Big Bob Gibson's BBQ Book: Recipes and Secrets from a Legendary Barbecue Joint: A Cookbook Paperback – May 12, 2009

If you take your barbecuing seriously this book is a great addition to your collection. Chris Lilly cooks, hands-down, the best pulled pork I have ever tasted. I have literally heard hundreds of people tell him the same thing when tasting his pork and ribs at the South Beach Wine and Food Festival. No matter how much you think you know about barbecue this book will still have something to offer you. Plus, he has plenty of barbecue championships and awards to prove it.The book contains more than just great barbecue recipes. It intersperses that with the history of Big Bob Gibson BBQ, from the restaurant's beginning as a backyard labor of love to its present level of success as a world-renowned maker of barbecue food, sauces and rubs and competitive barbecue team. The story of Big Bob Gibson and his restaurant help barbecue chefs of any experience level remember the most important lesson of great meat - patience. Like great barbecue, Big Bob's personal quest to perfect his craft proves that the best results take time, effort and practice.Any cook book can provide recipes and any chef can follow directions. But Chris Lilly gives you more than just recipe directions in this book. He masterfully explains the other things; the little details that recipes can't teach you but that are crucial to their success. He tells you what only a true pit master would teach you.Don't let this endorsement scare you if you consider yourself a novice or too inexperienced to benefit from such sage advice. There are recipes in this book I have made with grade school children helping me. They are simple to read and understand but take a time and practice to master. This is a great resource for starting that quest.I can't stress this enough. If you want a barbecue cook book, I can't imagine how this book could possibly disappoint you!

By far the best book for learning how to BBQ successfully. Well written, entertaining and insightful. Not a "do it this way" guide, more a "we do it this way because..." and "if you want to do this, we recommend this approach, because...". We've gained a tremendous amount of knowledge from reading this book and working through the recipes which have been uniformly outstanding. If you are looking for diverse, high quality, delicious recipes for rubs, sauce and mops this book will not disappoint. It also provides you with the knowledge to develop your own signature rub and/or BBQ sauce if that's something you feel the need to do. We will never, ever buy BBQ sauce from a grocery store again. The preperation time for an average rub is 10 minutes and an average BBQ sauce is 30 minutes. Once they're made they tend to be good for a couple of weeks making it easy to prepare these for later in the week. This book is very much focused on traditional "low and slow" BBQing. As a result cooking times can be long, 2 to 12 hours depending on the size of the cut, but the flavor and tenderness of the resulting meat is to die for.If you have never used indirect heat (typically 225 degrees)and smoke to cook food before you are in for a treat. This book provides the guidance many of us need to get the most from our existing outdoor grill or BBQ. If you decide to invest in a new BBQ the information provided here will help you to find one which best suites you and your lifestyle.P.S. We highly recommend the recipes for the Memphis Red and White BBQ sauces. We were wary of the latter but once we tried it.......

This book contains a variety of recipes along with ample history of Big Bob Gibson's barbecue.At present, I have tried from the book:(1) the pork shoulder recipe, served with the Memphis style sauce(2) the whole butterflied chicken, served with Bob Gibson's famous white sauce.Both were outstanding and each was easily worth the price of the entire book, particularly the white sauce-WOW.both followed classic barbecue techniques and did not require excessive preparation or a half dozen steps.In addition to covering the most common types of barbecue, the book also includes side dishes, an occassional dessert, and a variety of sauces--most derived from something done at Big Bob Gibson's or by Chris Lilly in competition.There are lots of great barbeque books out there, what this book brings is (1) recipes that have routinely won awards at barbecue competitions-lots of awards, (2) some unique Bob Gibson sauces that are terrific (3) a enjoyable history of the man and the restaurant.I look forward to trying more recipes in the future.NOTE: I tried these on the big green egg, which is well suited for long cooking sessions. Even though the book does not address ceramic cookers, the recipes are not equipment specific. But the obviously amazing results possible (and amply described) with a true barbecue pit and 100% hickory make it clear there is another level of barbecue out there.

I'm from the South. That being said, I believe this to be one of the more complete books on barbecue. It's loaded with tips from a real, practicing pit master. There's page after page of recipes and practical information that both beginning and master barbecue enthusiasts can put to use. The price for this plethora of information is a very good value. Lots of color photos and instructions. There's lots of barbecue history, based mostly on the restaurant. Would I buy this book again? YES, Absolutely! In fact, I bought one for my step-son for his birthday. Buy it; you will not be disappointed.