Paul Kirk's Championship Barbecue: BBQ Your Way to Greatness with 575 Lip-Smackin' Recipes from the Baron of Barbecue

I bought this book under unusual circumstances. The day before I bought it, I complained to my sister I have way more recipes from cook books and newspaper clippings that I could ever possibly make. And I'm trying to eliminate more meat from my diet. So with a glut of recipes and a desire to eat less meat, it would only make sense for me to buy a book with 575 recipies devoted to grilling and slow smoking of dead animals. But I'm really glad I did! Kirk shares a number of his barbecuing insights, which have definitely improved the results of my periodic attempts at ribs and chicken. The chapter on mustard slathers is a technique I've never seen before and the results I had using mustard slathers with salmon and ribs following Kirk's advice turned out pretty good. The fish marinades for salmon, tuna, and swordfish all turned out well. The marinades had good flavors, but showed the proper restraint that is important when cooking fish. The Jack Daniel's Marinated Salmon was awesome, although I smoked it with pecan rather than grill it as Kirk suggested. And that illustrates the beauty of the book. Paul Kirk really encourages experimentation, and then provides an excellent guidebook to do just that. There's just a tremendous amount of creativity and originality in this book, and I found it infectious. There is seemingly no flavor Kirk ignores. The fact that all the recipes turn out good to great is even better! I'm not sure this is the best source for an authentic Tuscan Grilled Tuna, and I didn't try this recipe out, but I suspect it's pretty good, and I'm glad Kirk shared it with us. I judge a cook book on how it improves my cooking, and this has made a big difference in my results with barbecue ribs and chicken, and also for grilled fish, and for that reason, it is highly recommended.

This is an excellent cookbook, and one that I use often. The recipes are easy to find, easy to prepare, and the variety of recipes can't be beat. My favorites are the marinades for chicken, but the book is full of tips for gas-grilling as well as charcoal...enough BBQ sauces to last a lifetime...and spice mixes for just about anything. This is a superb reference.

This is my new favorite BBQ book. I haven't been able to put it down for 4 weeks now, I keep going back to it for references and to check on ideas. I have turned dang near everything in my fridge and pantry into eaither a rub, slather or sauce, and ALL of them have been great. This book gave me the inspiration for each recipe I came up with. Lately I have been considering expanding my weekend backyard hobby into competing at contests just to see how I stack up. This book made me even more determined to enter. I'm now registered with he KCBS and planning to compete at a local event next month. This book gave me so many ideas, and taught me several things I did not know before. Thanks Paul Kirk, now I know why they call you the Baron of Barbecue!

This is a great book. Any cookbook can give a list of recipes, and one can almost always find a few good ones, whether the book is from a celebrity chef or whether it's put out by the local lady's club in an effort to raise some money for charity. What sets the really great cookbooks apart is that they give a method, a set of techniques, which if followed, allow the reader to understand the recipes, to play with them, to embellish them, and to invent his own. Books like Julia Child's The Way to Cook and Madeline Kamman's In Madeline's Kitchen come to mind. They make you a better cook. Paul Kirk's Championship Barbecue is definitely in this company. He gives the theory and technique of barbecue--the essence of which is slow, low temperature cooking with smoke. The book is divided into sections, talking about marinades, sops, mops and bastes, rubs, sauces. In each section he tells why a particular ingredient should be used, always encouraging the reader to use the information and invent his own. Following are absolutely terrific sections on the barbecing of pork, beef, fowl, seafood and side dishes. The idea (perhaps conceit would be a better word) that this book is a guide to turning the reader into a barbecue champion is not meant to be taken literally. Paul Kirk states early on that what sets him (and other champions) apart, is not just the recipe and not just the technique, it is the consummate care with which the technique is applied. Still, by inviting the reader to reach for the stars, he encourages us to be the best that we can be. While not many of us will ever have the talent to be barbecue champions, I have no doubt than anybody who loves food and who wants to try, can make absolutely wonderful meals with the help of Paul Kirk's Championship Barbecue.

A few days ago, I interviewed a thin, oversized book entitled `The Big Grill' published by a minor, undistinguished publishing house. The book had all the look about it of a volume destined to go directly from the publisher to the discount stacks, and I found nothing in the book which changed that opinion. The only puzzling aspect of the book is that the thumbnail biography of the author on the back jacket listed some very serious credentials for the author, Paul Kirk. By chance, I soon ran across this volume by the same Paul Kirk, published by the very serious Harvard Common Press, with very high powered blurbs on the back jacket from the likes of John Thorne and Tony Bourdain, plus several luminary barbecue restaurateurs. Like the case with my poor review of one of Nigella Lawson's lesser efforts, I was anxious to find a genuine source for all this admiration. Therefore, I do this review of a book that is dramatically different and better than `The Big Grill' potboiler.A superficial look at the size and the cover of `Championship Barbecue' may give you the impression that the book is similar to Steve Raichlen's encyclopedic collections of barbecue recipes. While Raichlen's excellent `BBQ USA' gives a great history of the subject and a thorough collection of recipes from around the country, Kirk's `Championship Barbecue' is almost entirely the story of how to participate in and win barbecue contests, a skill he seems to have mastered early and excelled in often.The very first thing which struck me about Kirk's description of what it takes to win at a barbecue contest is how similar it is to lessons learned by traditional chefs doing haute cuisine. Kirk repeats the mantra told by everyone from Daniel Boulud to Paul Robuchon that a lot of the secret comes from practice and attention to details. This is why he can freely teach people his recipes and techniques with little fear that it will give them the means to beat him at the next competition. To have even the smallest chance of matching Kirk's performance requires years of practice and experience, plus the stamina and discipline to check a smoker every 90 minutes overnight, thereby giving up a perfectly good night's sleep in order to insure 16 to 24 hours of smoking at a consistent temperature.The only thing Kirk does not tell us is the recipe for his latest rubs and sauces, as he changes them for each year's competition. He is more than generous in telling us just about everything else. The book starts with three chapters, about fifty pages, on competition planning, equipment, rules, and preparation before he even gets to the recipes. The next hundred pages cover pantry preparations such as marinades, mops, sops, slathers, seasonings, rubs, sauces, salsas, relishes, and dipping sauces. Some recipes are borrowed (or stolen) from friends, but most are the author's own creations. My favorite recipes were for the most basic staples such as catsup, tomato paste, and Worcestershire sauce. The chapter