STEVEN RAICHLEN IS THE WORLD'S LEADING AUTHORITY...on international barbecue. The recipes in this book are finger-licking good...try them all! --Rich Davis, Creator of K.C. Masterpiece Barbecue Sauce

Transform meats and seafood into world-class barbecue with the flavor foundations, wet and dry, that give grilled food its character, personality, and soul. Chili-fired rubs, lemony marinades, buttery bastes, and pack-a-wallop sauces, mops, slathers, sambals, and chutneys - in over 200 recipes from around the globe, master griller Steven Raichlen shows how to add the expert touch to every dish in your repertoire, from a simply steak to an exotic kebab. Includes a short refresher course in grilling and a step-by-step guide to building a signature sauce.

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The author has the gift of gab, which is a very good thing in this case. He has spent considerable time with the best of the barbecue pros, and it shows. Just reading through this one picks up a wealth of information, and you can't help but learn.

One problem is the recipes. A dirty trick is to present a fantastic recipe that relies on an obscure or hard to get ingredient, and this book is full of them. Most of these recipes will not become a part of your cooking repetoire. Another problem is that the majority of the recipes cover a wide range of international recipes. Traditional, american barbecue gets a scant 50 pages of the nearly 300 pages of this book. Even here, he favors the upscale and chic.

There is a tendency to favor the trendy, like flavor injectors and chutneys. He also goes through topics such as compound butters and flavored oils. Also, if you believe his side comments, all of his recipes go with all types of meats, seafoods and vegetables. In one of the more interesting sections, he has some rare recipes for mustards, ketchup, and hot sauces.

I also have one beef with the graphics of this book: many pages have a sidebar that is colored brown. As a result, it is hard to read the text in them.

This book seems to have been aimed at people who will probably never get within a country mile of a smoker. It covers a lot of ancillary subjects, and the topics covered range all over the place. This makes for very good reading, but little hard information. This book is closer to a personal diary than a cookbook. I can recommend this book because it is so interesting. However, if you are serious about barbecue, you will need a few other books beside this one in your collection. It certainly is not a "bible".

46 of 47 found the following review helpful:

Good for grillers looking to step upJan 19, 2004

If you are have a metal charcoal or gas grill, and are looking to expand your horizons beyond basic grilling, this is a good book. If you own an offset firebox or ceramic kamado type smoker, but are still buying your rub and sauces, `Smoke & Spice' is a better investment. If you already own 'Smoke & Spice' you have better versions of all of the traditional recipes already.

The author includes Liquid Smoke in many of his sauce recipes, something that would make most experienced pitmasters cringe. Why put artificial tasting smoke flavor in a sauce when the food is being smoked already? There are indeed some interesting recipes from other cultures, and there is a useful though somewhat out of date listing for shopping sources for some of the more exotic ingredients. The chart of the effects of various common ingredients is very good, and would be very useful to any newcomer I should think. It is also a nice reference to have even for experienced pitmasters when thinking over new recipes.

In general however, I found that the recipes make use of too many ingredients, and yet when prepared tasted no better than traditional recipes I've been using for years and that are considerably less complicated. The reason is simple. Good barbecue gets it's flavor from being slow cooked at low temperatures with just the right amount of smoke, not because the cook used a dozen ingredients in the rub and another two dozen in the sauce. Everything from the cover layout to the number of ingredients called for and the sheer number of recipes makes me feel the author went for quantity rather than balance or quality.

27 of 27 found the following review helpful:

Try out the BBQ saucesFeb 05, 2003
By A. A Slezak "Incredulous Reader"
I previously purchased the BBQ Bible. This is a great companion book to that. I never made my own BBQ sauce before but now I make it as much as I can. Everyone goes crazy over the sauces in this book. It was a pretty funny scene when I was trying to make two of the sauces at the same time. One was the Jack Daniel's one that hot and the other was the smokey one. Well don't try making two at once because I getting shot from two sides with bubbling sauce and you have to stir it for the whole 20 minutes. I have made some of the butters and some of the rubs. The best rub I have used was the one for the BBQ ribs that is part of a feature page in the book. I can't say enough about this book. You will enjoy it.

19 of 19 found the following review helpful:

Essential to advance from Neanderthal cookingMay 01, 2001

Once you get this book, you will look back on your grilling and barbecuing with sheepish embarrassment if all you do is slather store-bought sauce on a piece of meat and fiddle with it over a flame. This book will show you how to add the missing ingredient in the latter method -- love.

Steven Raichlin takes barbecuing seriously, to the point where he actually goes to barbecue competitions to interview top teams and seeks different styles of barbecue in his world travels. He dispenses with all his knowledge in the following chapters:

1. Introduction: Building Better Barbecue -- The Flavor Factor 2. A Refresher Course: Everything You Need to Know About Barbecuing and Grilling 3. Seasonings and Rubs 4. Marinades, Wet Rubs, and Spice Pastes 5. Bastes, Mops, Glazes, Oils, Finishing Sauces, and Butters 6. American Barbecue Sauces 7. World Barbecue Sauces 8. Slather Sauces 9. Salsas, Relishes, Sambals, and Chutneys

Don't worry if you live in a rural area where fresh spices and ingredients may be lacking. Raichlin also provides internet and mail order contacts for the essentials. This book will transform the House of Bland into a culinary temple. Be sure to have plenty of napkins with you so you don't drool over all the pages.

12 of 12 found the following review helpful:

Throw away those old bottles of BBQ sauces in your kitchen!Jun 27, 2000

Steven Raichlen followup book to the BBQ Bible is a great recipe and reference guide for all lovers of grilling or BBQing. The new book follows the same great format as the "Bible" with cooking tips, interesting background info on the recipes, and most of all practical, easy to prepare recipes with tons of flavors from the United States and around the world. Favorites already are the "lean and mean texas bbq sauce", the different but flavorful "lemonade chili rub" and the "chimichurri" sauce from south america. I will be trying the more exotic recipes from around the world such as "puerto rican pig powder" soon. If you already have the first book, buying this one is a given. if you are a bbq lover or grill master, you will have a hard time getting to the grill before reading this one cover to cover. And after making your first homemade sauce, those old bottles of sauce will be out of the kitchen!

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