I was going through my bookcase and came across the well-known How to Grill book that I must of purchased a half dozen years ago before I seriously was into grilling and smoking. I looked at some of the recipes and compared them to those I've used from this site, and they were almost incoherent and lacking details. For example, the beef ribs instructions provides no recommended grill temperature and a cook time of 2 hours using the indirect method. It says when done the meat shrinks from the bone. But nothing about its internal temp or checking for tenderness. This is typical throughout the book. I've been spoiled by the recipes here and in Meathead's book. But I'm shocked that this apparently popular book is so impractical.
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Founding Member & Pit Barrel Cooker Queen
- Jul 2014
- 7202
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My toys:
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I used to grill without a thermometer..... And my steaks came out OK. And moslty somewhere near the temp I wanted but not always.
Proper tools go a long way.
The community here - the collective knowledge and helpfullness - have really shortened the learning curve!! When the first rack of ribs off a new cooker get the response "I don't see why we go out to eat bbq if you can cook these", it's only bc I had a lot of help from folks here.
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Club Member
- Jun 2016
- 2377
- Beautiful Downtown Berwyn
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Grill: Grilla Original / Weber Genesis EP-330 / OK Joe Bronco Drum
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It was written before a lot of better thermometers were available. I'd love for him to rewrite it.
But again, 225 vs 250 vs 275... it all comes out good.
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It’s old technology. Even Raichlen took awhile to be sold on thermo-meters. The further you go back in time the more archaic it seems. Lot of cool recipes & techniques in the older tomes but, that’s why Amazin Wibs exists, the science of things. You go to an eighteenth century or early nineteenth recipe & the amounts are not listed, it’s some flour, some meat & a pinch of that, oh, & salt it. Keepin in mind, the old pit masters didn’t use computers, graphs & thermo-meters & still don’t.
With Amazin Wibs, lunkheads like me can turn out a cook that my peeps love!
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Club Member
- Aug 2017
- 10009
- Hate Less, Cook More
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OUTDOOR COOKERS
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All truly said by you all and for the most part I agree. I think Raichlen's stuff is way overblown but some of it is really well done. I still have a copy of his BBQ Bible that I have literally worn out. There are techniques and recipes in there I still use to this day (like skewering asparagus, marinating in a balsamic-vinegar sauce and grilling). But like many of you have said, the accuracy and the science behind how food needs to be cooked is lacking.
What Steven brings to the table though is some of the first attempts at bringing together the recipes and techniques of cooking outdoors. Let's face it, most of us growing up saw our Pops grilling burgers and hot dogs on some cheap charcoal pit in the backyard. I remember one guy had his made out of brick and we thought he was the king of barbecue. Don't remember him ever cooking more than hamburgers and steaks however !!! I mean how many of you ever smoked a brisket or a pork butt 15-20 years ago?
Since then smoking techniques and precise cooking have hit the mainstream and even morons like me are turning out gourmet quality food. It's the progression of things I think, as well as access to information via the old interweb. One thing I will say though is the learning process itself helped make me a better cook. When I started cooking steaks I had to learn by endless failures how to cook mine the perfect medium rare. That was either done by touch or just knowing it took x amount of time on your cooker. There's still a lot to be said about just knowing when something is done without the need to constantly be monitoring a thermo device. To be quite honest, unless it's a real thick steak, I rarely temp a rib eye or t-bone, I just know when it's done by look and feel. Raichlen is from that era as well.
Perhaps some day they will be looking back at 2020 and thinking, what in the hell were those idiots doing? Cooking food with thermometers poking into the meat? What a bunch of morons !!!
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"Perhaps some day they will be looking back at 2020 and thinking, what in the hell were those idiots doing?"
My wife is ahead of her time.
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The Barbecue Bible was my first introduction to some really good recipes, and my kids still ask me when I'm going to make some of those items gain. Their favorite was the Australian Beer BBQ Wings, which I usually did with drumsticks as they were cheaper, and I could feed a lot of hungry kids for very little cash.
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Charter Member
- Oct 2014
- 7445
- NEPA
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Large Big Green Egg, Weber Performer Deluxe, Weber Smokey Joe Silver, Maverick 732, DigiQ, and too much other stuff to mention.
How to Grill was published in 2001.
I consider Raichlen’s work as brother to Meathead ’s work. They share the same enthusiasm, but have chosen different roads. Meathead has gone full website, with books coming in second; Raichlen has gone full books, with website coming in second. Meathead is more why things work, Raichlen is more how things work. Because of that, Meathead is more technique, and Raichlen is more recipe.
Let’s not forget: before any of this there was barbecue, and it was awesome. If it wasn’t awesome, Meathead and Steve Raichlen wouldn’t have been inspired to write about it. Nobody writes books about gruel. Or pease porridge.
When How to Grill was written, barbecue wasn’t yet the phenomenon it is today. It’s a stepping stone in the data base that we enjoy having now. And, it is a deep gift to have two remarkably talented cooks, writers, and communicators sharing the same information from different perspectives. We can only benefit from the multidimensional understanding that grants us.
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Founding Member
- Jul 2014
- 3147
- Neptune Beach, FL
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That book launched my passion for cooking over fire outdoors. I agree that it's lacking in the science department. But the ideas are wonderful. Once you absorb the information on this site you can make those recipes sing.
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Administrator
- May 2014
- 19026
- Clare, Michigan area
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Follow me on Instagram, huskeesbarbecue
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About me
Real name: Aaron
Location: Farwell, Michigan- near Clare. (dead center of lower peninsula)
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I liken it to classic country music from the 40s & 50s (which I love BTW). Anyone who so much as learned a few chords on a guitar and even tried to sing was successful in those days because there was a drought of artists and people wanted music, so if you tried you made it. (Sorry Hank fans but the dude couldn't really sing, but he was successful though wasn't he?)
Raichlen's book was blazing trails in its time. However, my dumb brain needs 'do this, now do this, now do this' or else my "what if I try this?" takes over and I fail. That's what attracted me to Meathead's ribs recipe (et al), he dumbed it down enough for even me to get it right. My wife thought I was a hero with my first successful ribs and then pork butt, but all I did was follow Meathead's "now do this".
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Club Member
- Nov 2017
- 7153
- Huntsville, Alabama
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Jim Morris
Cookers- Slow 'N Sear Deluxe Kamado (2021)
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After years of seeing Raichlen on Project Smoke just going by "feel" of the meat to decide it was done, I was literally SHOCKED when I saw him use a digital instant read thermometer on an episode of his more recent Project Fire show.
So, you have to take some of the techniques listed in his older books with a grain of salt. He almost invariably has good recipes, you just need to adapt them to proper techniques that we have learned from AmazingRibs.com.
I still keep my copy of The Barbecue Bible! on the shelf, as it has a lot of recipes that are really good, and some of which my kids still ask for 10-15 years later.Last edited by jfmorris; July 3, 2020, 08:56 AM.
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