Pitmaster: Recipes, Techniques, and Barbecue Wisdom [A Cookbook] by Andy Husbands

Pitmaster: Recipes, Techniques, and Barbecue Wisdom [A Cookbook] Reviews

• 
  Jill

  I live in Kansas City, where we take our barbecue seriously. Really seriously. We have competitions. We have a museum of barbecue. You can't swing a pair of barbecue tongs around without hitting several barbecue restaurants. We don't fool around here. 
  
  So when I saw a cookbook called "Pitmaster," I had to know more. And having seen what these authors have to offer us, I'd say that they don't fool around either. Chefs and authors (Wicked Good BBQ, Grill to Perfection) Andy Husbands and Chris Hart have done their homework. They are both winning competition barbecue competitors, and Husbands has a barbecue restaurant also. 
  
  Pitmaster is divided into six sections: Backyard Barbecue, North Carolina, Kansas City, Texas, The North, and Competition Barbecue. And each section does a phenomenal job of providing recipes and tried-and-true tips for creating amazing dishes. With interviews and articles by barbecue phenoms across the country, Pitmaster also takes you behind the scenes in each major barbecue outlet and walks you through what makes each region's food unique and special. 
  
  Of course, they talk about the meats. There are recipes for brisket, pork, burnt ends, chicken, duck, goat, and of course, ribs and ribs and ribs. There are rubs and sauces, and sides of all flavors--potato salad, cole slaws, macaroni and cheese, beans, pickles, cornbread, fries, and hush puppies. And if that's not enough to round out the meal, they even included recipes for drinks and desserts. 
  
  Words cannot do Pitmaster justice. All I can do is say that these guys have put together a legitimate barbecue cookbook and encourage you to pick it up and look at it yourself. The photographs are so mouth-watering, you can almost smell the smoke. And do I really have to spell out what a great gift this would make for the pitmaster or wannabe in your life? Buy Pitmaster, trust me. The rewards you'll get from your smoker will more than pay you back.
  
  
  
  Galleys for Pitmaster were provided by Fair Winds Press through Edelweiss, with many thanks. 
• 
  Jackson

  Love this book! First one I got when teaching myself barbecue smoking. Not the absolute best I've read but there are some amazing recipes in here! How a lot of the recipes are written limits the method of grilling/smoking if you are a beginner. Not a problem for more seasoned pros to know whats going on and transpose to their set up but a bit of an issue when you're just starting out and say a recipe uses a kamado and you have an off-set or weber bullet. Still, I recommend it highly to folks for the great recipes and regional barbecue history throughout. A good book if you are getting introduced to barbecue and want to read before taking the plunge and then hold on to later for the recipes. The competition section recipes are legit. I've made the chicken thighs and wings and they are phenomenal.
• 
  Caroline

  An interesting book! It's split up into 6 sections; Backyard Barbecue, North Carolina, Kansas City, Texas, The North, and Competition Barbecue. I wouldn't say this is a book for a beginner, but more for the specially interested. Not sure how creative these recipes are as I'm not really familiar with this cuisine, but there's lots of good recipes, even for sides, desserts and drinks, so you could whip up a big feast only using this book! It looks good, but I probably won't be using this much.
• 
  Jason Cox

  This is a fantastic cookbook with full-color photos throughout. Many different styles of barbeque are covered along with many different rubs, sauces, sides, desserts and even cocktails. I've tried several of the recipes and have been impressed with the outcome, even though I'm cooking on a pellet grill/smoker instead of lump hardwood charcoal.
  
  Looking forward to trying out the cocktail recipes and many of the sides as well as every last one of the BBQs on offer.
• 
  Ben

  I liked this book but I’m not 100% sure why. There were some recipes I liked but others were more eh. Not tons of background info like some of the other books I’ve read. Maybe it was the pictures or some of the pitmaster profiles which were both pretty nice.
• 
  Justin

  Some of the best photography I've seen in bbq. Also, the layout of the recipes by location makes you feel like your onna trip around the world discovering all of these great regional bbq recipes