Product Description

Like jazz, barbecue is a uniquely American original, and few subjects ignite more passion, excitement, controversy, and competition. In Celebrating Barbecue, Dotty Griffith, restaurant critic for The Dallas Morning News, gives readers the lowdown on real barbecue, identifying the four great regional styles of American 'cue (Carolina, Memphis, Texas, and Kansas City), as well as what Griffith calls "micro-styles" like Santa Maria Beef Barbecue or St. Louis Barbecued Snouts. Though reducing barbecue to a set of rules and specifications is, as Griffith says, "like teaching a cat to bark," Celebrating Barbecue attempts (and succeeds!) in doing just that, beginning with the history of barbecue, defining each region's preferences for meat, fuel, and seasonings. There are classic authentic recipes for slow-cooked meats such as Texas Brisket and North Carolina-Style Pulled Pork, with cooking temperatures, seasonings, woods, and techniques (including fail-safe techniques for bad weather or uncooperative equipment or fuels) explained in detail. Griffith includes recipes for mops, rubs, sauces, and marinades, as well as sources for ready-made flavor enhancers. A full complement of appetizers, sides, and desserts rounds out the more than 85 recipes. Menus are provided for each regional style so you can create your own barbecue feast. Travelers will find lists of barbecue restaurants, cook-offs, and festivals, and stay-at-homes will find the best places to mail-order 'cue, as well as a directory of pit masters and a section on cookers.

Opinionated and informed, Celebrating Barbecue is written with wit, passion, and verve. A pleasure to read and to cook from, it's the only book you'll need to enjoy this most American of foods.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #482638 in Books
• Published on: 2002-04-30
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 192 pages

From Amazon.com
"Barbecue is the most American of foods; to hell with apple pie," says Dotty Griffith, author of Celebrating Barbecue. Her book serves up a mildly interesting and informative look at America's four regional styles of 'cue: Carolina, known for its shredded pork and vinegar-based sauce; Memphis, whose ribs are "the real signature of Southern barbecue"; Texas, where beef brisket rules the range; and Kansas City, whose hot, sticky, tomatoey sauce was the prototype for the bottled commercial sauces now found in supermarkets everywhere. Each regional chapter offers recipes, a complete sample menu, and, handy for travelers, a list of legendary regional barbecue joints. Notable recipes include Carolina-Style Barbecued Whole Hog, for which a 75- to 80-pound pig is cooked up to 12 hours; Kansas City-Style Sticky Ribs, a "pièce de résistance"; and, for hardcore carnivores, South Texas Cabrito: tortillas filled with shredded barbecue goat. The book also contains directions for sauces and rubs; sections on appetizers, sides, and desserts; a calendar of barbecue cook-offs and festivals; and sources for ingredients and equipment. --Andy Boynton

Review
John F. Mariani

food and travel columnist for "Esquire" magazine; author of "The Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink" and coauthor of "Grilling for Dummies"

A lot of grilling books have gotten away from where the real focus on outdoor cooking should be -- celebrating barbecue -- which just happens to be the title and great appeal of Dotty Griffith's delectably comprehensive and rigorously authentic book on America's greatest contribution to the culinary arts.

Review
W. Park Kerrfounder, El Paso Chile Company, and distiller, Tequila NacionalBBQ: it's not about a food, it's about a lifestyle. In Celebrating Barbecue, Dotty tempts, teases, torments, and slow-cooks us through the world of 'cue. She leaves me with four questions: Memphis or Kansas City ribs, Old-Fashioned Banana Pudding or Fried Fruit Pies for dessert, how soon can I get the grill going, and does she offer home delivery?

John F. Marianifood and travel columnist for Esquire magazine; author of The Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink and coauthor of Grilling for DummiesA lot of grilling books have gotten away from where the real focus on outdoor cooking should be -- celebrating barbecue -- which just happens to be the title and great appeal of Dotty Griffith's delectably comprehensive and rigorously authentic book on America's greatest contribution to the culinary arts.

Paul Kirkauthor of Paul Kirk's Championship Barbecue SaucesCelebrating Barbecue has what I look for in a cookbook. It's not just a barbecue cookbook, it's history and tradition. It's a celebration of some great food and gives you the means and direction to achieve great barbecue yourself. It will be one of my prized cookbooks in my collection of over two thousand.

John Egertonauthor of Southern Food: At Home, on the Road, in HistoryDotty Griffith deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for attempting to bring the warring tribes of American barbecue into a demilitarized pit zone for a serious exchange of meats and sauces. Only the most narrow-minded true believer could resist her ecumenical appeal to the higher virtues of pan-American 'cue.

Michael LeMaster of the PitSonny Bryan's SmokehouseYee-haw! Celebrating Barbecue is a hoot and holler!

Smoky Haleauthor of The Great American Barbecue & Grilling ManualCelebrating Barbecue reeks of barbecue aromas and of Dotty Griffith's reportorial skill and writing expertise. Her enthusiasm for barbecue glistens and gleams like the glaze on a gorgeous goody from a gourmet's grill.

Jim WhiteCBS Radio Dallas, The KRLD Restaurant Show with Jim WhiteCelebrating Barbecue is filled with great recipes and 'cue rivalries. Get ready to take a delicious journey of discovery across America for the best barbecue you ever wrapped your lips around!

Jim "Trim" Tabb of Tabby'sDotty Griffith very effectively blows aside the smoke of barbecue to show how eclectic this old and controversial subject can be.

Customer Reviews

From my review in "The National Barbecue News"
It seems no book these days can get by on title alone, but rather must also have some splashy subtitle thatmakes some wild and boastful claims of what you'll find inside. It's a sad truth, too, that so often the book itself pales in comparison to the subtitle and even sadder still when you've shelled out your hard-earned dollars to buy such a book. As a side note, you'll not find a review here on such books that will waste your money; Mama always said if you can't say anything nice then say nothing at all, so let the silence be your warning.
But back to the topic at hand. Dotty Griffith, former food editor and currently the restaurant critic for The Dallas Morning News, has authored ³Celebrating Barbecue,² a book which carries the subtitle "The Ultimate Guide to America's Four Regional Styles of 'Cue". Although a claim of being the ultimate guide may be a pretty tall order, Griffith does her very best to live up to it and has brought forth a very fine book.
Texas born and bred, Griffith quickly lets her reader know that her lifelong preference has been for the style of her home state. But she gives fair and thorough treatment to all. She opens her book with four well-researched chapters which cover the history of barbecue. Her writing style is so friendly and down-home that this book will read like an easy conversation with an old pal.
In Part Two, Griffith defines the four styles of barbecue: Carolina, Memphis, Texas and Kansas City. There's a chapter devoted to each which includes a brief but all-encompassing introduction and a list of well-known restaurants from the region which best represent the style. She then follows with recipes of dishes that are classic to each style. For Carolina 'cue, she offers us pulled pork and recipes for six varieties of the vinegar-based sauce. For Memphis, we get recipes for the dry and wet ribs (but only one for rub). Texas style is definitely beef brisket, but also includes cabrito and sausage and for Kansas City we get sticky ribs with thick, sweet sauce.
Griffith goes on to identify some other popular styles, like the California's Santa Maria tri-tip, Owensboro mutton and Kentucky burgoo. She then fills out the book with related barbecue recipes (including sides) and a chapter on desserts. Her penchant for detail from her newspaper background shows in the end when she closes with a chapter which gives resource information on associations, contests, publications, classes, ingredients and equipment and a glossary.
All in all, the only drawback was I was left wanting more. Something called an ultimate guide should be the size of an encyclopedia, right? However, Griffith didn't put this together in some scholarly style that would fill hundreds of pages. Rather, she got the job done in a succinct 190 pages. Even at that, the book lives up to its subtitle and I know you'll feel good about the money you spent to buy it after you turn the last page.

Guide to America's 4 regional styles of 'cue
This is a good book. It's different than some other barbecue books because it doesn't dwell on technique or one style of barbecue. It doesn't give opinions about which wood goes with what meat. It doesn't spend a lot of time on folksy tales. What it does give you is a well-rounded introduction into the four major U.S barbecue styles: Carolina, Memphis, Kansas City and Texas. And it gives you plenty of recipes to try.

Within those four major categories, it drills deeper. For example, it shows you the distinction between barbecue from North Carolina and South Carolina. You learn about web and dry ribs in Memphis. It even covers some of lesser-known regional styles such as Owensboro, Ky. mutton and St. Louis snout.

The diversity is also highlighted in the recipes. The book contains four different coleslaw recipes and includes barbecue and sauce recipes from Eastern Carolina, Western Carolina and South Carolina. Best of all, the writing and layout make it easy to follow and understand the recipes.

Everyone with an interest in barbecue can learn something from this book.