Page 16 - Barbecue News June 2020 Issue
P. 16

barbecue books
America’s Test
Kitchen, Basic Bucket, Martha Stewart’s Grilling
  Doug Mosley
Resident Book Guru
doug_mosley@hotmail.com
So as I write this we are all joined together in this common cause of waiting out the COVID-19 virus. Placing any political quarrels aside, let’s acknowledge that we’ll soon be past this and in the meantime we’ll find creative outlets for our idle hands (‘cuz you know what they say about idle hands). Unless by some miracle we’ve all been released from our staying-at-home duties by the time this reaches you, we’ve got time to brush up on and/or de- velop some skills. So here’s a great book for doing so.
The concept of a book on mastering cook- ing techniques is not new by any means. Many have tackled the idea; some have met the challenge well and some have miserably failed. But it should come as no surprise that the people behind America’s Test Kitchen would be very successful with such a book. “America’s Test Kitchen 100 Tech- niques: Master a Lifetime of Cooking Skills, From Basic to Bucket List” ($40, 448 pp.) figuratively threw the kitchen sink at the concept and came up a winner. You can practically explain this book just by listing it’s three main chapters – Part I – Essentials Every Home Cook Should Know, Part II – Techniques You Didn’t Know You Couldn’t Live Without, and Part III – The Bucket List. That fairly succinctly sums it up.
Now let’s dig into those chapters and find out what we didn’t know but either should or desperately want to. If you’re like me, you’re going straight to that Bucket List chapter. Make Your Own Bitters for the Ultimate Cocktails, Dry-Age in the Refrigerator or the Ultimate Beef, Bake a New York Deli-Worthy Cheesecake...OK, interesting. But others caught my eye as well that may already be in our collective repertoire – Grill-Roast for Juicy Meat with a
Browned Crust, Smoke Texas-Style Barbe- cue in a Kettle Grill, Make Chinatown-Style Roasted Barbecue, Smoke Ribs Indoors Using Tea Leaves. I reckon many of us have already checked off some of those Bucket List items, but still there’s plenty more.
Under Techniques You Didn’t Know You Couldn’t Live Without, there’s Cook en Co- cotte for Succulent Meat and Fish, Braise Burnished Meat Without Searing, Grill Veg- etables to Perfect Smoky Tenderness and Grind Your Own Meat for Superior Burgers, among others. In the opening chapter, there’s Bake Juicy Never Watery Fruit Cob- bler and Crisps, Shallow-Fry on the Stove- top for Deep-Fried Flavor, Get Great Flavor from Foil-Packet Dinners and Make Supe- rior Stir-Fries Without a Wok, to name a few.
  BarbecueNews.com - 16
JUNE 2020
If you’re familiar with
likely already know there are literally dozens of pictures that fully support the explanation for each technique. This is a well-written, expertly constructed book from which everyone can learn some- thing new. However, I did get a kick out of how those barbecue techniques ended up in the Bucket List chapter! Nonetheless, your quarantine time will fly by as you dive into the pages of this book.
Martha Stewart has released a new book on grilling, aptly titled “Martha Stewart’s Grilling” ($26, Clarkson Potter, 256 pp.). The title may be simple but for the most part the recipes certainly aren’t. That’s not a criticism; rather, in typical Martha Stewart style there’s 125 dishes covered in these pages and most of them are the sort of showstoppers that will no doubt appeal to readers of TNBBQN (especially after completing the book that led off this month).
America’s Test Kitchen books then you


















































































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