BARBECUED LAMB SHOULDER WITH BLACK DIP

Easter is this weekend and Passover is not far behind. But you don’t need a holiday to enjoy lamb. Here’s a uniquely American twist on a springtime favorite: lamb shoulder smoked like pulled pork, then served with what in Kentucky parlance is known as black dip (think lemon and Worcestershire barbecue sauce).

Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with a Pastrami Reuben

Call me an iconoclast, but I believe there are better ways to celebrate the Feast of St. Patrick (March 17) than by emptying a vacuum-sealed pouch of corned beef brisket into a pot of boiling water with cabbage wedges. Even if you’re a homesick Irishman, it doesn’t sound like anything to, well, write home about. What is worth writing home about is a Reuben sandwich made with home-cured, home-smoked pastrami. Read More…

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How to Build a Smokehouse

In October 2014 we showed you a home-built wooden smokehouse. (Here’s a photo of me next to mine.) To make an even more permanent structure—and commitment to the art of smoking—cinder blocks are the way to go. The very affordable Build a Smokehouse book offers the most complete instructions I know for building a cinderblock smokehouse. Read More…

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RECIPE OF THE WEEK: PB&J CORN BREAD

When in doubt, add bacon, chiles, and cheese. I give you Raichlen’s PB&J corn bread: P for pepper Jack cheese, B for bacon, and J for jalapeños.

Dry-Aged Beef: Worth the Wait

What’s behind the mystique of dry-aged steak? We asked the experts at Chicago Steak Company to give us a crash course. Read More…

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5 Regional Barbecue Sauces for Pulled Pork

Pork shoulder is one of the cornerstones of American barbecue—right up there with brisket and ribs. It’s certainly the most flexible: you can smoke it. Indirect grill it. Spit-roast it on a rotisserie. It’s also the most forgiving: it stays moist even when you overcook it. Read More…

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SMOKE-ROASTED CHICKEN WITH HORSERADISH DIP

With this method, the bird’s skin is bronzed with wood smoke and crisp as flatbread, while the meat inside is smoky, tender, and lasciviously moist.

How to Make the Perfect Pot of Chili—Start with Barbecued Meat

Sometimes the best comfort foods come ladled from a pot—especially during the freeze of February. Speaking of pots, everyone should know how to cook up a pot of chili. Read More…

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The Smoked Salmon Whisperer

Smoke masters go to extraordinary lengths to perfect their craft, chopping and seasoning their own wood, butchering their own meats, spending sleepless nights tending pits or smokehouses. But as far as I know, only one serenades his smoked salmon with piano music. Read More…

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RECIPE OF THE WEEK: FLORENTINE-STYLE STEAK

Bistecca alla fiorentina (Florentine steak) is one of the high holies of Tuscan cuisine—a magisterial porterhouse grilled over oak, assertively seasoned with sea salt, and anointed with the finest olive oil. Here’s how I described my first Florentine steak experience: Within minutes, the outside of the meat had seared to a golden-brown crust. The inside remained moist and sanguine. The aroma generated when the fragrant oil hit the hot meat darn near drove me out of my mind with pleasure.

Because of its simplicity, Florentine-style steak lives or dies by the quality of the ingredients. Buy grass-fed beef if you can find it, aged if you can afford it. A crunchy, flaky sea salt like Maldon is your first choice for seasoning. And for olive oil? Only the highest quality oil will do.

My personal source for great extra virgin olive oil, on which I have relied for years, is the Fresh-Pressed Olive Oil Club. Every three months, they send me custom-selected oils of astonishing freshness and flavor—simply the best olive oils you’ll taste on six continents.

Read more about the club here, including an exclusive offer to send subscribers of my newsletter a free full-size bottle of Italian olive oil from the recent harvest with a trial subscription.

Your steaks—indeed, anything you grill—will never be the same.

Game Day! A Superlative Menu for Super Bowl Sunday

I’m writing from Palm Springs, California, where a very dedicated film crew and I are shooting Season 2 of Steven Raichlen’s Project Smoke, the show I created to prove smoking is the new grilling. But I haven’t forgotten that this Sunday—Super Bowl Sunday—is the second biggest eating day in the U.S. next to Thanksgiving. Read More…

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Crash Course on Grilling: The Anatomy of a Grill

Travel Planet Barbecue with me and you’ll find grills of every size, shape, and design. Despite this incredible diversity, all grills share similar features. Know how they work and you’re well on your way to improving your grill skills. What makes a grill? Read More…

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SMOKED CHICKEN AND SAUSAGE GUMBO

Gumbo’s a perfect example of the multicultural influences that have made New Orleans’ food such a melting pot. Smoke-roasting the chicken just adds another dimension.

Black Magic: Cast Iron and Live Fire

When it comes to cookware for your smoker or grill, cast iron rocks. From its tough black look to its wrist-bending heft. There’s its primal connection to past generations of live-fire hearth masters. And last but not least, its versatility. With a well-seasoned piece of cast iron, you can sear, braise, bake, fry, stew, pan-roast, and even smoke. Read More…

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Argentina: World’s Champion Beef Eaters

The stats are in and the winner is … Argentina. No other country consumes more beef. Last year, Argentineans consumed an average of 154 pounds per person—compared to 89.8 pounds in the U.S. Read More…

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CAVEMAN T-BONES WITH BELL PEPPER HASH

Roasting the steaks directly on the embers gives the meat a surface charring and smoke flavor you just can’t duplicate on a conventional grill.

Raichlen Predicts: BBQ Trends for 2016

Happy New Year, everyone! 2015 was an incredible year for barbecuing and grilling. 2016 promises to be even better. Here are 10 trends I believe will shape the world of live fire cooking in the next 12 months. Read More…

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My Year in Barbecue

2016 already? It seems like the past year went up in smoke. Which it did for me quite literally. Books. TV shows. Barbecue University. And lots of travel. All perfumed by the intoxicating scent of wood smoke. Read More…

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