Over the last several years, the word “barbecue” has become ubiquitous. The popularity of barbecue restaurants, cookbooks, gear, recipes, and cookers have exploded. Whether you define barbecue as meat cooked on a grill, smoked low and slow, or just ribs slathered in tasty sauce, barbecue is where the flavor is.
And to add even more flavor (and lots of great ideas), Greg Mrvich, the star of the YouTube channel Ballistic BBQ, has come up with American Barbecue Sauces, a tiny but powerful book filled with ideas for rubs, marinades, and sauces to add sweetness, spice, and layers of savory flavor to all your barbecue dishes.
He breaks it all down into four basic regions: The Carolinas, which favors pork and vinegar based sauces; Memphis, where they love their ribs and pulled pork over spaghetti; Kansas City, home of the Kansas City Barbecue Society, and known for its love of all meats, sweet and spicy sauces, burnt ends, and beans; and, finally, Texas, with their beef and pork on the center stage, some areas borrowing from Mexican and Creole influences.
After a short lesson in the history of barbecue, the basics on sauces, and the essential pantry ingredients we need for tasty barbecue, we go straight to the recipes. First up are the Dry Rubs and Seasonings. These may be blended with barbecue originally in mind, but they can be used on any meats before cooking them. There is a series of dry rubs, including ones with the flavors of Memphis, Texas, Santa Maria, the Southwest, as well as a Cowboy Coffee Beef Rub, Honeybee Pepper Rub, and Black Magic Rub.
Next up are the Wet Rubs and Marinades. Some of these are a little more adult themed—Spicy Rum Wet Rub, Coffee Stout Wet Rub, Tequila Sunrise Marinade (with cocktail recipes included)—many will work for a variety of meats and cooking styles. The Balsamic Beef Marinade, Steak Lover’s Marinade, or Basic Poultry Brine could be used to cook meat inside or outside for extra flavor.
The next chapter focuses on Bastes, Mops, and Glazes, which will add flavor and a competition-worthy shine to your meats. You can try the Old-Fashioned Glaze, Sticky Spiced Apple Glaze, Balsamic Barbecue Glaze, or Bone Marrow Herbed Steak Butter; or you can go regional with the Eastern North Carolina Vinegar-Pepper Sauce, Texas Hills Mop Sauce, Western Kentucky Mutton Dip, or the Louisiana Hot Pepper Butter Baste.
And then, it’s all about the sauces. You can choose from regional sauces like the Carolina Gold Sauce, Kansas City Barbecue Sauce, Alabama White Sauce, Western North Carolina Vinegar-Tomato Sauce, Virginia-Style “Goober” Sauce, or Baltimore Tiger Sauce. Or you can go with the All-Purpose Beef and Steak Sauce, Sweet-and-Savory Cola Barbecue Sauce, Raspberry-Chipotle Barbecue Sauce, or Barbecue Potion #5.
Then after a short chapter with recipes for homemade condiments (ketchup, mustard, salsa), there is a chapter all about the reason you wanted to own this book in the first place. Sure, the rubs and the sauces and the glazes are nice, but what you really want is the meat. And American Barbecue Sauces brings the meats. You can put all your new-found saucy knowledge into making Barbecued Pork Shoulder, Texas-Style Beef Brisket, Grilled Chicken with Alabama White Sauce, Barbecued Beef Ribs, Grilled Mahi-Mahi, Reverse-Seared Cowboy Coffee Rib Eye, Ballistic BBQ Smoked Chicken, and Cajun-Spiced Cedar-Plank Salmon, just to name a few.
Maybe I should have disclosed this earlier, but I live in Kansas City, so I know a thing or two about good barbecue. There are few places in town without a barbecue restaurant within arm’s reach, so I’m more than a little familiar with these types of recipes. And these are legit. So if you have to live somewhere without a barbecue place on every corner (and I’m so sorry for you!), then you should pick up this book. it will introduce you to the barbecue flavors and recipes you haven’t gotten to try yet, and it will take your own mad grilling skills just as far as you want to go. American Barbecue Sauces is a must-have for anyone wanting to learn how to get started making barbecue like a pro, and it would be a fantastic gift as well!
A copy of American Barbecue Sauces was provided by Rockridge Press through the Callisto’s Publisher Club, with many thanks.