The BBQ Queens’ Big Book of Barbecue
By Karen Adler; Judith Fertig
Harvard Common Press, $18.95, 416 pages
Written by two skilled Kansas City culinary instructors, cookbook authors and BBQers, who happen to be women, this massive tome takes the position that women BBQ differently than men. According to Adler and Fertig, women think about the entire meal, not just the meat, and they have more time sensitivity, less likely to spend 12 hours smoking a roast. So not only do they provide hundreds of recipes, for main dishes, sides, appetizers, and desserts, but also many variations on them, making this a useful book each time you return to it.
From here we used the Worcestershire Marinade (recommended for pork loin, but tasty on steak nonetheless)-an easy marinade to put together, and the longer you let it sit, the stronger the flavor. In and around the core recipes are extra salads and side dishes, nice when you discover them, annoying when you are looking for them and can’t remember just where they were. There is a great index and a resource guide for many of the tools and ingredients mentioned. Even though it is aimed at women, I doubt your grill will notice your gender as you light it up.
