. This book will show you how to add the missing ingredient in the latter method -- love. Steven Raichlin takes barbecuing seriously, to the point where he actually goes to barbecue competitions to interview top teams and seeks different styles of barbecue in his world travels. He dispenses with all his knowledge in the following chapters: 1. Introduction: Building Better Barbecue -- The Flavor Factor 2. A Refresher Course: Everything You Need to Know About Barbecuing and Grilling 3. Seasonings and Rubs 4. Marinades, Wet Rubs, and Spice Pastes 5. Bastes, Mops, Glazes, Oils, Finishing Sauces, and Butters 6. American Barbecue Sauces 7. World Barbecue Sauces 8. Slather Sauces 9. Salsas, Relishes, Sambals, and Chutneys Don't worry if you live in a rural area where fresh spices and ingredients may be lacking. Raichlin also provides internet and mail order contacts for the essentials. This book will transform the House of Bland into a culinary temple. Be sure to have plenty of napkins with you so you don't drool over all the pages.
Rating:
Summary: Throw away those old bottles of BBQ sauces in your kitchen!
Review: Steven Raichlen followup book to the BBQ Bible is a great recipe and reference guide for all lovers of grilling or BBQing. The new book follows the same great format as the "Bible" with cooking tips, interesting background info on the recipes, and most of all practical, easy to prepare recipes with tons of flavors from the United States and around the world. Favorites already are the "lean and mean texas bbq sauce", the different but flavorful "lemonade chili rub" and the "chimichurri" sauce from south america. I will be trying the more exotic recipes from around the world such as "puerto rican pig powder" soon. If you already have the first book, buying this one is a given. if you are a bbq lover or grill master, you will have a hard time getting to the grill before reading this one cover to cover. And after making your first homemade sauce, those old bottles of sauce will be out of the kitchen!
Rating:
Summary: Throw away those old bottles of BBQ sauces in your kitchen!
Review: Steven Raichlen followup book to the BBQ Bible is a great recipe and reference guide for all lovers of grilling or BBQing. The new book follows the same great format as the "Bible" with cooking tips, interesting background info on the recipes, and most of all practical, easy to prepare recipes with tons of flavors from the United States and around the world. Favorites already are the "lean and mean texas bbq sauce", the different but flavorful "lemonade chili rub" and the "chimichurri" sauce from south america. I will be trying the more exotic recipes from around the world such as "puerto rican pig powder" soon. If you already have the first book, buying this one is a given. if you are a bbq lover or grill master, you will have a hard time getting to the grill before reading this one cover to cover. And after making your first homemade sauce, those old bottles of sauce will be out of the kitchen!
Rating:
Summary: Delicous
Review: This book contains wonderful sauces, and dips. I made a delicous shrimp dip and some "coca-cola chicken"
Rating:
Summary: another winner entry from Raichlen and Workman Press
Review: This book is a barbecue cooks' dream. If you just know bbq sauce from the grocery or Grandpa's recipe, here is your chance to put that right. Dozens of wonderful sounding recipes. The perfect companion to the former 'Barbecue Bible'. Recipes from every corner of the world. Your grill will never be the same.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent read, excellent food.
Review: This book is for everyone interested in great barbecue. The recipes included will work fantastic as they are, or can be the start of developing your own. I have tried several recipes, all have been a big hit. I can also recommend Steven Raichlen's book "How to Grill".
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