For anyone else a cookbook picking out or making up 40 holidays out of the year would seem like a gimmick. For Ray "Dr. BBQ" Lampe it is a celebration in itself. Put simply this barbecue cookbook (including smoked, grilled and kitchen prepared dishes) is built on the idea that more and more people cookout all year long. This book takes advantage of that statistic and then finds reasons for you to hold a barbecue 40 times a year, winter to summer and back again. While you might not celebrate Tax Day, the inventive recipes in this book will certainly convince you to try it. No matter the gimmick, the recipes are great.
Boy, When you Specialize, you Specialize!
Exactly how long do you have to study to be a doctor of barbecue? For Ray Lampe it has been a lifetime. For us, we are fortunate that Ray decided to step away from the trucking business and take up barbecue full time. In the last decade he has become one of the driving forces of barbecue from the competition ring to the backyard. How did Ray do it? One, he's a really nice guy. Honestly, he really is. Secondly, he can put together recipes few others would have even thought of, and do it over lunch. Ray, is a creative genius of barbecue. Now, this isn't that fancy New York culinary genius that gives us microscopic cheese burgers or veggie ribs. Ray knows real people and he knows how to cook for them. This book taps into that genius and gives us recipes that make sense even if the holidays don't.
Goldfish Burgers?
No. Not real goldfish, goldfish crackers. As if to show off his wild recipe inventiveness, Ray throws out this burger recipe for your May Day celebration (even if you are not Russian). Take 3/4 cup of pulverized goldfish crackers and mix them in with 1 1/2 pounds of ground chuck. Add some eggs to hold it together and some seasonings and you have a cheesy burger without cheese. Consider this a quick and easy (and potentially Kosher) burger that you can prepare ahead of time and grill at your May picnic.
Practical Barbecue
Every book on grilling or barbecue has that necessary section on how to grill or smoke. In many instance this is a pretty much a pointless exercise. I mean, does every murder mystery start out by telling you what murder is, why its bad and how best to go about it? No. Ray doesn't spend a lot of time in this book telling you how to light your grill, what a smoker is or why barbecue is good. What he does do, in between the recipes and celebrations, is turn out practical tips and advice about how to best go about doing that which you are probably doing already. After all, most people who buy (or receive) barbecue cookbooks already cook outdoors. I encourage you to actually read through this book. You will learn something. I promise.
A Picture is Worth half a Star
This is a good cookbook. Unfortunately for me, and so many other people, I like cookbooks with pictures. I realize that publishing costs are high, margins are thin and budgets often don't have room for loads of glossy pictures of the recipes as they are prepared. However, I have a thing about cookbooks without pictures. This book does have some photos, but they are largely illustrative pictures that help set the mood, but don't show you the food. Given the choice between the two, I'll take food over mood every time.
Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.
