Bludso's BBQ Cookbook: A Family Affair in Smoke and Soul by Kevin Bludso

Bludso's BBQ Cookbook: A Family Affair in Smoke and Soul Reviews

• 
  Monique

  Great recipes and the commentary is amazing. The recipes are simple enough for common chef but tasty enough to satisfy the toughest food critic.
• 
  Liquidlasagna

  i think it's one of the best soul food barbeque books around
  
  definately impressed with the recipes
  almost perfect in every way with the selection of the dishes
  
  ---
  
  Barbeque
  brisket
  pork sparerubs
  sausages
  pork shoulder
  rib tibs
  beef short rins
  chicken
  
  Barbeque Rubs
  brisket rub
  steak sub
  pork rub
  lamb rub
  chicken rub
  fish-fry seasoninmg
  bbq sauce
  granny's gravy
  
  Different Barbeque Stuff
  smoked lamb leg
  smoked oxtails birria
  spicy curried oxtails
  la tips
  smoked tri-tip tacos iwth pico de gallo and guacamole
  smoked chicken wings
  spicy wood-grilled chicken
  spicy hot dog chili
  red chili burritos
  rasheed's smoked pork pho
  
  Sunday Dinner
  red-beans and rice
  pinto beans with smoked neck bacon
  smothered turkey wings
  smothered chicken and gravy
  fried chicken
  fried pork chop sandwich
  fried ribs
  sunday short ribs
  monique's seven day rooster
  
  Main Dishes
  oysters bbq fella
  grilled mojo shrimp
  shrimp and crawfish etouffee
  shrimp and grits
  chicken seafood and sausage gumbo
  seafood boil
  smoked crab legs
  fried whole crappie
  fried catfish fillet
  blackened catfish
  kallin's fish tacos
  
  Side Dishes
  potato salad
  coleslaw
  mashed potatoes
  collard greens
  brisket baked beans
  string beans with red potatoes and smoked turkey necks
  black-eyed peas
  spicy creole sausage
  spicy creole cabbage
  down-home mac and cheese
  cornbread
  
  Breakfast
  perfect grits
  spice maple breakfast sausage
  bacon and sausage gravy with biscuits
  buttermilk pancakes
  noah's chorizo and smoked potato breakfast burritos
  
  Special Occasions
  smoked turkey breast
  smoked turkey
  fried turkey
  smoked prime rub
  candied yams
  cornbread dressing
  giblet gravy
  thanksgiving broth
  
  Desserts
  hennessy on the rocks
  mom's baked banana pudding
  julie's bourbon-pecan bread pudding
  shirley ann's buttermilk pie
  mom's blackberry cobbler
  thelma's cheesecake
  nancy's red velvet cake
  mom's strawberry cake
• 
  False

  Given that I don't have any form of a grill set up, this isn't of much use to me, but I did save some recipes on the rubs and marinades and coatings.
  
  A lot of BBQ books are geared either for real die-hard purists (WOOD ONLY! OFFSETS ONLY! SALT PEPPER GARLIC ONLY!) or else for people who don’t really care about learning to cook BBQ but just want some nice pictures. This book takes a middle path, not by compromising either side but by speaking to both audiences at once. It does have nice pictures, too, if you care about that.
  for fried food, to try at a later date. It seems like true down home cooking with an African American slant.
  
  
• 
  April Hurst

  I love this cookbook! I love the detail, the stories (I especially got a kick out of the story around the rooster) and really love the the photos. This book was very well done. It's a wonderful mix of recipes, family history, stories, meaningful photos and humor. I can't wait to try some of these recipes!
• 
  Jill

  Kevin Bludso comes from a storied family. And he’s got the stories. His mother was a Black Panther. His father was a police officer in L.A. is honorary grandmother in Texas ran a speakeasy (with other backrooms that made her money in various ways). Bludso was a corrections officer himself before he became a chef. He grew up in Compton, and while his parents worked hard to keep him out of danger, not everyone in the family got the same consideration.
  
  But it was those summers in Texas that taught Bludso everything he needed to know about barbecue. Winnie Mae Fields, who he called Granny, woke him up early every morning to cook. He learned how to make a mean brisket, but he also learned the power of hard work. And when he got to college and needed some extra money, he did what he knew. He started cooking chicken dinners and making himself some cash.
  
  After college, Bludso went to work in the corrections department, but he was restless. He was unhappy. It wasn’t until he went into cooking as a full-time (150 hours a week or so) chef, smoking meats and pairing that with comfort food sides that he found where his heart truly was. Because his first restaurant was in Compton, not a place known for its barbecue restaurants, there were some early slow years. But he kept putting out good food, and people started taking note. He started getting some love on the review apps, but when legendary critic Jonathan Gold gave Bludso’s food a rave review, the lines stretched out down the block for his food.
  
  From there it was media gone crazy, and reporters were lining up to interview Bludso on their radio shows and newspaper articles, their magazine profiles and their television shows. And as more and more people came in to try the food, Bludso expanded his restaurant empire, spreading his food love far and wide. Now, he’s going a step further and opening his recipes up to us all, while entertaining us with stories of his family.
  
  Bludso’s BBQ Cookbook can teach you how to chose a smoker and how to get the best out of it, but it also teaches the importance of standing up for what and who you believe in. He gives readers recipes for rubs and sauces that will elevate your flavors, but he also gives his rules for success, which include giving back and giving credit where credit is due. The cookbook has a lot of recipes for smoking everything from brisket to lamb, ribs to chicken, sausage to seafood, but there are also recipes for sides, breakfasts, and desserts.
  
  The truth of Kevin Bludso’s legacy is his exceptional barbecue recipes. If you want to learn how to do it right, even if you only have a grill, you can use this cookbook to find out how (chapter: OG BBQ). If you want to learn how to cook soul food, then you can learn that here too (chapter: Soul Food Sundays) . But if you want to learn to cook from the heart, like you were taught by a legacy of great chefs, then you are at the right place for that too. If you want to cook fish like someone who grew up on a lake, or if you want to add the perfect sides to your smoked chicken, or if you want to learn to bake Mom’s Strawberry Cake that screams summer, then you can find all that too. But most of all, you will find in the pages of this book Kevin Bludso’s heart and soul, rubbed with black pepper and garlic salt and more than a little heat, smoked to perfection, and served up for anyone who is hungry for more than just food.
  
  I come from a part of the country known for its barbecue, north of Texas and East of California, so I love to read a barbecue cookbook. I love to learn more about technique and about the blending of heat and sweet, of rubs and sauces, that create unique flavor combinations. And Bludso’s BBQ Cookbook certainly has that. But I was so moved by the family stories, I can’t wait to try some of the other recipes here. The Smothered Chicken and Gravy, Sunday Short Ribs, Down-Home Mac and Cheese, and Thelma’s Cheesecake all sound amazing. But there is a recipe for Bacon and Sausage Gravy with Biscuits that his granny used to make that I can’t think about without my mouth watering. It just sounds like it’s probably one of the most delicious iterations of biscuits and gravy, and I can’t wait to make a special Sunday breakfast with it because that is the kind of recipe that is so infused with love (and bacon) that it can’t help but make the meal special. That’s the kind of cookbook this is.
  
  I received a free copy of Bludso’s BBQ Cookbook from Ten Speed Press in exchange for a free and unbiased review, with many thanks.
• 
  Charles Eldridge

  I loved Bludso’s bbq place in Compton. It was one of the first palatable bbq places in LA. I was really excited to explore this cookbook, but I was left wanting. The recipes are a real hodgepodge that he often doesn’t “sell” well to the reader: “I had a dish once in FL. It was good. Here’s a similar recipe.” . I was really underwhelmed. Didn’t learn anything new and didn’t really vibe with the tone of his writings.
• 
  Jenny

  This was unlike many cookbooks I’ve read. The structure is similar: intro essay, sections, recipes with blurb-ingredients-directions. What’s different? The humor, photos, story. The intro essay sets up the details about the family connections to the recipes, the photos are glorious representations of family and food, and the humor? I am still laughing about the rooster recipe.
• 
  Reading Fool

  This is an all-around, comprehensive cookbook that isn't only about barbecue. While I thought the chapters on BBQ were great (awesome recipes!), I very much appreciated the recipes for breakfast, sides, and desserts. Actually my favorite recipes from the book are Mom's Baked Banana Pudding and Down-Home Mac and Cheese.
  The first recipes I tried were for Steak Rub and Pork Rub. I tried the former on grilled NY strips, and the latter on a slab of smoked baby backs. (Thanks to my hubby for smoking the ribs.) The family enjoyed both rubs - just the right amount of heat.
  This book will be used as a BBQ reference book for sure. I learned a lot from the beginning how-to sections oin How to BBQ - Kev's Way.
  I've received a free copy from Ten Speed Press in exchange for a free and unbiased review.
• 
  Margery Osborne

  score--taste 10; health 0
  loved the narrative also collard greens!