The Kindle format isn't the easiest to read. It seems to have an odd format at the moment... or maybe it was just the ARC. But... some of these marinades are AWESOME!! We are avid meal planners. A few of these recipes have made it onto our rotation!

The book had me at Barbecue...and it was more delicious and drool worthy than I could of imagined. Lets just push my excitement for the opportunity to cook such delicious food aside for a moment and hear my thoughts...or is that read my thoughts on the book.

The introduction to the book invites the reader to express their own culinary creativity to the fullest but not to feel intimidated at the complexity of cooking Barbecue with tasty flavour. This book is designed to give the reader more confidence and creativity as a grill master and the definitions in the early pages of rubs, seasoning, marinades and brine's helps you embark on the journey.

Throughout the book the author has been very thorough in definitions, explanations and advice on how to best use the book. You are never left wondering what tools you need, or how hard a recipe is to do and the Try This sections on some of the pages gives you some extra ideas and hints on how to enhance your flavour or grilling experience.

The book is not simply a recipe book, it is an experience. The author gives some interesting facts about meats or the history of recipe, the information is kept to a good level and in no way takes away from the recipe. In fact, one of my most favourite sections of the book is the information section on how to use spices because this is an area I really need more knowledge on.

The pictures in the book are so yummy looking, they made me want the beautiful tender meat with sticky sauce right there and then. I think there is a good balance of text to picture and the photography is spot on.

I highly recommend this book and know I will be cooking items from it in the near future.

Steven Raichlen, the undisputed grilling guru, has released a cookbook that contains every possible seasoning, including rubs, marinades, sauces, dips, butters, etc. for grilling and smoking. So many people have favorite meats, poultry, fish and seafood, and vegetables that they love to grill or smoke, but the same-old, same-old seasonings tend to make for boring meals. This excellent cookbook will change it all. There are several barbecue sauces – with both American and International flavors to use on everything people may want to grill. The varieties of rubs and marinades make it so you can grill every day of the year without duplicating the same flavors. The problem is that the recipes turn out so good, you’ll definitely want to do repeats often.

While most of the recipes are for the sauces, rubs, and marinades, there are also several great recipes for using them on foods. A favorite is spice-grilled Pineapple which utilizes what Raichlen calls a Dessert Rub; Yum! Another good one is Puerto Rican Pig Powder, which is essentially homemade Sazon – homemade is always better, of course. There are rubs, marinades, and sauces from all over the world; most are quite easy, so the recipes are suitable for beginning cooks. Love jerky? Raichlen’s recipe is excellent (I used beef instead of venison, since our family doesn’t hunt). The Smoky Marinated Pork Tenderloin is amazing, and cooks on the grill in less than 20 minutes. While there are no pictures of the sauces, rubs, and marinades, there are beautiful pictures of the most of the dishes which utilize them.

This book has a recipe for Lemon Pepper; it’s much better than the store-bought kind since it’s made with freshly ground peppercorns. There is also a recipe for homemade ketchup that is quite easy and absolutely fabulous. Monkey Gland Sauce, a specialty of South Africa, is even included in the book; most Americans haven’t heard of the sauce, but it is delicious on hamburgers and grilled meats (there is no actual monkey in the list of ingredients). Raichlen’s version is slightly different than the one I have served in the past, but is equally good.

Barbecue Sauces, Rubs, and Marinades--Bastes, Butters & Glazes, Too is a veritable bible for those who want new and innovative sauces as well as classic favorites. It is highly recommended for anyone who wants to serve a variety of flavors and exciting dishes.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.

Because I absolutely loved reading Project Smoke last summer, I jumped at the chance to read another advance reader copy by Steven Raichlen, even though this is a reissue of an older book. I was really curious about whether this book would be good enough to replace my current go-to marinade book, Marinades by Jim Tarantino. The two things I love about the Tarantino book are its sheer variety of marinades and the simplicity of the marinades offered. It also helps that there is a fantastic chart in the book that summarizes the marinades, their uses, and their timings.

Raichlen’s Barbecue Sauces book begins with an introduction about building better barbecue. The goal of the book, according to the introduction, is “to help you become a more confident creative grill master yourself.” The introduction also provides basic definitions of each of the “flavor enhancing components” of barbecue to prevent later confusion. It also explains that the more than 200 recipes in the book come from a wide range of sources and cater to a wide variety of capabilities. There is an excellent list of tools required for making great barbecue, ranging from the blender to the spice mill. He also talks extensively about food safety, including basic rules to reduce the risk of cross contamination.

The seven main recipe chapters include seasonings, rubs, marinades, wet rubs, spice pastes, cures, brines, bastes, mops, glazes, oils, finishing sauces, butters, American barbecue sauces, world barbecue sauces, slather sauces, salsas, relishes, sambals, and chutneys. Each recipe chapter begins with a brief introduction that describes the primary appeal and purpose of the set of recipes to follow. Each recipe has a clear title, followed by the yield. The recipe headnote describes where the recipe came from, how to use the recipe and/or provides additional tips on how to prepare the recipe. The ingredients are provided in a colored callout box after the headnote. The vast majority of the ingredients are things that are available in the local supermarket. For items that may not be available in the average local supermarket, he generally recommends more readily available substitutions. The recipe steps for the simplest recipes are written in easy to follow paragraph form; the recipe steps for more complex recipes are written in numbered paragraph form. The last sentence of the recipe steps is usually how to store the recipe for how long. Along the side of the recipe is usually a “Try This!” paragraph that explains how to use the recipe, including marinating, curing, and brining times for different sizes and types of meats. Sometimes there is also a “You’ll Also Need” paragraph that describes the additional equipment required. Interspersed between the recipes are call out boxes that provide more detail about specific ingredients (e.g. “Seduced by Salt” and “Lemongrass”) or provide more education on barbecue related topics (e.g. “How to Customize a Barbecue Rub” and “How to Maximize Your Rub’s Performance”). There are also complete food recipes occasionally sprinkled throughout the text. For example, the Dalmatian Ribs recipe follows the recipe for Dalmatian Rub and the BBQ Titans’ Brisket recipe follows the recipe for Fette Sau’s Coffee Rub. These recipes are formatted very similarly to the other recipes; because these are more complex recipes, the recipe steps are numbered rather than written in paragraph format.

In the middle of the Seasonings and Rubs chapter is a three-page section on “Spices and How to Use Them.” This section contains advice for storing, purchasing, toasting and grinding spices. There is also an alphabetical listing of the main spices used in barbecue, starting with allspice and ending with worchestershire powder. Each spice entry describes the physical appearance of the spice, the flavor of the spice, and the use of the spice. Near the beginning of the chapter on Marinades, Wet Rubs, Spice Pastes, Cures, and Brines, there is a call out box that provides rough guidelines to marinating times for different sizes and types of meat. In the middle of this chapter is a two-page “Homage to Fresh Herbs,” which is an alphabetical listing of the main herbs used in barbecue, starting with basil and ending with thyme. The entries for the herbs are very similar to the entries for the spices in the preceding chapter. Near the end of the chapter, there is a very educational page about brining, including the science behind why it works, the basic formula for a brine, and the basic instructions for use of a brine. In the chapter on American Barbecue Sauces, there is a primer on “How to Build a Great Barbecue Sauce” that reviews the essential seven building blocks of great barbecue sauce so that you can mix and match ingredients to build your own sauce. In the chapter on World Barbecue Sauces, there is “A Griller’s Guide to Chiles” that discusses the different types of both fresh chiles and dried/canned/preserved chiles.

Full color food photography is used rather sparingly in this book. There is always a full color food photograph on the page facing the chapter introductions, but it is difficult to tell which recipe the photograph is depicting. Sometimes the complete food recipes that are sprinkled throughout the book are accompanied by a full color food photograph depicting the recipe. Otherwise, there is very little additional artwork to spice up this book. Which is fine because that lets the recipes take center stage.

In the end, the book achieved its goal in promoting confidence and creativity among grill masters. The variety of recipes was astounding: from Brooklyn to the American South, from Malaysia to Persia, from Greece to Japan, from rubs to homemade ketchups, from marinades to homemade mayonnaises. There is even a recipe for homemade kimchi in this book! And he gives a very simple option for making vegetarian kimchi – replace the fish sauce with miso. The educational call out boxes sprinkled throughout the book were enlightening and gave better insight into particular ingredients.

While I found over a dozen recipes that I would be interested in testing from this book, I’m not quite certain that it would replace my copy of Tarantino’s book about marinades. Primarily because, true to its name and stated purpose, this is a book about barbecue; all the recipes are designed to be used with the grill or the smoker. Living in New England, I feel like I have a very small window for outdoor cooking so I would have to get creative to adapt a large number of these recipes for indoor cooking. I would, however, highly recommend this book to my friends in Texas and elsewhere in the sunnier climates who are looking for new material to spice up their backyard grilling routines. I would even highly recommend it to the two Texas friends to whom I gave the Tarantino book last year! And of course, if Steven Raichlen comes out with another book – original or reissue – you can bet I’ll jump again at the chance to read it and work through parts of it.

I have yet to attempt any of the recipes from this book. When I do, I will update my review with the results.

What a fabulous book - I can't wait for this to be published so I can buy a copy for reference. It has everything you want for a barbecue - for the tame barbecuer, to the more adventurous chef. Meticulously laid out (except it doesn't have a recipe per page for some, and no valid reason not to, except when recipes run more than a page) and easy to follow. I can't wait to start flipping through and planning for the summer.

It would help if the photos were annotated, so the reader could work out which were which.