Low & Slow......

I don't think you can ever stop learning about barbecue so when I think a good BBQ book hits the shelf I usually try and pick it up. For me I think learning from my own mistakes is my number one teacher aside from reading and hands on instruction. When you learn from other peoples mistakes it sometimes help's but not always. Their are so many different styles to achieving great BBQ that skipping a small step could be a very big difference. This being said you don't know what they may or may not have done so what works for me might not work for you and vise versa. Gary Wiviott the author of this book has been cooking barbecue for 10 years and hits on the fact that he's made the mistakes so you don't have to. I thought the book was worth the money however telling someone to forget everything they know about BBQ is definitely a turn-off to me and discourages people from having their own style so to speak.

I think the book had some great information in regards to cooking on different cookers and I especially liked the fact that this book actually breaks down each method when doing so. I think this book would have been more appealing to me had I not had the opportunity to learn from some of the best pit-masters out there, however for someone who does not have that opportunity I would say this book is a definite resource for many things BBQ. Being a competition cook vs a backyard cook which is what Gary is open's the floor for a few disagreements in my style vs his I think, however his knowledge and diversity in recipes, rubs, marinades and brine's is something I very much appreciate.

This book is something I have found to be somewhat controversial in a few areas, but maybe in my own little way. I will start by saying that being from Texas, Brisket and other beef products are a main staple in our BBQ and I was not happy to see that their was no section covering beef at all. I know it's also popular in other parts of the country so I was thrown off a little by it being left out of this book. It's just as important as any other meat and a good pitmaster learns to cook many items vs just a few. If you are going to write a book on BBQ I think you should include all facets of BBQ not just poultry, pork and side items. I also disagree with the fact that it says to use Pork Butt drippings so you can emulate a Texas Style BBQ Sauce in which he refers to Coopers BBQ Sauce in Llano, TX. Hello folks...Coopers does not serve pulled pork on their menu that I have seen. They do serve Pork Chops but knowhere do they use pork butt juice in their sauce. They use Brisket drippings which is an entirely different animal and flavor all together so I think the analogy of making a good Texas based sauce with pork juice should be thrown out entirely. In my opinion before you write about something I think it's best to know what you are putting out and to what audience but to each his own. Since I have not tried this in fairness I should not call it a controversy but more of a difference in opinion.

I would recommend this book to almost anyone wanting to cook or go about cooking better BBQ. For me anyone who has taken the time to write a book and give out their secrets is very deserving of a thumbs up. I do not think I would be a good student of the authors instruction but I did pick up a few things from this book that I know will help out in other ways.