Smokestack Lightning: Adventures in the Heart of Barbecue Country [Paperback]

Lolis Eric Elie (Author), Frank Stewart (Photographer)

Book Description

Release date: April 1, 2005

It was while eating a big ol’ plate of steaming ribs that journalist Lolis Eric Elie and photographer Frank Stewart decided to traverse the country to investigate America’s obsession with smoked meat. Their quest took them from all-night barbecue binges on Chicago’s south side to barbecue competition circuit events like Memphis in May and Big Pig Jig in Vienna, Georgia, where people drop thousands of dollars to spend a sleepless night smoking meat. In SMOKESTACK LIGHTNING, Elie and Stewart profile the down-home devotees of the barbecue world, painting an anthropological portrait of one of our nation’s favorite pastimes. Featuring 50 mouthwatering recipes for such meats, sauces, and side dishes as Oklahoma Joe’s Brew-B-Q Ribs, Moonlight Mutton Dip, and Lady Causey’s Overnight Cabbage Slaw, SMOKESTACK LIGHTNING is a unique culinary chronicle that’ll make your stomach rumble.This new edition of what many consider to be the anthropological bible on the history and soul of barbecue features a new introduction, over 50 recipes, and 80 black-and-white photographs.A documentary inspired by the book is airing on public television stations nationwide.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Through vivid descriptions of restaurants and barbecue joints around the country, stirred together with legends and bits and pieces of barbecue history, Lolis Eric Elie profiles the largely American pastime of barbecuing. Traveling from Texas to the Carolinas, the author chronicles the lore and traditions of the barbecue belt and collects recipes, descriptions and photographs of everything from barbecued cows' faces to pigs' snouts, on his quest to determine barbecue's role in American culture. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

While traveling with the Wynton Marsalis Band, Elie as road manager, Stewart as the photographer for Marsalis's book, Sweet Swing Blues on the Road, the authors consumed so much barbecue, they decided to go off on their own and write a historical, cultural and culinary study of this type of cooking. Driving through the Midwest and the South in their 1981 Volvo, with a tape of Howlin' Wolf's "Smokestack Lighting" for company, they visited nearly 50 barbecue restaurants, talking to cooks, taking pictures and evaluating the food, most of which was undistinguished. The book abounds in local color and graphic details of barbecue preparations; the description of how cows' heads are cleaned at one place in Brownsville, Texas, is particularly grisly. Stewart's photographs include shots of many of the people they interviewed as well as studies of severed hogs' heads and intestines. Some of this is interesting, but a little barbecue research, like barbecue itself, goes a long way. Recipes, a barbecue bibliography and the addresses and phone numbers of the restaurants they visited are included. (May) FYI: Elie is now a columnist for the Times-Picayune in New Orleans.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Ten Speed Press (April 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580086608
• ISBN-13: 978-1580086608
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 0.6 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #710,000 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars The best armchair account of BBQ and its culture January 3, 1998

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

The NY Times' Eric Asimov calls this "Simply the best book on barbecue I've ever read," and I agree. There are sooo many bbq books out there, and most are pretty lame. But this one's different. It doesn't cover much in the way of actual cooking techniques, but it's a fantastic and utterly evocative guide to 'cue culture; the people and places as well as the smoked meat itself. Great armchair coverage of big, famous restaurants, roadside stands, and home Sunday family BBQ, filled with rich folklore and sociological observations.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A delight - great food, adventure, wonderful pictures and recipes July 23, 2005

By Craig Matteson HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Paperback

I had a wonderful experience of things and places I never knew while reading this book. When a book can provide that, I don't know what more you could ask for. My first experience of eating ribs was as a boy at my father's union picnic. When they told me I could eat some ribs, I did not want to eat them. Once I tasted them, I could not get enough. For a while, I looked for every opportunity to find more of this magical delicacy. Then I ran into some tough, dried out, vein laden stuff that put me off it for quite awhile.

Even so, I am not sure that what I ate was barbecue even though that is what it was called in the world of my youth. I suspect that for many people if you cook something over an open flame or charcoal and put sauce on it, that is barbecue, barbeque, BBQ or whatever else you want to call it. It wasn't until I read Calvin Trillin's wonderful writing on his favorite food in Kansas City, Missouri that I realized there was a difference between my cooking out back over charcoal in a Weber Smoker and the slowly cooked, low temperature, super tender barbecue. It was not until very recently that I have tasted whole hog barbecue cooked in a pit over wood and it makes all the difference in my appreciation of this great food.

I bought this book at a special barbecue evening at Zingerman's Roadhouse here in Ann Arbor and one of the authors, Lolis Eric Elie, was there to talk with us about what he had found, what we were eating, his book, and his DVD. It was such an impressive evening that I wanted to read what he had to say.

The authors took me on a wonderful adventure. I got to follow them from Memphis and meandering through Arkansas, Texas, Missouri, both Carolinas, Chicago, and others.... They found a lot of bad cooking along the way, but they found some good to wonderful barbecue as well. The interesting thing to me is that there is no real predictor of when they were going to find something great. Some of the tiny places out back were good, most were bad. Some of the larger establishments were good, most were not.

What you had to have was a pit master who cared, who knew what he was doing, and who was willing to do the time consuming work to make it happen. The authors also show us a wide range of preparations of meats. Mostly it is pork, except in Texas where it is beef. In some places it is just ribs and brisket, others it is the whole hog.

A few still cook it in a pit in the ground, most have above ground pits of brick and sand and some with steel. One pitmaster argued that steel wrecks the meat, but most cook that way. There are those that use indirect heat and smoke. There are others who want the flame and the burning of the grease drippings. The most successful use good wood or charcoal. Although they did find one place that barbecued with electric heat and a strip of wood for smokey flavoring. The worst whole hog was a place that used gas and nothing to put any flavor in.

There are places that specialize in different things. Some do the pork shoulder, some are ribs and brisket, and some cook the whole hog. Some even do chicken and shrimp, but the authors dismiss these as not being barbecue because the only thing they have in common is the sauce and a touch of flame. No slow cooking or smoking.

I can tell you that I wished I were with the authors at a few of the places to sample the food with them. However, I do not believe I am quite adventurous enough to want to seek out snoot sandwiches or ear sandwiches. And while I have had pork rinds, I have not had cracklins. I assume they are different. It was also very interesting to me how much of what you ate as a child biased you as to what barbecue is. Frank loved the ribs from Chicago even though they weren't cooked like traditional barbecue, weren't as tender as "real" barbecue, but were nonetheless tasty as all get out.

Among the many delights of this book are the fabulous pictures taken by one of the authors. They show so much. Wonderful people who are full of character and life. Frank Stewart caught so much of the atmosphere of the places the authors take us to that I felt in some ways that I have been there.

The book also supplies many recipes that were acquired in the travels and hard won sampling of the nation's barbecue. These are the good stuff. Frank and Lolis also provide us with the addresses of their favorite places. Read more ›

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Much More Than Barbeque November 7, 1997

By Scott Shepherd

Format:Hardcover

While the book serves as a chronicle of a cross country trip in search of the perfect barbeque, it does much more than that. We are introduced to a variety, and I do mean variety, of people from across the southeast and the heart of America. This book celoebrates these people and their lives. The barbeque almost serves as a metaphor for society and culture as they change and evolve. The book examines how traditions, generations, and diversity impact our barbeque and our lives. A well written narative that took me places I have never seen and introduced me to people I had never met. All of them interesting.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great read. August 12, 2006

By Toasted Cheese

Format:Paperback

First off, if you are buying this book expecting a cookbook, don't. Buy it because it is a hell of an entertaining read instead. The book itself is one man's story of traveling the backroads of the US searching for and eating a lot of good barbecue. It is also his opinion of what makes good barbecue - some folks take exception to what his opinions are. This is almost always the way with barbecue. As with religion and politics, an almost certain way to start an argument at a party is do discuss what makes "good barbecue" with others who have their own opinions. If you cannot handle reading another man's opinions, don't bother with this book. For me it proved to be interesting if not educational, and I certainly don't agree with all or even many of his opinions.

Also, as others have said, he often mimics the speech of locals when quoting them. "Under it" becomes "Un'er it" etc. I don't personally see this as making fun of them or ridiculing them at all. To the contrary, I feel it is done to give the audience a little insight into what it was like to interact with these folks. Many of the quotes in question would have seemed downright bizarre if written in proper English rather than dialect. Again, if you can't stand to read quotes that include semi-gibberish because you find it offensive, this book may not be for you. I found it entertaining.

This book was OOP for several years. Personally I'm glad to see that it's available again. In my opinion it's one of the best of its breed.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A trip through barbeque country April 28, 2002

By Elizabeth Lumpkin

Format:Paperback

This is one great book. I love it so much, I bought another copy "just in case". The writing is superb, the photography is amazing, and from a Q-fanatic with literally hundreds of barbeque books, this one is my very favorite.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Buy it now March 1, 2004

By A Customer

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Great book, not for recipies but for a trip through real barbque country. The book is part travel literature, part regional cooking essay and part American social essay by two guys who show a love for the history and lore of barbque. If you consider yourself a lover of Barbque, not grilling mind you, you will love reading this book.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Barbeque September 4, 2005

By Allen Chernack

Format:Paperback

I have not finished reading the book yet but thus far the author is doing a very thorough and detailed accounting of the origin of barbeque, various styles and some places with good barbeque.

The author seems to be a little harsh on those that do not barbeque in the most primative and rustic way. A well run place like 'Corky's' in Memphis, which I've been to, is downrated as being too slick. Too clean and organized. He prefers shacks where the meat is cooked for 12 hours in a pit and served in a place with just the basics. I prefer the comfort and good food and service of a Corky's style restaurant.

All in all it is well written and contains a lot of good information.