Barbecue Sauces, Rubs, and Marinades--Bastes, Butters & Glazes, Too

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.

I am amazed by the vast variety of flavor enhancers in this book. Over 200 recipes with tips designed to make you a better grill master. The author says this book is written to clear up the confusion of the different types of BBQ flavor enhancers and accompaniments, and I believe he does a great job. He has traveled around the world to bring you these recipes, many of which come directly from champion pitmasters.

The introduction provides definitions of the components presented in each chapter, along with tools of the trade that will be helpful to have on hand when creating your concoctions. The chapters are are follows:
1. Seasonings and Rubs
2. Marinades, Wet Rubs, Spice Pastes, Cures, Brines
3. Bastes, Mops, Glazes, Oils, Finishing Sauces, Butters
4. American Barbecue Sauces
5. World Barbecue Sauces
6. Slather Sauces
7. Salsas, Relishes, Sambals, Chutneys

Clearly something for everyone, and everything you need to know to spice it up a little more. Each recipe comes with a short description and a full list of ingredients. The "Try This" box provides tips for getting the most out of each recipe. There are also tips sprinkled throughout that provide more information on ingredients or to help you customize recipes to suit your tastes.

I highly recommend this book to all barbecue lovers and aspiring grill masters, regardless of skill level. Use the recipes by themselves or in combination with each other to create mouth watering barbecue right at home. I received this as a free ARC from Workman Publishing Company on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.