Smoke & Spice, Updated and Expanded 3rd Edition: Cooking With Smoke, the Real Way to Barbecue

by Cheryl Alters Jamison, Bill Jamison

Cheryl and Bill Jamison’s path-breaking Smoke and Spice was the first, and remains by far the best-selling, book on real barbecue—slow-cooking over smoke—for home cooks. This new and expanded edition appears on the twentieth anniversary of the classic book’s first edition. It has two key features. First, there are 50 new recipes, including meat dishes, such as Molasses-Brined Pork Butt, Lemon-Coriander Chicken, and Brisket Frito Pie, as well as sauces, sides, and desserts, like Peppery Sweet Onion Sauce, Cornbread Fritters, and Chipotle Cherry Cobbler. Second, it now contains cover- to-cover color photography and page design. The photographs show details of backyard-smoking techniques, delectable views of finished foods from the smoker, and atmospheric shots of barbecue joints and of the legendary pitmasters who cook in them.   With 450 recipes from each of the U.S.’s best barbecue regions, each recipe expertly perfected and fine-tuned by the Jamisons, amusing anecdotes and tall tales from the colorful world of ’Q, and take-it-to-the-bank advice on how to use any kind of smoker (as well as how to smoke-cook on a conventional grill), this expanded and richly photographed new edition is certain to usher in a new generation of backyard cooks devoted to real barbecue.  

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Reference, Food, Nonfiction, Food and Drink

560 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1994

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great guide on BBQ smoking techniques and skills. Becoming a newborn Texan and I am pretty sure it's required reading. :)

[Pierre · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you want to learn how to smoke bbq, this book will disappoint. The authors pay lip service to using a grill to bbq, and instead write about how to buy various kinds of pit bbqs. Come on, really?

On the otherhand, the recipes look interesting...but the entire book lacks coherent explanations. Oh well.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

We have a wood-pellet smoker/grill, and this is hands down the best cookbook for our smoker. Every recipe we've tried has been a roaring success. My husband keeps a container of Mr. Brown's rub on hand all the time now.

[Lynda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good information if you have a smoker.










goo

[Tatjana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let us be clear: this book is not about BBQ as those of us from the south or southern plains understand it. Rather, this wonderful book is filled with creative recipes to be enjoyed using a grill, pit or smoker.

It is instructive about indirect heat methods and using wood/coals for cooking meat products; however, if all you want to do it make ribs, then a different book will serve you better (I recommend BBQ Crossroads and Legends of Texas BBQ). This book has more in common with Raichlen's The Barbecue Bible than traditional Barbecue.

Smoke & Spice includes Turkey, Salmon, Trout, Pie, Pizza, Nachos, Cabrito... I'm sorry... I have to stop because I am drooling. This is one of those books that you check out from the library, and buy once you realize how incredible it is.... and I was just looking for a book to help me make better ribs. I love having my world expanded!

[Jim Robles · Rating 2 out of 5]

Our Thanksgiving turkey (p. 190 Worth-the-Wait Turkey) was a success. It did require starting the smoker at 11 PM (a couple hours past my normal bedtime), putting the turkey in the smoker at midnight, a few checks to make sure that the temperature stayed "set," removing the cheesecloth at 6 AM, and on until ~ 3 PM.

As good as our Thanksgiving turkey turned out, I will use less cayenne pepper next time and certainly add something (anything) green (rosemary, oregano, etc.) next time.

That I guess is my primary disappointment with this cookbook. We have had a number of real successes. There just does not seem to be as much green stuff as there should be. Perhaps that is not the job of this cookbook?

The ninety-second book I have finished (Yeah! I have read it.) this year.

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one great book about barbeque (the real way of BBQ, using hardwood smoke to cook, indirectly, your food). The beginning of the book is a plethora of general information about smoking, covering such ground as types of equipment to use and types of wood and where they are found and what they are best used for. The book also contains plenty of recipes, from the rubs, mops and sauces that make up the components of most barbecue, to specific recipes for specific dishes (ribs, brisket and so on). Smoke and Spice is also sprinkled throughout with references to great pitmasters and BBQ joints, as well as web sites and books for further investigation. A great resource.

[Jason Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great recipes for smokers. It has rubs, washes, sauces for all kinds of meats and vegtables. Can also give basic concepts for you to build on. Nothing better than smoking food, drinking beer and watching college football.

[Brian Mcdaniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The basis of BBQ is cooking for long times at very low temperatures. The message is simple, but hard for newcomers to follow. Few BBQ books emphasize this point as well as Smoke and Spice. Buy it only for the first two chapters, read them religiously.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of smokers claim this is the bible for real BBQ. It has some great recipes and a guide for using the right woods for the right meat. I would like to have had more instruction on smoking techniques and modifications.

[Kristine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sure this cookbook contains lots of smoked food recipes, but it also contains the recipe for what I feel is the world's best Macaroni and Cheese casserole in the world.

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

All about BBQ, American BBQ that is. Lots of silly Southern BBQ pit allusions.

[John]

Smoke & Spice: Cooking with Smoke, the Real Way to Barbecue by Cheryl Alters Jamison (2003)

[Catherine Woodman · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of my top cookbooks--willie's wonderful rub, the key lime pie, and others are classics in our house

[Lindon Gareis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is rocket science for the smoking and grilling fanatic! Love it...

[❆ Crystal ❆ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome book!

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this, but it was somewhat out of date. I believe a newer version is available. But the basics are still basics...and very interesting to review.

[Dean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good recipes, not food on the smoker isn't the main focus of this book.

[Joeman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Favorite go to reference for all my smoker creations

[John]

Smoke & Spice: Cooking with Smoke, the Real Way to Barbecue by Cheryl Alters Jamison (2003)