Smoke and Spice Recipe

Smoke & Spice: Cooking with Smoke, the Real Way to Barbecue [Paperback]

Barbecue is not about grilling food fast over high heat. That's something else, delicious in its own right, but something else entirely. Barbecue is about marginal cuts of meat (for the most part), about smoke, about fires burning so low and slow you hardly ever see the flicker of a flame. Barbecue is about succulent pork ribs as dark as sin just falling off the bone and dripping with glorious sweet pork godliness. Or enjoying the effects that 12 to 18 hours of smoking has on beef brisket.
The trick is, how do you do it? How do you master a cooking technique all but ignored in favor of fast and hot? The answer lies in Smoke & Spice.  Read More Overview...

Customer Reviews

 Great book! Some other reviewers are confused


After reading the book almost cover to cover, and then reading most of the reviews, I felt compelled to correct some misunderstandings. First. many of the complaints are from people wanting more instruction on "how to smoke". This is nonsense. There is no need for detailed instruction on how to smoke. What makes smoking a art and skill is being able to produce the right temperature in the smoker and this comes only from practice. Instructions on how much charcoal, wood, water, air, etc to use for each type of smoker, at every external temperature, etc. would look like statistics tables and be equally exciting. For this reason, the authors advise a temperature goal of about 200-220. With a five dollar thermometer and a little practice, anyone can figure it out.
Second, the smoking is a forgiving and inexact process, no matter what your experience level. Cooks used to following exact recipes so their soufle won't fall will always be frustrated by smoking. Smoking requires some monitoring and adaptation. I may have used X amount of charcoal one day, but on a colder day need more.
If you are willing to experiment, and have 5-10 hours then you are ready to smoke, and for everything else, this book is fantastic. If you are from the microwave culture, then you will probably be frustrated with the whole process and no book will save you. To reemphasize the most important point, if you have the aforementioned patience to try smoking, then this book is outstanding.

› See all 118 customer reviews...