How to Grill: The Complete Illustrated Book of Barbecue Techniques

The layout and format are simply outstanding - done, again, in what seems to be a "basic grilling book" format. Tons of color pictures showing various techniques. You want to know how to grill chicken breasts? Bam! It's right there. Bone-in chicken? Whole chicken? Chicken sate? Chicken wings? All there.

And for the more seasoned cook, there are new things as well. Recipes like rum-cured smoked salmon and turkey pastrami are a few non-everyday recipes that are quite excellent. And yes, I've tried many of the recipes and they've all come out quite well. In addition, there are plenty of notes and comments that will bring any cook to a higher level.

One note, however. I also bought his 'The Barbecue! Bible' book, and it appears that most of the recipes are also in that book as well, albeit not as nicely illustrated and laid out. I still, though, use both quite frequently (the photos on cutting up a whole chicken are just one of the things that are better in this book).


The PERFECT reference guide for grilling   July 6, 2001
Mark Belonio (Phoenix, AZ United States)
106 out of 109 found this review helpful

_____The book's greatest feature is its completeness. Raichlen covers all aspects of grilling:

1: Types of grills - Raichlen discusses the basics on gas grills, charcoal grills, hibachis, tuscan grills, smokers, you name it.

2: How to set everything up - I learned how to probperly light coals, clean and oil the grate, and test for proper temperature.

3: Recipes! - From steak to ribs to chicken, and even lobster and vegetables, Raichlen provides detailed instructions on how to cook just about anything on the grill. Plus, he even has quite a few recipes for rubs and sauces.

4: Everything else - Essential accessories, tips, and how to be a flamboyant griller can be found here.

_____In addition, the book is easy to read and logically outlined; you won't need to flip through trying to find specific information - you can find it easily once you know the layout.

_____I thought I was already an expert griller, but this book taught me A LOT of stuff, stuff that every griller should know. BUY IT!!


I Once Was Lost   June 15, 2001
36 out of 37 found this review helpful

Like many people I once thought I knew everything I needed to know about grilling -- and how to do it. I own several grilling books, including Barbecue Bible by the author, and have had many successes. But until I got this book I never knew how great grilling could be. Things I have done and especially those I never thought of doing or attempting -- like a whole chicken or turkey or pineapple -- are explained in such great (and color!) detail that I am rethinking every possibility and doing it all better than before. There must be at least six photos or more for every technique -- and the details are helpful even when I am not following the recipes like skewering shrimp or chicken wings. The asparagus "rafts" were a real eye opener and have already saved dozens from a firey fate. Every time you grill you should check this book, not just to find a recipe but just to brush up or learn how to do anything on the grill. Thanks Steven!


All about technique   July 9, 2002
Luke Navarro (Soledad, CA United States)
35 out of 35 found this review helpful

What the Barbecue Bible! was to inspiration, How to Grill is to technique. Written around 100+ grilling and barbecue techniques this book provides the Backyard Barbecue Chef with an arsenal capable of cooking just about any cut of meat to perfection. In his conversational style the author takes the reader through the process of selecting and preparing the meat, using rubs and marinades and best applying fire to food. After reading this book you will have the ability and knowledge to treat each cut of meat with a cooking technique that will best enhance the natural traits of the food.

Be warned that this book is a little biased toward the charcoal grill, but most of the recipes can be done on a gas grill if that is your taste. In addition it is primarily a book about grilling. The author only touches on advanced cooking techniques such as barbecuing and smoking. He does however treat rotisserie grilling very thoroughly. The section on materials is short but does provide the basic information you will need to know before cooking outdoors.

All told this book is an excellent guide to the fine art of grilling. It is an essential reference manual for both the beginner and advanced cook.


Not really for beginners   September 5, 2004
Matthew Goodwin (Beaverton, OR)
29 out of 39 found this review helpful

This is only an okay cookbook, rather than the be-all, end-all that other reviewers might lead you to believe. It does have some nice information in it but I had several problems with it that led to me returning the book to the store:

-The author claims in his introduction to have gathered as many questions as possible about grilling to help ease worries and generally enlighten people on the "secrets" of grilling. I found this information to be far too brief/summarized and I'm surprised at how much was left out. It seems strange to me that the author is so hyped up about high-fat meat (many of the recipes in the book specifically demand higher fat cuts of meat, or that you don't trim too much of the fat off), but he's gone and written a book for beginners and there isn't one word here about flare-ups, something that anyone is going to experience when cooking high-fat meat, and that will probably be intimidating for beginners.

-Speaking of high-fat meat...this is not a health-conscious cookbook. Not that it really needs to be, but the author doesn't even go so far as to provide calories-per-serving information on any of these recipes. I know that this can be tricky to do with grilling, but it would have been nice to at least get calorie information for the various sauces. Additionally, rather than provide tips on how to keep the flavor/moistness in low-fat cuts or trimmed meat (which, again, will prevent flare-ups and grease buildup), the author disregards these options and just tells the reader to use high-fat meat over and over again.

-The author claims in the introduction that the recipes in this book are organized as lessons to help you learn how to cook them. I didn't find this to be true exactly. Most of the recipes involve extremely time-intensive prepwork or expensive ingredients, such as saffron. I couldn't believe how many recipes in this book called for saffron, which I'm pretty sure is the most expensive spice you can buy in a regular grocery store (50 dollars an ounce last time I checked). If you really were trying to teach yourself how to grill these sorts of things for the first time, would you really want to risk saffron on your experiments? This just didn't make sense to me at all.

That being said, there were a few pretty nice recipes in this book, and some of the basic cooking information for specific kinds of meat is handy. It's just not as spectacular as others are making it out to be; I went into this book with high expectations from these reviews and came out let down.

For experts or for people who have been grilling the wrong way for many years, this might be an interesting book. I don't think I'd recommend it to true beginners. It's not the encyclopedic source of information it claims to be.