Pig Beach BBQ cookbook Smoked, grilled, roasted, and sauced

Abdoo and McBride meld their "haute cuisine" chops with the techniques of a "centuries-old craft" in this scattered collection inspired by their popular Brooklyn barbecue joint. Star menu items, such as glazed ribs and pastrami brined for two weeks, are patiently explained, and a chapter salutes New York's diverse flavors, including Lebanese-style ribs drizzled with a yogurt-based white sauce inspired by what's served at the local "meat-and-rice food carts found all over ." But when Abdoo and McBride go beyond the grill, results are mixed. A "very involved... free-form lasagna" with smoked duck confit is puzzlingly assembled on a sheet pan and cut into individual portions that are then pan-seared and finally baked--a restaurant method that makes little sense at home. Shredding brisket to fill ravioli and scattering pastrami cubes on ramen offer delicious ways to elevate the usual, but more delicate dishes--including cod in smoked tomato water--seem out of place alongside 16-ounce pork chops and mammoth tomahawk steaks. While the many barbecue-related tips (omit wrapping the shoulder for pulled pork if you like crispy "bark") are handy, some, including a note that yuzu juice is "available at some specialty stores and online," read like fillers. This cookbook's lack of focus dilutes the potency of its best recipes. (May)

This barbecue cookbook, from Abdoo and McBride's NYC restaurant Pig Beach, is like no other. Covering a range of recipes from a standard brine to smoked-duck lasagna to cheddar cheese gougères, the authors take barbecue far past its traditional roots and add international flavors and haute-cuisine flair. Abdoo and McBride acknowledge enslaved people's historical contributions to barbecue cuisine, but the contemporary pitmasters mentioned in the book are almost exclusively white. There's certainly no shortage of name-dropping. A section on the history of barbecue reads more like a travelogue of BBQ joints across the South, particularly Memphis and Charleston. The most useful section to home pitmasters will be "A Word About Smokers," which covers techniques, terms, and popular brands. VERDICT Libraries near a Pig Beach restaurant or with an extensive barbecue collection may want to purchase. It's too fussy to be of much use to novice barbecuers, but experienced pitmasters might be interested.--Catherine Field