Summer Grilling: It’s all Fun and Flames!

 

Reviews by Kristina Sepetys

 

People have been cooking with fire for thousands of years. Wood fires suggest comfort, fellowship, and celebration, and many chefs think they’re the best way to coax flavor out of foods. Whether you’re planning to grill up some goodness at a campsite, in your fireplace, over the grill on your deck, or in a cob oven, you’ll find lots of inspiration in these titles.

 

 

Cooking with Fire: From Roasting on a Spit to Baking in a Tannur, Rediscovered Techniques and Recipes that Capture the Flavors of Wood-Fired Cooking
by Paula Marcoux
(Storey, 2014)

Marcoux, a food historian and wood-fired cooking enthusiast, shares 100 recipes for preparing all manner of dishes, from meat and fish to breads and beverages. She begins with simple techniques, like cooking with live fire and food on a stick, and progresses to spits, skewers, grills, planks, pots, pans, griddles, and other more elaborate structures that harness heat and maximize flavor.

 

 

Sunset’s The Great Outdoors Cookbook:
Adventures in Cooking Under the Open Sky
by the editors of Sunset Magazine
(Oxmoor House, 2014)

More than 200 step-by-step, well-illustrated recipes and instructions for out-of-doors cooking adventures, including foods for the backpack, plants to forage, and techniques for using campfires, grills, smokers, Dutch and solar ovens, camp stoves, cauldrons, fire pits, and outdoor and pizza ovens.

 

 

Smoke & Pickles: Recipes and Stories
from a New Southern Kitchen
by Edward Lee
(Artisan, 2013)

Restaurateur and James Beard Award finalist Edward Lee shares 130 recipes mixing the flavors and techniques of his Korean roots, classical French training, and Kentucky home, with its garden and local farms. With one foot in the Southeast and one in the Far East, he says, “Smoke is the intersection that connects my two worlds…And where there is smoke, there is always a pickle nearby.”

 

 

From the Wood-Fired Oven: New and Traditional Techniques for Cooking and Baking with Fire
by Richard Miscovich
(Chelsea Green, 2013)

Are you intrigued by wood-fired ovens, but looking to move beyond traditional pizza and breads? Live-fire expert Miscovich provides instruction and recipes for roasting fish and meats; grilling, steaming, braising, and frying; baking pastries; rendering animal fats and clarifying butter; dehydrating foods; and infusing oils.

 

 

Homemade Condiments:
Artisan Recipes Using Fresh, Natural Ingredients
by Jessica Harlan
(Ulysses Press, 2013)

If you’re investing time and effort to make specially grilled foods, you’ll want to flavor them with nice condiments. Use this guide to whip up 75 different barbecue sauces, mustards, tangy spreads, and infused vinegars to enhance and add flavor.