Soaked, Slathered, and Seasoned: A Complete Guide to Flavoring Food for the Grill [Paperback]

Elizabeth Karmel (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Product Description

"Elizabeth Karmel was born in North Carolina, weaned on pulled pork, and has spice and smoke in her bones."
—Steven Raichlen, author of The Barbecue! Bible and How to Grill

Whether you're grilling hot-and-fast or barbecuing low-and-slow, knowing how to match foods with flavors will make you a bona fide backyard BBQ master. In Soaked, Slathered, and Seasoned, Elizabeth Karmel offers hundreds of savory and sweet flavorings to make the most of all your favorite foods—ribs, burgers, steaks, poultry, seafood, vegetables, and fruit—really, anything you can cook with fire and smoke!

Karmel offers 400 fresh, creative recipes for marinades, brines, barbecue sauces, glazes, mops, salsas, jellies, dipping sauces, and even pestos and tapenades that range from classic (Garlicky Lemon Marinade, Irene's Hot Pepper Jelly) to innovative (Fresh Cherry-Horseradish Relish, Roasted Garlic and Shallot Jam) and from sophisticated (Merlot Wine Steak Sauce, Pumpkin Butter Barbecue Sauce) to just plain fun (Elvis Is in the House Sauce, This Swine Is Mine Beer Mop). With tempting color photos throughout the book and a dazzling array of recipes, Soaked, Slathered, and Seasoned will inspire you for years to come and make anything you grill exciting, fresh, and delicious.

Recipe Excerpts from Soaked, Slathered, and Seasoned

Jack and Diane Steak with Whiskey Butter

Bahama Mama Marinade

Irene’s Hot Pepper Jelly

From Publishers Weekly

As the legend goes, Eskimos have 500 words for snow. Certainly, Southern chefs that are worth their salt should know about that many synonyms for sauce. Thus it is with Karmel (Taming the Flame), executive chef of Hill Country, that great bastion for brisket in New York City. She steps up to the plate with 400 recipes covering marinades, brines, glazes, salsas, rubs, vinaigrettes, relishes, pestos and the occasional ketchup. Her choice of ingredients runs the pop cultural gamut from cherry Coke in a sweet cherry cola barbecue sauce to bourbon in her Jack Daniel's steak sauce to coffee in a cocoa-espresso-black pepper rub. There's a coating for anything one would care to grill, like an apple cider brine for pork or soy-ginger wasabi butter for seafood. Karmel's commentaries, which preface each recipe, reflect the broad scope of her culinary life. But she perhaps shares a little too much information as to the origins of I Think My Pig Is Sexy marinade, and her many travel exploits come off a bit like a brag, raving over a mushroom quesadilla she had on the Mexican Riviera and the sashimi with hibiscus salt she discovered in Tokyo. Her most brilliant move is her quietest, a minimalist chart entitled, Make Your Own Barbecue Rub which lets you mix and match from lists of salts, sugars, peppers and spices. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (April 27, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470186488
• ISBN-13: 978-0470186480
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #136,288 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #37 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Cooking by Ingredient > Sauces, Salsa & Garnishes
  • #64 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Cooking by Ingredient > Herbs, Spices & Condiments
  • #79 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Outdoor Cooking > Barbecuing & Grilling

More About the Author

North Carolina native Elizabeth Karmel was raised on barbecue--at roadside stands, neighborhood cookouts and county fairs--but it wasn't until she moved away from home that the barbecue love affair began. When it wasn't at her fingertips, she had to learn how to smoke it herself and a pit-mistress was born.
Karmel, a.k.a. Queen of the Grill, is a nationally respected authority on grilling, barbecue and Southern food. She is the Executive Chef of Hill Country Barbecue Market in NYC and Washington, DC, and NYC's Hill Country Chicken. She developed the award-winning concept, menu and flavor profiles from the meats to the sides and desserts for all three restaurants.
As a sought after media personality, Karmel writes for, and is frequently featured in an array of national magazines from Saveur to Better Homes & Gardens, and appears regularly on all three network morning shows.
She writes a bi-monthly column for the Associated Press called The American Table. She is the author of three acclaimed cookbooks, Taming the Flame: Secrets for Hot-and-Quick Grilling and Low-and-Slow BBQ, Pizza on the Grill; and Soaked, Slathered and Seasoned: the Guide to Flavoring Food for the Grill. Karmel is also the designer of Elizabeth Karmel's Grill Friends; an innovative line of outdoor cooking and kitchen tools, and the founder of the gender-breaking GirlsattheGrill.com.
Follow her @GrillGirl and like her fan page at http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Elizabeth-Karmel/201250523244938.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Only Grilling Book You Need!, May 1, 2009

By 

Karl J. Wachter "Grill Daddy" (New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Soaked, Slathered, and Seasoned: A Complete Guide to Flavoring Food for the Grill (Paperback)

Elizabeth Karmel did it again! I loved her first book on grilling but this one is a slam dunk! It gives you all the basics of grilling and then every way you could possibly marinade, brine, sauce and spice up your grilled food. I couldn't wait to try the Pernod Brine for Salmon, what a cool idea. It was amazing! There are about 20 brines, you can even make your own pastrami brine! The butters are awesome too. For all courses, sweet and savory, on the grill, this is the only book you need (and its not big and cumbersome). I'M FIRED UP!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Essential Book For The Outdoor Chef!, January 25, 2010

By 

John G. Gleeson Sr. (Frederic, Mi USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Soaked, Slathered, and Seasoned: A Complete Guide to Flavoring Food for the Grill (Paperback)

There are several books that I consider essential for the outdoor chef. Among them are the Jamie Purviance/Weber quartet. For reasons set forth below, I add this book, and Ms. Karmel's "Taming ther Flame" to my shelf of "must haves".

What makes this an "essential book"?

First, it is unique; almost all grilling books have some recipies for rubs, mops and sauces, but this book is dedicated to them. In my opinion, it is these items that make or break what comes off the grill.

Second, the recipies are simple and easy to follow, yet the ones I have tried produce real "flavor bombs". They are intense, yet well integrated into the dish they go with. They support rather than overwhelm.

Third, the book is a teaching tool. Even the experienced chef will learn new techniques, and aquire new and useful information. For example, I learned asbout the differences in paprikas, and why different ones are preferred over others. Where I live, paprika is generic in the market, so learning about the differences, and going online to get them, produced improved results.

Fourth, and most important for most of us, it enables us to put more consistantly well flavored food in front of family and friends. Using this book has enabled me to improve much of what I cook, and I have been at the grill for a whole bunch of years.

My older son got this for me as a Christmas gift, when I was two weeks post hip replacement; I think he thought that it was time for the old man to get back to the essentials. Well, his ploy worked! We moved some snow to get at the grills and I started using these recipies. It's been a whole lot of fun!

There's one other plus, and I'm old enough to mention it without being called sexist: Ms Karmel is kind of cute.

If producing consistantly high quality food from the grill is your thing, I recommend this book to you without reservation. You'll find yourself using it a lot!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Make Everything You Cook Taste Better!, June 3, 2009

By 

J. Belmonti "Live, Laugh, Love, and Eat BBQ!" (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Soaked, Slathered, and Seasoned: A Complete Guide to Flavoring Food for the Grill (Paperback)

After getting this book I paged through it and immediately started thinking about ways to spice up my cooking. I am an avid griller and also enjoy smoking food and am always looking for new ways to marinade meat. I have been following Elizabeth for a long time and this book really takes the cake as far as her cookbooks go. I know it will get a lot of use. Not only does she make it simple to make greek chicken or incredible lamb chops, she gives you a map on how to make your own tastes translate into successful new dishes.

I would have to say that it is the ultimate kitchen reference for anyone who loves or even just likes to cook. In a matter of moments you can enjoy all the tips and tricks that it seems like the author has learned from all the friends she has made over the years. Buy this book, you will actually use it!