Customer Reviews

The Barbecue! Bible 10th Anniversary Edition: Over 500 Recipes!

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If you like a cookbook that requires you to have multiple ingredients per recipe, this book is for you. I like cookbooks that have useable recipes from things I probably have already in my home. This cookbook is too complicated. Just to make their "Basic Barbecue Sauce", you need to have 19 ingredients. I would rather pay 99 cents and buy it at the store. I was truly disappointed with this book. I bought it for my husband and it has sat in the cupboard.

Okay, it's not like there's any giant downside to owning this book, other than perhaps the money spent, but my question is - does anyone really need like 800 gazillion pages to learn how to cook a hunk of meat over a fire? I know this book's getting good reviews on here, but I'd be willing to bet that most of the reviewers haven't tried more than three of the hundreds of elaborate, time-consuming recipes in here. Everytime I crack open this book, it's like, "Hmmm....that looks pretty good, too bad it has 25 different ingredients, sounds complicated...that one's too much trouble, too...that's interesting, too bad I don't have a giant steel drum to turn into the smoker I'd need for this one...Gee, I've never heard of these spices, and I'll never get around to mail-ordering them...if I ever come across an entire, dressed goat in the supermarket, I'll have to come back to this one...", etc.

Having lived in Argentina for two years (serious barbecue country), and having put on tons of my own barbies since and attended loads of others, I guess I have a different perspective on the whole experience. In my mind, you don't really get points for how many hours you put in preparing your marinades, or how many different types of crushed spices you sprinkle on to your ribeye, or from how far away your recipe comes from, or how many recipes you've memorized or whatever. These are all ancillary considerations. Let's be honest: what matters most about doing a barbecue/grill is basically the admiration and glory a man receives by giving his guests a killer meal cooked over the more challenging heat source of open flame. The thrill of, and skill required for, cooking over that open fire is part of attaining this glory, but it's still about the performance's end result. It's like a rooster doing his mating dance, or a canary singing his song (I can think of a few other analogies, but I think they'd probably get edited). Anyway, barbecue is a performance by a male in which he shows off his superior talent. This is why no guy ever barbecues only for himself, and why no guy ever wants help from his wife while he's doing his barbecue (less glory). And this is why when you do a barbecue, you have to make sure the end result is better than any of the guys you invited could likely have done, and make sure all the girls are really impressed by your prowess with nature's primal elements. If you wind up giving your guests something average, or dud-like - well, that's some serious face-losing. You can laugh it off, but you'll still look weak. It's like stealing the ball, running down the court all by yourself, doing your lay up and missing.

Anyway, if I am right about this, you don't want to get this geek-festival book with 8000 recipes in it. You need a good understanding of basic barbecue/grilling techniques, and maybe at the most three super killer recipes (and believe me, there are a lot of fantastic barbecuers out there that just have one). It's like pitching - if you have two incredible pitches, you're a god, you're Greg Maddux or Nolan Ryan or Mariano Rivera. If you have 12 okay ones, you're driving a milk truck somewhere. Unfortunately, trying to find three totally killer grill recipes in this book is like trying to find three pro-life delegates at the Democratic Party's National Convention - who knows if there even are any, and even if they are, who has the time to try to figure it which ones they are? (And even if you did find them, do you have the time necessary to prepare an elaborate recipe, when a faster one may be just as good or better?) I think Mr. Raichlen's book would be far more valuable if it was pared down to maybe 70-80 discriminating pages of top quality advice, recipes, etc., rather than a dumptruck load of every last aspect of barbecue lore collected after a tour of the entire planet (which is literally what this is). Quality control, rather than just overwhelming quantity, would have been far more helpful.

My experience with barbecues is that often the finest are the simplest: Start with the best meat you can get (you can find out about the various cuts and their characteristics in any book about meat - for beef, I prefer rib steaks for all the marbling; the Certified Angus Beef brand you can get at Albertson's is usually good), salt them, don't burn them, and the bottom line is you're 80% of the way there. When you come up with a few of your own little twists, and a great sauce (the Argentine chimichurri is my fave - olive oil, oregano, garlic, some vinegar and a bit of parsley), you'll almost certainly have something as good or better than most of the over-compensating extravaganzas in this book.

I wish I knew of a more practical book on grilling/barbecue, but the truth is I don't really know of one that would set the would-be barbecue superstar on his way (not that it's that hard to get going). But, if someone is really serious, any text that takes time to explain the building blocks of how various foods work together, and what effects various cooking techniques have (in other words, culinary theory), will only help you nail down your one, two, or three superb open flame recipes (the magazine "Cook's Illustrated" is a pretty good start for this kind of thing).

Get this book if you want, but don't think you need it (or that you'll end up actually using its recipes). You'll do far better experimenting on your own, chatting with your butcher or barbecuing buddies, and getting an understanding of why great dishes work so you can then come up with your own.

I hope this has been a help to someone.

Good luck.

I love this cookbook -- it's one of my favourites and most-used. I didn't have any "formal" barbecuing experience, so my skills were limited to grilling hamburgers and hotdogs. Even steaks were beyond my skill level, as I always over-cooked them, and never knew how to get the outside crispy while keeping the inside rare. Thanks to this book I can cook a perfect steak, make great ribs (thanks to "indirect heat"), and even cook whole chickens. It's also encouraged me to expand my grilling horizons, so now items like plantains and cuttlefish are grill regulars. I like to choose new recipes to try, so the variety is appealing. I have no problem stocking up on new items to try a recipe -- it's not going to kill me to go out and pick up a can of coconut milk, for example.

To answer one criticism that others have made, I grew up in Canada, and I had no idea that there was a style of cooking called "barbecue" (i.e. long slow cooking with smoke). To me, "barbecue" means you cook stuff on a grill, whether it be a gas grill or a charcoal grill. So, I had no confusion over the title - it said "barbecue" and it did exactly that -- it taught me to cook on a "barbecue".

The BBQ Bible is unique in that it takes the reader around the world with its grilling recipes. It is not your standard North American set of "good ol boy" grilling and sauce recipes. Rather it offers recipes, marinades, sauces and spices from Afghanistan to South Africa, the Middle East, India, Europe and Australia as well as New York, Texas and New Orleans. The writer also explains the many fuel sources and grilling methods available.

In my view this book offers the most comprehensive information about outdoor grilling available and is definately the best book on the subject I have come across.

This is a great though misnammed cookbook. Its a matter of semantics as to what you consider "Barbeque". The author certianly explodes the concept and pushes the envelope. "Worldwide Grilling Receipies and Accompanyments" would be a more accurate title.

That detail out of the way this is a great receipie book!. Hundreds of dishes from all over the world. I am rather fond of Asian food (southeast asian in particular) and there is no shortage of grills from that part of the world. Most of the other really juicey looking dishes come from South America or the Carribein.

The dishes vary from simple to complex but none of them too terribally complicated. The list of ingredients can look impressive and intimidating but after you have done it a few times its really not that bad. If you feel intimidated then it means you are ready to learn.

They do call for ingredients such as fish sauce and Tamarid paste that most Americans don't have stocked in their pantry. Unless you live in a big city with gormet or ethnic shops you may have some problems finding these things. But he does give sources for ingredients in the back. Also when he lists the receipies he does it in a form that is adapted to American tastes and ingredients your likely to find. He does mention the "authentic" ingredients as well just in case you feel daring.

The book contains a basic discussion on gas vs charcol, grilling techniques, times and temperatures. He makes it clear that grilling is not an exact science so at times he doesn't get all that specific. From a Barbeque "bible" I would have expected a bit more explicit instruction and coverage of the actual equipment and mechanics of cooking but he covers it well enough for success. I guess thats what his other book (complete with color illustrations of technique) is for.

This book is part travelog as well as receipe book. Personally I like this but some people consider it a waste of space. He goes into his personal experience with discovering some of the dishes as well as commentary about cooking style and flavor in different parts of the world (including the USA).

The book is organized roughly by type of dish. Starters (think drinks and chicken wings), beef, pork, lamb, ground meat, chicken, fish and sauces. Within those catagories he tries to get something from every part of the world. As a result many of the receipies are not directly grilled, they simply relate to grilled food (kind of like cole slaw and BBQ). There worth having regardless.

Conclusion- All and all I think this is a GREAT cookbook. If your a newbie to cooking AND grilling then your probably best starting off with something a little more conventional. But if your a moderatley experienced cook you should be able to hand this with no problem. Somewhat misleading title but if you take it for what it is you will not be disappointed.

PS - If you like this style of book and the international flair of these dishes you might check out "Terrific Pacific" by Anya Von Bremzen. You'll find similar ingredients and flavors as well as commentary.

If you only need one BBQ book, it should be this one! Everything is in it, and every recipe is super great !

Bought this cook book on a recommendation from my brother who claimed that he'd never been disappointed by a single recipe. I have found this to be absolutely true. I've made something from every chapter and it has all been phenomenal. Also worth noting that it is very vegetarian friendly - the Tandoor stuffed peppers is my favourite recipe I've made so far. Some recipes take time for marinating, but it is all worth it in the end!

I thought this book was very helpful from a technical point of view. I learned more about grilling, temperatures, smoking, bbq equipment etc., rather than recipes but I used some of Raichlen's recipes and concocted my own which were excellent. In my experience, if you like (or try) 10% of recipes from a cook book, you haven't wasted your money but he is very generous so take a look at his websites before buying this book.

If a cookbook can squeeze more than one recipe into my repetoire, it gets an automatic 5 stars. This book passes muster.

I think this is probably the only Raichlen work worth studying. Although the How to Grill book I would get instead for those who don't know how to tie their shoes culinarily.

He gets these recipes from people all over the world and many of them are outstanding. He must be very personable to coax them out of all those talents. I don't think he is a particularly great cook but he does know enough about grilling.

I think this will please gourmands who want to be able to extend their abilities to the summer get-together concept, but it will be a bit over the head of your average beergutted grill jockey. Most of my nascent grilling repetoire so far consists of variations on what I found within.

amazing depth. if you want a barbecue guide, this is the one!