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New sauces, rubs, marinades cookbook is a must read
By Doug Mosley
doug_mosley@hotmail.com
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Way back last century (1997 to be exact), Paul Kirk wrote Paul Kirk’s Championship Barbecue Sauces: 175 Make-Your-Own Sauces, Marinades, Dry Rubs, Wet Rubs, Mops and Salsas. That was a book I’ve really enjoyed and used a lot, but I always felt it was a bit underappreciated (current Amazon sales rank: #30,190). Over the past 12 years, there have been others who’ve tackled the same topic, some really well like Steven Raichlen’s Barbecue Bible!: Sauces, Rubs and Marinades and Jim Tarantino’s Marinades, Rubs, Brines, Cures and Glazes and others not so well. However, now one has come along that takes on the subject just a bit differently and does so really well. Soaked, Slathered, and Seasoned: A Complete Guide to Flavoring Food for the Grill by Elizabeth Karmel ($19.95, Wiley, 344 pp.) is now on your required reading list when it comes to sauces, marinades, rubs, etc., category.
Karmel is a multimedia personality. She previously authored Pizza on the Grill (with Bob Blumer) and Taming the Flame, both great books. She’s made frequent appearances as the outdoor cooking expert on the network morning shows (NBC’s Today, ABC’s Good Morning America and CBS’s The Early Show) and has a pair of fun web sites, girlsatthegrill.com and grillfriends.com. But this time she’s really topped herself with this new book. What I really like about it is how it is different from all the rest. Karmel takes a step back from simply writing a book on sauces and took a broader swipe at the subject. I like what she says in her subtitle, “…flavoring food for the grill…”. And then I really like how she knocks it out of the park. Instead of just painting on some sauce or applying a rub, Karmel focuses on adding flavor in a variety of ways and styles.
Graphically speaking, this book is probably a bit crammed together but not to a point that this is a drawback. Rather than the one-page, one-recipe format of others, this one takes a unique approach in just flowing the text top-to-bottom from page-to-page. There are still plenty of full-color pictures and information sidebars are scattered in throughout the pages. Plus, it’s all referenced to a functional index so everything is easy to find.
For the most part, we all watch The Food Network from time to time (I make this assumption because we are talking about food here). Of all the stars that this network has minted, many have had a background to some degree in barbecue. However, it would certainly be hard to top the chops of the stars of “Down Home with the Neelys,” Patrick and Gina Neely. The proprietors’ of noted Tennessee barbecue restaurants bearing their name, the Neelys are no strangers to the barbecue circuit. I still recall the first time I had the pleasure to sit through one of Patrick’s demos at Memphis in May.
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It does seem like it is only a matter of time for books to follow shows on The Food Network and the time has come for the Neelys. Down Home with the Neelys ($27.95, Knopf, 276 pp.) is the first book for the new authors (collaborating with previously published food writer Paul Disbrowe). They do a great job telling their tale and I give them extra props for sticking to what they know best in the recipe collection they present. It’s like the reader gets a peak into the Neelys’ card file and I especially enjoyed the stories that go with each one. I know you will, too.
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Are you ready for this? Everything you know about barbecue is wrong. How do I know this? That’s exactly what it is emblazoned across the top of the book, Low & Slow: Master the Art of Barbecue in 5 Easy Lessons by Gary Wiviott with Colleen Rush ($19.95, Running Press, 256 pp.).
Wiviott, a Chicago native, certainly brings some Windy City brashness to this, his first book. But he’s earned his stripes, particularly in the online world where his own site is lowslowbbq.com. And to his credit, this book is really very good. It is an A-to-Z primer on barbecue that he nicely fits into 250-plus pages with plenty of detail and including 130 recipes.
This is a guy who has no love to propane or lighter fluid. Known as the “Professor of Barbecue” and billed as a “Barbecue Life Coach,” his book may be a bit “in your face”, but you’ll know he’s right in what he says when you read it. Although all of us stand to learn from it ourselves, this book is the perfect gift for that certain someone you know who is convinced their gas grill creations are fine barbecue cuisine. Especially chapter eight. Make sure they read the entirety of chapter eight word for word.
One of my favorite things about this time of year is the farmers markets and all the fresh produce you can find at each one. There’s all kinds of great fruits, vegetables, berries and other awesome stuff to be found at your local farmers market right now. I don’t know about you, but I always seem to buy waaaaay more than I practically carry home. Thus, if I’m going to use up all this fresh produce before it goes bad, I’m going to need some new ideas. And just in time, I’ve found three excellent farmers market-themed books that will provide plenty of tempting recipes.
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The first is Southern Farmers Market Cookbook by Holly Herrick ($19.99, Gibbs Smith, 160 pp.). Along with over 75 recipes, this book includes information on farmers markets in eight southern states — Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. Plus, there’s also seasonal produce charts for those states as well as listings of farmers markets in each. Even for a Louisiana-based guy like me, there’s plenty of useful information in this book (although I was surprised to see my state excluded from the south).
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Since we’ve covered the south, let’s take a swing out to the West Coast for our next book, L.A.’s Original Farmers Market Cookbook by JoAnn Cianciulli ($22.95, Chronicle Books, 258 pp.). Where our first book pulls from farmers markets from across a region, this book singularly features the historic and renowned L.A. farmers market (and if you don’t know how renowned it is, consider that this is the farmers market that is replicated in part at Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World!). This book tells about the inhabitants of the L.A. farmers market - doing a great job in telling their stories – and finishes each with a recipe or two from that vendor. There’s a wide variety to choose from, from barbecue to desserts to pizza; appropriate when you consider the wide variety that this farmers market offer.
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The third book is Eating Well In Season: The Farmers Market Cookbook by Jessie Price and the editors of Eating Well magazine ($24.95, The Countryman Press, 256 pp.). This one has yet another different take, organizing its recipes by the season in which the produce is available. All three books are remarkably well illustrated with loads of full-color pictures but this one seems to take that standard to the next level, more akin to what you might see in the magazine. There is also great content on tips and techniques as well as a guide to herbs and tools.
I would be remiss if I didn’t recognize that you can save this wonderful bounty from the farmers markets for the time of year when this local produce isn’t readily available and I can recommend two books to show you how. The first is Well Preserved: Recipes and Techniques for Putting Up Small Batches of Seasonal Foods by Eugenia Bone ($24.95, Clarkson Potter, 224 pp.). The book opens with an excellent tutorial on canning and then proceeds to offer dozens of suggestions for use of those canned goods. Most recipes and many techniques include full-color pictures and the writing style is such that even the canning novice will be comfortable in following along.
The second book is Pickles to Relish by Beverly Ellen Schoonmaker Alfeld ($24.95, Pelican Publishing, 208 pp.). Comparatively, this book is a more focused on a topic – pickling, relishes, chutneys and sauces – and covers the content is amazing detail. I was impressed with how thorough Alfeld is in sharing with the reader. There’s no doubt you’ll be an expert when you’ve finished this one.
But then, maybe canning and preserving is a challenge you’re not ready to tackle. Can I then suggest The ABC’s of Home Food Dehydration by Barbara Densley ($10.99, Horizon Publishers, 112 pp.). There’s no pictures or graphics in this one, but there is plenty of information to have you dehydrating in no time. As with the others, this book does a great job in making the process one that anyone can handle. You probably have no idea how many options are available to you through dehydrating and this book will have you versed in them all.
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If you’re a road warrior (and most everyone on the circuit has logged their share of highway miles), you’ve likely got a long list of out-of-the-way eateries that you’ve discovered. You probably also know the names Jane and Michael Stern, the authors of the best-selling book, Roadfood. In that book, the pair recapped their journeys all across the United States with a list of 700 of the Best Barbecue Joints, Lobster Shacks, Ice Cream Parlors, Highway Diners, as said by the book’s subtitle. Now they’ve followed up with the newly released 500 Things to Eat Before It’s Too Late ($19.95, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 452 pp.).
If you’re like me, a book like this becomes a sort of to-do list. I make it a point to eschew the chain restaurants and instead seek out the local haunts whenever I travel. So instead of being placed on my bookshelf, this one will probably reside in my glove compartment to serve as that resource when mealtime comes away from home.
For disclosure’s sake, I’ll reveal that I was already a big fan of the Stern’s. I don’t have their web site bookmarked simply because it’s so easy to remember – roadfood.com – but I am a subscriber to their e-mail newsletter. Since I already knew of them, I wasn’t surprised to find how much detail they include with each entry, but I didn’t expect to find as many recipes as I did. It was a nice bonus to an already outstanding book. The back cover includes the blurb, “…don’t leave home without this book…” and you better believe I won’t!
As long as we’re talking about going out to eat, let’s touch on another one of my favorite ways to dine away from home: by going to a food festival!
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The number of food festivals across the U.S.A. is staggering. Not that I have a problem with that – I’d love to be able to take in every one of them. But even though I can’t, I can enjoy some of the best foods from some of the best festivals thanks to the book, The Best Recipes from America’s Food Festivals by James O. Fraioli ($16.95, Alpha, 312 pp.). This book has just under 200 recipes from 40 different festivals, including the National Barbecue Festival in Douglas, Ga. As an added bonus, there’s a list of 100 other food festivals that didn’t make the book and an appendix that covers tips and hints attending and participating.
Many of the most famous festivals are included (i.e., Gilroy Garlic Festival, National Cherry Festival, Great Wisconsin Cheese Festival), as well as many you might not have heard of, such as the International Horseradish Festival in Collinsville, Ill. With this book, you can now have your own food festival at home and enjoy all those great foods.
We’ll close this month with a pair of books on beverages that I really enjoyed. The first comes from the Union Square Hospitality Group, which many of you will recognize as the restaurant ownership that includes New York City barbecue joint Blue Smoke and other hot spots like Union Square Café and Gramercy Tavern. Mix Share Stir: Recipes from Danny Meyer’s Acclaimed New York City Restaurants ($29.95, Little, Brown and Company, 224 pp.) is like taking a look at the bartenders’ books at all those places and keeping the best cocktail recipes all for yourself. There’s 140 recipes and a chapter at the end on bar snacks that is a nice bonus.
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Let me close with a book that is literally a textbook on beverages. The Wine, Beer & Spirits Handbook: A Guide to Styles and Service from The International Culinary Schools at the Art Institute ($45, Wiley, 514 pp.) is an ultimate reference for those who aspire to be experts on the topic. Checking in at over 500 pages, this is a massive volume. If you’re looking to expand your beverage knowledge exponentially, then this is the book for you. It’s also a very complete reference.
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