Fine for Raichlen newbies, but don't rush to upgrade if you have it already

books:


	• The Barbecue! Bible Steven Raichlen Workman Publishing Company, 2008 - 556 pages average customer review:based on 87 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Fine for Raichlen newbies, but don't rush to upgrade if you have it already

I want to get one thing out of the way right now: there is something odd about the Barbecue Bible franchise that has never quite sat right with me, and I've never been able to put my finger on exactly what it is. After seeing Raichlen's rise over the last ten years to become one of the US culinary scene's grilling gurus, I guess I was just flat out wrong. The Barbecue Bible is actually a pretty awesome book -- a whirlwind guide to live fire styles from around the world, all adapted as much as possible for the American kitchen. Like many successful franchises from the Edison light bulb to the iPod, Raichlen provides an end-to-end solution for barbecuing -- not just meat and seafood, but vegetables and breads that can be cooked on the grill, a huge selection of sauces and marinades, and even beverages and desserts. Though its layout is rather loud, the recipes combine with Raichlen's stories and technique articles to make a worthwhile purchase for anyone who spends a fair amount of time next to a grill.

Which brings me to the problems with the new edition. The 2nd edition has added significant amounts of color photography and how-to diagrams, drawing on Raichlen's 2001 How to Grill for stylistic inspiration. If you're a new griller, this will be a welcome improvement. However, if you've been buying Raichlen's books since the beginning, the revision presents a problem: if you already have the first edition, you probably don't need to bother with this one. The column-oriented layout, borrowed from later books in the series, looks cluttered and dense compared to the more discrete recipe-oriented layout in the original, and with How to Grill still very much in print there's far more useful visual information to be found in that than in this edition. So where does that leave us?

Well, I don't really know. I want to recommend it. If you don't have the first edition, you should certainly get this one; it's still an excellent book on the subject, and it does live up to its name. But the recipe revisions Raichlen has made in the new edition aren't really reason enough to upgrade, and if you already have either the first edition or How to Grill you don't need the instructional photos in the new edition anyway. If you grill or want to learn how, you should have one version, but unless you have an overly visual learning style and a limited budget, the second edition won't get you much that you can't get cheaper from a used copy of the first edition.

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Too few photos

The text part is great, but I was very disappointed that there are so few photos in the book. I would not have bought if I had known that.

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Great for the Adventurous Cook!

This book was recommended by Epicurious before it was published, so I was excited to see it when it came out. I popped on amazon to buy it, read some reviews (negative) and decided to pass. Several people complained that the recipes were complicated and required lots of specialty ingredients. When I saw the book at my local warehouse club I gave it a look. I was very impressed and snapped it right up!

I'm the type who reads cookbooks like novels, and I am an experienced cook who likes to dabble in every sort of cuisine imaginable. I'm also a condiment/seasonings/spices nut, so I have an extremely well-stocked pantry. That said, in reading through the book, I didn't come across any recipes for which I didn't have the ingredients. I realize, however, that the average person does not have tamarind paste or sambal olek in their fridge, nor galangal or scores of middle eastern seasonings in the pantry. But, if I can find that stuff at my local markets (the Super Target, for goodness sake!), surely these ingredients are easily obtained. And there are plenty of recipes in this book that do not require "exotic" ingredients, if your tastes or budget doesn't run to that.

The book is very broad in its scope - cocktails, salads, meats, veggies, sides, even desserts - so it is far more useful than simply a book on grilling meats. I also appreciated the explanations of techniques, histories of cuisines, definitions of terms, etc. This type of information not only equips one to execute the recipes in the book well, but experiment and develop dishes on one's own. There is also an extensive section on rubs, marinades and sauces for just such experimenting.

I think this book would be enjoyed by the following types of cooks:

-those enjoy trying new cuisines, new flavors and new techniques
-those who want to expand their bbq/grilling repertoire
-those who are adventurous cooks (and diners!) who either have a well-stocked pantry or would find other uses for some of the more unique ingredients (lots of Thai, Asian and middle-eastern ingredients)
-those who appreciate a cookbook that provides an entire meal's recipes, not just the entree.

If you like your food pretty plain or you're cooking for picky eaters who won't try anything they haven't heard of, this book is soooo not for you. Bob appetit!

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Excellent accurate easy recipies!

My husband picked this book up and we've had so much fun for the past 6 weekends or so trying out new things to put on the barbeque!
Can't wait to try the next one now!
It's worth every cent; I'm impressed with how closely authentic Steven's kept all the recipes!

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

The Barbecue! Bible 10th Anniversary Edition By Steven Raichlen"Now the biggest and the best recipe collection for the grill is getting better: Announcing the full-color edition of The Barbecue! Bible, the 900,000-copy bestseller and winner of the IACP/Ju

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