Customer Reviews

Sublime Smoke: Bold New Flavors Inspired by the Old Art of Barbecue

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Perhaps the best tesaiment to this book is that people in my office have ordered three of them since I brought it in for someone to see. The authors give you an excellent overview of how to use the various types of commercial smokers available on the market. They also provide a convincing explanation of the value of rubs and of course provide many good rub recipes. Since I bought this book, I won't eat anybody's barbeque except mine

I had great hopes for this book, as I thought it would provide me with a range of interesting recipes to go with my already well-used smoker. Instead I found a mish-mash of recipes that, though they use the smoker, do not really put it to best use. While I'm sure the book will get used, it won't get nearly as much use as other books on my shelf.

This is the book I bought when I first bought a smoker several years ago and it has been very helpful. It serves the needs of the beginner or the more experienced outdoor cook. The recipes are pretty interesting and range from complex to quite simple, with an international flare. Although initially I bought the book to help me with smoking techniques and recipes I have found it extremely helpful as a "normal" cookbook. The sauces, pastes, dressings and marinade suggestions are easily transferred to traditional indoor cooking and I have done so as a result. The recipes also serve as a springboard for one's own creative ideas. Even if you don't have the time to follow the recipes it is fun to read them and imagine. Who knows it may even inspire you to smoke something outdoors! Recommended for all outdoor cooks who want to do something besides bbq on the grill.

A good friend gave me this book and got me started cooking again after years of eating out or peanut butter at home. Now, I've dropped off the deep end. I really never knew smoking was sooo easy. The authors provide all the basic information about smoking foods, then provide recipes for running (er, cooking) wild. Though the recipes are easy enough, the end products turn out wonderfully complex and immeasurably delightful. Any book that reccomends gin and brown sugar in the same recipe deserves your attention.

By now, I would tell people that from my large slection of cookbooks, my BBQ books are my pride and joy... At the CORE of my collection are the Jamison & Jamison books!!!! From Rubs to woods to sauces to recipes to types of grills, it is ALL covered!!! Please get this and their other books as well!!! You will look, talk, and best of all COOK like an expert before long! Happy BBQ'ing!!! ed saunders

I love my smoker, and a few years after buying it we're still using it regularly. Soon after buying the hardware, I picked up a copy of the Jamison's Smoke & Spice, and it quickly became my primary resource. Absolutely awesome. So I hurried out to buy Sublime Smoke, too, and... not so much.

This cookbook is good, don't get me wrong. It's just not awesome.

If you have a smoker, the original Smoke & Spice is a must because it has all the Expected Things: how to smoke a brisket, trout with lemon, pork or beef ribs (I have a batch of pork ribs doing their overnight dry rub right now), with lots of variations. Those are the recipes you'll want to get comfortable with, and I never had the Jamisons steer me wrong. (On any of their cookbooks, in fact; their breakfast cookbook was among my first Amazon reviews, and I still adore that cookbook.)

Sublime Smoke is more about cooking with smoked foods than it is about smoking, per se. Each of these 200+ recipes expects that you'll smoke something, but it might or might not be the star of the show. And it might not be recognizable as "barbecue." That's fine -- but it probably isn't the way that a new smoker owner wants to explore what she can do with it.

That's not to say I don't like the recipes, because I do. Their Thai sirloin salad was just perfect for a hot summer day when I wanted something both healthy and hearty. And I'll probably get around to making their trout hash one of these days. (The salmon hash from their breakfast book is so wonderful that I'd make any hash they suggest.) The cookbook is best when it does variations on the old standbys, like a three-pepper steak in zinfandel sauce or a Puerto Rican bitter orange pork butt.

But I find that I flip through this cookbook, say, "Yum, that sounds good"--and then I cook something else entirely. I think it's because smoking something as an ingredient is more complexity than I want to take on, or it just takes too long. "Walnut pear salad with smoked garlic vinaigrette" sounds good, doesn't it? But I'm not going to fire up the smoker just for a head of garlic. (Maybe I'll remember to fling in a head when I smoke those pork ribs... but that's more planning than I can handle.) A tarragon tomato soup smokes the tomatoes, which sounds delicious... but am I really going to make this? Not today.

I like this cookbook. In the three-or-so years I've had it, though, I've read it far more than I have cooked from it. If you're new to smoking, by all means pick this up--but don't let it be your initial introduction.

The authors of this book really know what they are talking about. The recipes are delicious, and the cooking times and temperatures are right on target.

Nothing to write home about. The author really tries to err on the side of "fresh" and "light" and "healthy". The result is sort of like reading an extended edition of an issue of Bon Appetit.

This is a great reference book. It was shipped very fast. I was extremely pleased with my purchase and the transaction.

Don't waste your money. Their first book. Smoke & Spice, was one of the best I own. The success must have gone to their heads. It's a shame that they will surely make a lot of money for this poor effort only because of the first books quality.