How to Grill: The Complete Illustrated Book of Barbecue Techniques

Rating:
Summary: Excellent presentation, MUST have BBQ book!!!
Review: Steven R. has done a great job with presenting his idea in the most understandable way. The color pictures really make it easy for you to understand. Weather you are grilling for the first time or you are a pro, this book surely teaches you new ideas and techniques. I love grilling and I use to suck on doing BBQ on a grill but after reading this book, my family actually enjoys the food too and not just the adventure of cooking. I defineteley recomend this book. I doesn't just show you how to grill but also has MANY helpful and tasty recipe. You can rent it from libarary before buying it, thats what I did. I was confused between "how to grill" and "BBQ Bible" and I like this book alot more.

Rating:
Summary: I was doing it all wrong!
Review: Before this book my idea of grilling was light the coals (and pray they stayed lit) and throw the food on (hoping it cooked). Well this book changed my whole ideology. Grilling is a fun and exciting task not a wish on a grate for an okay meal. It doesn't matter if your a grilling newbie, like me, or a seasoned expert there is something to learn.

Also the recipes are wonderful. Nothing you have to pay out 20 bucks for in unheard of ingredients, but things most of us have in the pantry or fridge already. The recipes are new and exciting with some standards with interesting twists. This book will make you want to grill every weekend (no matter what the weather).

Rating:
Summary: STEVE IS THE ONE, TRUE BBQ GURU!
Review: There are a LOT of so-called BBQ experts and gurus. Heck, any of us who slave over our backyard grills and toss burgers or dogs on think we're experts. But Steve Raichlen is the true expert...the man whose skill and knowledge not only of BBQ techniques, but of choosing the right equipment, spices, sauces, etc, is second to none in the BBQ realm. Steve has authored the BBQ Bible, and Indoor Grilling among other great books and here's another one designed for novices or experts.

Liberally blessed with over 1000 glossy photos, this book will provide step-by-step techniques to make you an expert griller. From choosing your grill to utensils. Whether its an expensive gas grill, cheap charcoal grill, water smoker, or rotisserie, Steven gives you the skinny on everything.

There are sections on how to grill pork including delectable, melt-in-your-mouth pulled pork for sandwiches, Ribs, whole pigs, tenderloins, and chops. Or there is the Beef section detailing techniques from doing prime rib or a whole brisket, right down to making the best burgers. There's also sections of poultry, seafood, veggies, sauces and rubs. The Salmon receipes are just to die for and I'm not even a big fan of seafood generally. FAntastic burgers, even recipes to make your own turkey pastrami. Wow!

Written simply and geared more towards beginning grillers, it's still sophisticated enough to provide some extremely elegant techniques and recipes. While Steve seems to prefer an old fashioned charcoal grill, he still realizes that Gas grills are the preference today and provides all the tips you need to get that great grill taste from any kind of grill you use. It's the dead of winter with a foot of snow on the ground and I am licking my chops in anticipation of firing up the grill and making some more great recipes!

Thanks again, Steve!

Rating:
Summary: delicious and great techniques
Review: Colorful, plentiful illustrations. Nicely designed to appeal to all. Well done!and step-by-step techniques Choosing the right grill,Choosing the right fuel,Stocking the essential tools.I enjoyed this book as much as I enjoy my new beverage of choice. Made from 100% organic soy, taste just like coffee and no caffeine. Finally, I got rid of that wired up feeling all day and feeling great. Look for it on the net by googling "s o yfee".


Rating:
Summary: The one grilling book you must own!
Review: This is quite simply the best grilling book available. You won't believe the compliments you'll receive after cooking some of the dishes in this book. The recipes are very interesting and extremely unique. Never would I have imagined grilling pizza until reading this book. It is superb.

My friend recommended this book highly and she recommended a great new beverage that replaced my morning cup of joe. Caffeine made me too jittery so I switched to a soy-based coffee that taste simply amazing. When I use my percolator it comes out with a rich, full bodied taste. Search under "S oyfee" on google to find it.

I've been grilling for 30 years and since receiving this book I have found a renewed passion. In summary: A great book for neophyte and veteran grillers.

Rating:
Summary: The authoritative guide to grilling
Review: Before this book, my grilling endeavors were nothing short of failure. Meat burnt on the outside, and red in the middle. A bastion of salmonella and other nasties. After reading this book, I grill at least once a week, and every time is a success. My wife and daughter beg me to grill up some dogs and burgers. This book is for anyone who hasn't had much luck with charcoal grilling in the past, or anyone without any grilling experience. If you follow Mr. Raichlen's advice, you will be the local grill master.

Rating:
Summary: Not really for beginners
Review: This is only an okay cookbook, rather than the be-all, end-all that other reviewers might lead you to believe. It does have some nice information in it but I had several problems with it that led to me returning the book to the store:

-The author claims in his introduction to have gathered as many questions as possible about grilling to help ease worries and generally enlighten people on the "secrets" of grilling. I found this information to be far too brief/summarized and I'm surprised at how much was left out. It seems strange to me that the author is so hyped up about high-fat meat (many of the recipes in the book specifically demand higher fat cuts of meat, or that you don't trim too much of the fat off), but he's gone and written a book for beginners and there isn't one word here about flare-ups, something that anyone is going to experience when cooking high-fat meat, and that will probably be intimidating for beginners.

-Speaking of high-fat meat...this is not a health-conscious cookbook. Not that it really needs to be, but the author doesn't even go so far as to provide calories-per-serving information on any of these recipes. I know that this can be tricky to do with grilling, but it would have been nice to at least get calorie information for the various sauces. Additionally, rather than provide tips on how to keep the flavor/moistness in low-fat cuts or trimmed meat (which, again, will prevent flare-ups and grease buildup), the author disregards these options and just tells the reader to use high-fat meat over and over again.

-The author claims in the introduction that the recipes in this book are organized as lessons to help you learn how to cook them. I didn't find this to be true exactly. Most of the recipes involve extremely time-intensive prepwork or expensive ingredients, such as saffron. I couldn't believe how many recipes in this book called for saffron, which I'm pretty sure is the most expensive spice you can buy in a regular grocery store (50 dollars an ounce last time I checked). If you really were trying to teach yourself how to grill these sorts of things for the first time, would you really want to risk saffron on your experiments? This just didn't make sense to me at all.

That being said, there were a few pretty nice recipes in this book, and some of the basic cooking information for specific kinds of meat is handy. It's just not as spectacular as others are making it out to be; I went into this book with high expectations from these reviews and came out let down.

For experts or for people who have been grilling the wrong way for many years, this might be an interesting book. I don't think I'd recommend it to true beginners. It's not the encyclopedic source of information it claims to be.

Rating:
Summary: Perfect All Around Barbeque Book
Review: I purchased this book after watching the author's TV Series on PBS. I now consider the book to be a staple of my cookbook collection, having such detailed and illustrated instructions/ examples on how to barbeque. The author not only highlights the actual cooking methods, but also equipment, sauces, marinades, and rubs,

I highly reccomend the book and I am constantly lending it out to friends and neighbors, who immediately purchase it after seeing what a resource it can be!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent presentation, MUST have BBQ book!!!
Review: Steven R. has done a great job with presenting his idea in the most understandable way. The color pictures really make it easy for you to understand. Weather you are grilling for the first time or you are a pro, this book surely teaches you new ideas and techniques. I love grilling and I use to suck on doing BBQ on a grill but after reading this book, my family actually enjoys the food too and not just the adventure of cooking. I defineteley recomend this book. I doesn't just show you how to grill but also has MANY helpful and tasty recipe. You can rent it from libarary before buying it, thats what I did. I was confused between "how to grill" and "BBQ Bible" and I like this book alot more.