One of the best things about summer is the opportunity to cook and dine al fresco. I checked our catalog at the library and found we have many cookbooks with recipes and ideas for outdoor entertaining. Digging a bit deeper I looked up our most popular outdoor cooking titles and the top 10 books are listed below with the most popular as number one. If you want to get a jump on your summer entertaining I suggest you place holds on any of the books that pique your interest.
10. Cooking Light: Way to Cook Grilling
This book includes more than 400 images illustrating a variety of grilling techniques. It also includes information about the ingredients that are used to prepare all of the grilled dishes. The techniques included are supplemented by over 125 recipes so you can use the information to create flavorful grilled meals.
9. Latin Grilling: Recipes to Share, from Argentine Asado to Yucatecan Barbecue and More
Chef Lourdes Castro takes readers on a culinary tour of the Americas with 90 recipes arranged into ten fiestas tailored for the home cook or backyard griller. The menus including beverages, starters, entrees, sides, and desserts.
8. Franklin Barbecue: a Meat-Smoking Manifesto
A complete meat and brisket cooking education from the country’s most celebrated pitmaster and owner of the wildly popular Austin restaurant Franklin Barbecue – winner of Texas Monthly’s coveted Best Barbecue Joint in Texas award.
7. Slow Fire: The Beginner’s Guide to Barbeque
This cookbook covers everything from stove-top smokers to backyard grills and offers recipes for competition-style beef brisket, bacon and blue cheese coleslaw, and more than sixty other dishes.
6. The Gardener and the Grill: The Bounty of the Garden Meets the Sizzle of the Grill
This book is the grilling guide for gardeners, seasonal eaters, and “flexitarians” everywhere. With seasonal recipes, tips on grilling for preserving, a griller’s pantry of rubs and versatile sauces, and more than 100 vegetarian recipes this is the must-have resource for grillers and gardeners alike.
Inside this book, you will find over 200 fresh, new recipes specially created to save time without sacrificing flavor. The emphasis is on fast and easy versions of barbeque classics.
4. The Ultimate Panini Press Cookbook
While not truly an outdoor cookbook, this book looks in-depth at panini makers as a powerful grill alternative. The author does this in two ways: first, by giving readers an inside look at how different models work and second, by supplying dozens of recipes for things other than panini that you can make in a panini maker.
3. The Asian Grill: Great Recipes, Bold Flavors
The aim of this book is to turn an ordinary backyard barbecue into an authentic Asian grill. The author guides readers through the foundations of classic Asian cooking enabling anyone who understands the basics of grilling to discover original taste and texture combinations.
2. Grilling: Where There’s Smoke There’s Flavor
This work includes over 150 recipes that span the globe. Indoor and outdoor grilling techniques are featured for year-round menu ideas.
1 The Japanese Grill: From Classic Yakitori to Steak, Seafood, and Vegetables
Chef Tadashi Ono shares a key insight: the live-fire cooking we adore marries perfectly with traditional Japanese ingredients like soy sauce and miso. Full of fast-and-easy recipes The Japanese Grill will have you grilling amazing steaks, pork chops, salmon, roasted tomatoes, and whole chicken, as well as authentic favorites like yakitori, yaki onigiri, and whole salt-grilled fish. Grilling has been a centerpiece of Japanese cooking for centuries and when you taste the dishes in “The Japanese Grill” you’ll become a believer, too.
I hope these popular books inspire you to get outside during the coming warm months and try some new recipes. Here’s to a fantastic (and delicious) summer!
Photo from pexels.com.