Pitmaster: Recipes, Techniques, and Barbecue Wisdom [A Cookbook] Hardcover – Illustrated, March 15, 2017

This book is gearing me up to start bbqing!

Delicious recipes and a great range. I’m in love with this book. They have a great string of contributors, too.My thoughts and pics on some of the dishes we tried:1) Caveman T-Bones with Hellfire Hot Sauce – p 42. Perfection. The garlic jalapeno sauce is fantastic, and the simple steak treatment is just right. Total keeper from Steven Raichlen.2) Classic Macaroni and Cheese – p 39. Super simple and very yummy. I did it just as instructed the first time, but next time, I’ll make it a few minutes early and keep it warm in the smoker for an extra layer of deliciousness.3) Burnt Ends – p 95. Delicious. I’ve always made these with brisket, and had no idea you could use chuck roast. That’s awesome because you can watch for two cuts on sales flyers. I still used brisket point. The rub and sauce are yummy.4) Texas Toast – p 141. Easy and yummy. I’d never included pepper in it before and that really makes it. My kids loved it.5) American Whiskey (a collection of delectable sounding cocktails) – p 109. This one’s called a Bourbon Belle. Smooth, gorgeous summer sipper.6) Jake’s Cowboy Beans (leftover brisket) – p 34. Ken “Jake” Jacobs. These are awesome beans, and substantial enough to be a main. I cut the red pepper flakes to 1 Tablespoon, and it was still plenty spicy.7) Meat @ Slim’s Tiramisu – p 217. I laughed so hard when I saw that this tiramisu recipe is not made with ladyfingers, but Twinkies! It’s wonderful.Some others I have flagged to try: Juicy BBQ Chicken Breasts – p 22 * Classic Pulled Pork on a Kamado-style Ceramic Smoker – p 25 * Beef Barbecue – p 29 * Cornbread with Butter, Honey, and Sea Salt – p 37 * Gold Sauce – p 47 * North Carolina Table Sauce – p 60 * Pimento Cheese Spread – p 61 * Day Drinking with Sweet Tea – p 73 * Lexington-Style Cheerwine Pork Shoulder – p 79 with Cheerwine BBQ Sauce – p 80 * Hot Garlic Crunch Cream (for prime rib) – p 101 * 3-2-1 St. Louis Ribs – p 103 * Butcher Paper Brisket – p 119 * Hickory Smoked Turkey Breast – p 120 * Central Texas Beef Ribs – p 125 * Red State Sauce – p 129 * Salt and Pepper Spareribs – p 131 * The Smoke Shop Hot Links – p 133 * Bowl of Texas Red – p 136 * The Jambo Texan Sandwich – p 143 (leftover pulled pork, brisket, bologna chub, smoked sausage, and pork ribs) * Hometown Bar-B-Que Chinese Sticky Ribs – p 157 * Short Ribs and New England Lobster Roll – p 163 (leftover beef ribs) * Lakeside Smokers’ Rib Recipe – p 192 * Hot and Fast Pork Shoulder – p 199 * IQUE 180 Beef Brisket – p 205 * Competition-Style Beef Rib Eye – p 209 * Sonoran Hot Dogs – p 214 *I’ll update this as I play in the book more.

This is a really great book that gives you a deeper look at regional BBQ.

I picked up this book along with several others recently after buying a pellet grill and beginning to learn to smoke meats. Not all info applies since this doesn’t focus on pellet smoking, but I’ve still learned a lot.The best thing, though, is the recipe for white cole slaw. My husband loves cole slaw, but in 20 years, I’ve never been able to find a recipe that he likes. Then I tried the recipe from this book, and he gave it a big thumbs up. I did alter the recipe to his taste (no onions, no hot sauce, cabbage thinly sliced rather than chopped). He loves it so much that I make a double batch ever time (full head of cabbage) so that he can enjoy it for several days.

Great book, good recipes, but The majority of these will require a smoker. Some of the recipes made a lot of servings.

Andy Husbands and Chris Hart are pros. Top shelf pros, they know their barbecue, they could have just written another book with all their recipes and tips, like "Wicked Good Barbeque", "Wicked Good Burgers", and more, and it would have been a great book. This time around, Andy and Chris go a bit further and invite their peers to share in the book. As those cool kids say these days: "real recognize real". This is what Andy and Chris are doing here; allowing their peers to shine, as well as themselves. This book is a great journey through barbecue, barbecue land and barbecue people. Andy and Chris seem to want to blur those lines and have everyone share in and enjoy what is "real" barbecue culture. Of course, once again, the photography is bad ass; Ken Goodman is another pro, with that "eye" that makes everything look fantastic. Highly recommend this book.

If that is what you are looking for, this book has it. From Texas rigs and cooks to Memphis and Kansas City. we tried the "Gold Sauce" p47 thinking it was going to be a very mustard forward condiment which it wasn't. The maple syrup and sugar balanced it out very nice...note: I did not use red pepper flake or cayenne instead I opted for a Korean Hot Paste Gojuchang! Added it to ribs and slow grilled per the 3-2-1 method (90min-90min-1hr) and they were great.

There are so many delicious recipes in this cookbook - treat yourself or surprise your favorite backyard griller with this masterpiece. You will learn how to build the perfect fire, to create from scratch your own baby back ribs, and to whip up a batch of Andy's delicious cornbread. Andy and Chris are passionate about barbecue and their dedication to their craft is found throughout this book. The beautiful photos in the cookbook not only give praise to barbecue legends but also showcase some beautiful places in America. This cookbook contains a huge amount of recipes - pulled pork, bbq beef, sauces, rubs, sides, veggies, and desserts can all be found in Pitmaster. I am so looking forward to outside, weekend parties.