Cookbook review: Weber's Charcoal Grilling: The Art of Cooking With Live Fire
Cookbook review: Barbecue Nation: 350 Hot-Off-the-Grill, Tried-and-True Recipes from America's Backyard
Cookbook review: King of the Q's Blue Plate BBQ

By Tom Mentzer
Scripps Howard News Service
May 28, 2007

Summer is rearing its head, and that means grills are firing up around the country. Three new cookbooks offer a mess of recipes for millions of backyard cooks.

Weber's Charcoal Grilling: The Art of Cooking With Live Fire (Sunset Books, $19.95) calls on a variety of international flavors for its recipes. Many of the dishes use the grill as just one step in the process, with recipes ranging from fajitas and salads to burritos and sandwiches. Macaroni and cheese even shows up, with a poblano pepper twist.

But there are also plenty of traditional uses of the grill, from burgers and ribs to brisket and steak. This book also includes a handy resource section in the back, listing approximate grilling times and target temperatures for a variety of meats, an invaluable reference.

Barbecue Nation: 350 Hot-Off-the-Grill, Tried-and-True Recipes from America's Backyard (Taunton, $18.95) offers an even deeper collection, with more than 350 recipes from around the nation.

Author Fred Thompson incorporates some global influences, but most recipes revel in their homegrown flavors. The Frito's ole burger is piled high with corn chips, while Gentleman Jack country pork ribs call for a generous pour of Tennessee whiskey.

King of the Q's Blue Plate BBQ (HP Trade, $21.95) is the most interesting of the three volumes, though its recipes are also the most complicated.

Barbecue personality Ted Reader offers some wild combinations. His venison chops with savory smoked chocolate sauce are tame when compared to mamajuana smoked ribs with a BBQ praline crust or planked monkfish with chili-spiced crawfish crust. He even lauds his own "soon-to-be-famous" white trash BBQ sauce, made with a ranch dressing-mayonnaise base.

Some of the recipes border on the absurd. One burger preparation calls for a pair of bacon grilled cheese sandwiches as buns, while his cheesy stuffed burger dogs (a beef-pork mixture wrapped around string cheese and hot dogs) sound like a coronary on a bun.

But King of the Q's is a fun read with some great recipes. Reader also offers some great drinks, salads, sandwiches and more to complete meals.

There are some themes running through all three books. Each author incorporates a variety of international and nontraditional ingredients: figs show up in four recipes, mangoes in eight. Lamb is also given its due with more than 20 preparations. And beer-can cooking, where poultry is cooked upright with a can of beer in its rear, looks like its here to stay.

But each book has its individual strengths:

Barbecue Nation pulls flavors and styles from across the country, giving low-and-slow barbecue equal footing with quicker grilling styles.

Weber's Charcoal Grilling serves up some snappy international flavors, including lamb shish kabobs with tomato tzatziki.

And King of the Q's offers insight into a grilling genius, with some excellent ideas to spice up those dull summer cookouts.