Customer Reviews

Planet Barbecue!: 309 Recipes, 60 Countries

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I bought both this book and his How to Grill from Costco at $13.99 each. While How to Grill is more about basics (my husband has already improved his technique after reading it), this book brings you to a totally different level.

1. Unlike other books that have recipes require 10+ ingredients, some of which are often overly sweet and over powering, the recipes in this book normally involve only 5-8 ingredients, very manageable. A lot only have 2 ingredients! And the flavors are diverse.

2. The book also offers great knowledge and insight about food, bbq and cooking in other parts of the world. For example: why eggplant is naturally suited for bbq, Japanese 'less is more' philosophy, Jamaican's typical seasonings, Latin American food's typical sweet and salty flavor. For a person like I, who doesn't always follow recipe and like to mix and match, I feel that I am equipped to create my own flavors/recipes based on the insight offered by the book.

My only complaint is that the book can improve on organization and logic. For example: the pork chapter spans from page 191 to Page 264. With so many recipes packed in this chapter (and in other chapters), it would be nice to have an index either within the main index or in the beginning of the chapter that shows: name of recipe, country and page number. Also, I am not sure I have deciphered the logic behind how the recipes are placed within each chapter. Again using pork chapter for illustration, recipes switch between US, Latin America, Germany, Uruguay, US, Latin America, Asia. This makes the navigation a bit challenging.

However, I will not let these two points deter your desire to own the book. This book is great to own and to give as a gift. Your bbq friend will be grateful to you for years to come!

Update: after owning both books for a few weeks, I upgraded the book from 4 star to 5 star in spite of my minor criticism. We have tried new recipes and fine tuned our grilling techniques (direct vs. indirect, smoking). We loved it.

WOW - A plethora of cooking techniques, the recipes sound great, and he takes you on his culinary journey by doing an intro into each country he visited. Great piece of work. This book will take a long time to read - it is so packed with great information you will not want to "pass" on one recipe.

...that stands out in a sea of similar books? This book has the authenticity, excitement, and carefully selected writing and pictures that get people fired up about grilling/cooking in a way that sets it apart, almost magically from other similar titles. Having visited some of the countries contained herein, I am drawn in as he "pulls off the covers" of methods for making international favorites. I think it's also his concern for showmanship, like a magician, in jazzing up the reader's cooking that takes some of his books to other levels. If you liked the original Barbecue Bible, or his masterful How to Grill (with all the color pictures), you will not be disappointed. When the Barbecue Bible was re-released with the promise of being illustrated with pictures I was excited because I had learned a lot from the original version; the amount of recipes pictured was disappointing. This has a better balance of pictures, though it would be even better with more pictures (ideally one for each recipe, even if the picture is small) Some people may complain about certain ingredients or too many recipes, but for many people this will be entertaining and informative even if they don't make most of the recipes.

Reichlen's hard work and research is a payoff to you. If you would like to step up your outdoor grilling, this is a great book ( along with all his other grilling books). It may take you out if your comfort zone, but I look at it as a challange and as a helpfull base from where I can start experamenting.

The book is for those who like trying out and discovering new tastes.
All recepies that I have tried produced really good results.
Really tasty, in depth and easy to follow recepies.

I think I own all books that Steven Raichlen has published. This one is fantastic too. I love the personal stories he tells when obtaining recipes etc .. For example the Jerk recipe he obtained from Boston Jerk in Jamaica is awesome and the story was fantastic. I have made the Jerk many time and have served it to my Jamaican friends and they are amazed that I can serve them something that is as close to the real Boston Jerk chicken. I also made couple of other dishes from this book and served it at our block party and each and every one was a super hit. Highly recommend this book to people who love to grill. You will love the variety of recipes in this book.

It's hard to believe that it has been four years since Steven Raichlen has released a new book. After all, this is an author who was cranking them out pretty regularly. His string of barbecue books started in 1998 with "The Barbecue! Bible". Then came "Barbecue! Bible : Sauces, Rubs, and Marinades, Bastes, Butters, and Glazes" in May 2000, "How to Grill: The Complete Illustrated Book of Barbecue Techniques" in May 2001 and "Beer-Can Chicken: And 74 Other Offbeat Recipes for the Grill" in May 2002. Raichlen next let a mere 11 months go by before releasing " BBQ USA: 425 Fiery Recipes from All Across America" in April 2003, then came back the following fall with "Indoor! Grilling" in November 2004. Raichlen didn't release a book in 2005, but did come back in May 2006 with "Raichlen on Ribs, Ribs, Outrageous Ribs".

And that was it.

To be fair, there was a new edition of "The Barbecue! Bible" in May 2008. But for an author who averaged a new book every 14 months over a span of eight years, this has been a long quiet spell. But now it's over. Raichlen has a new book out - "Planet Barbecue!: 309 Recipes, 60 Countries" ($22.95, Workman Publishing, 639 pp.).

If you're familiar with Raichlen's style then this book will be familiar to you. But that's not to say this is same old, same old. For while this book will certainly stir echoes of "The Barbecue! Bible", this book is more like "The Barbecue! Bible" on steroids. There are more recipes and more countries visited. There are loads of full-color pictures and graphics. But perhaps best of all, there are more stories and telling a story is truly Raichlen's strength. Whether he's discussing Jamaican barbecue or talking about Haj Brik, the grandfather of Moroccan grilling, Raichlen's skills shine the brightest when he is telling the tales of his travels. And in "Planet Barbecue!", you get 600 pages plus of interesting stories and great recipes to boot.

By the way, want to know what Raichlen has been up to for those four years? He's been busy penning his first novel! The book is reportedly close to going to press and we'll keep you posted on details here as they are available.

I ordered this on a request from my son for a gift. He loves to grill and smoke and uses this cookbook all the time. GREAT recipes.

I had high hopes for this book as a concept. I enjoy learning BBQ techniques from local places where I travel, and I certainly don't expect to cover the whole planet myself. The first two recipes I tried were off the mark when it comes to authentic regional ingredients. The harissa for the Moraccan lamb chops is more like salsa. I haven't found tomatoes used in other harissa recipes. The naan recipe uses yeast. What? Yes, yeast, and though it was tasty, it was not authentic naan.

I'm sure I'll find some useful recipes in here, but two strikes in two recipes is not a good start. I do like the background information on the regional dishes, but I now feel like I have to verify all of his recipes to see if this is how the locals cook these dishes.

If not sticking with the traditional regional recipes for these dishes, then I think a better title for this book is Fusion Barbecue.

Bold, colorful pictures with just enough detail. Perfect gift for the man who doesn't want to read a lot of details, and at the same time, the entire cast of friends and family benefit from resulting effort. Looking forward to 4th of July!