LITTLE ROCK — The Big Book of BBQ from the editors of Southern Living magazine ($24.95, Oxmoor House) provides a basic primer on smoking meat for aspiring barbecue experts. It discusses what barbecue is and isn’t, the craft’s basic tools and techniques, and offers well-tested recipes from the “Barbecue Belt.” Every now and then something like Cuban mojo chicken sneaks in, but most pages are populated with recipes such as one for a giant barbecue bacon burger, marinated beef kebabs, and easy barbecued chicken.
Overlook the definitiondefying “vegetarian sausage” and head straight for the enticing chorizo and clams, merguez and apple tagine, and Creole sausage gumboin Sausage by Victoria Wise ($23, Ten Speed Press).
Wise explores the world of pork, beef, lamb and other sausages through an international lens, with recipes for homemade or store-bought sausages from around the world. While pork and chestnut sausage wrapped in chicken breast sounds like meat overkill, turkey and pistachio meatballs offers a manageable start to your sausage-making career. The book includes more than 75 recipes for sausage, and no casings or fancy equipment is required.
Food, Pages 32 on 06/23/2010