Synopses & Reviews
A Texan chef shows there is a whole world of flavor beyond just barbecue. Smoke is a primer on the most time-tested culinary technique of all — but one that we have lost touch with. Chef Tim Byres shows how to imbue all kinds of foods — not just meat — with the irresistible flavor of smoke. Here he gives innovative ideas for easy ways to use smoke in your everyday kitchen arsenal of flavors — such as smoking safely on the stovetop with woodchips, putting together relishes and salsas made with smoked peppers and other vegetables, grilling with wood planks, and using smoke-cured meats to add layers of flavor to a dish. For serious cooks, there are how-to sections on building a firepit, smokehouse, and spit roast at home. As a Texan, Byres draws on the regional traditions of Mexico, Louisiana, and the South. He takes down-home foods and gives them brilliant twists. The results are such gutsy recipes as Pork Jowl Bacon with Half Sour Cucumbers, Boudin Balls and Brick Roux Gumbo, Cabrito and Masa Meatpies, and Coffee-Cured Brisket with Rustic Toast. Everything is made from scratch — not just the sausages but also the accompanying sauces, jams, and pickles. This is cooking at its most primal, and delicious.
Review
“Smoke includes tutorials on hot smoking, cold smoking, campfire cooking, and one innovative method of whole-hog roasting. But the chef’s expertise extends far beyond the flammable. Alongside recipes for fat beef ribs and juicy brisket are marmalades, pickles, salads, and a run of delectable desserts. Though smoke-free, Byres’s churros are crispy bites of sugar and cinnamon that, with a rich chocolate sauce, make for a proper finale to a meat-laden meal.” Garden & Gun Magazine
Review
“Tim Byres has written a paradox...a smart, sophisticated, devilishly stylish book about man's most primitive cooking method: over a wood fire. Stunning recipes, drop-dead gorgeous photographs, with lively lucid prose to help you to act like you know what you're doing the next time someone thrusts tongs in your hand around a campfire. You can smell the smoke just reading it.” Steven Raichlen, author of The Barbecue Bible cookbook series and host of Primal Grill on PBS
Review
"Chef Byres’s Smoke has been inspirational, providing us with the practical know-how and the motivation we needed to stuff our first fresh chorizo sausage and smoke our first rabbit. Byres's intelligent, easygoing approach to food makes for delicious reading and eating." Matt Lee and Ted Lee, authors, The Lee Bros. Charleston Kitchen
Review
“Tim Byres is one of the most skilled and proficient cooks I have ever worked with and only a master of his caliber could bring such a simple but dynamic, new approach to wood cooking. With this cookbook, he is destined to become the new preeminent authority on the subject. Even if you never build a fire, the recipes for pickles, salsas and hominy casserole are worth the price of the book itself.” Stephan Pyles, Chef and Author
Review
“Tim has given us, in this book, a true sense of journey and experience into the mysteries of the real world of fire, wood, and smoked barbecue with fascinating recipes and tales.” The Pitmaster Ed Mitchell, Wilson, NC
Synopsis
Winner of the 2014 James Beard Award in the General Cooking Category
A Texan chef shows there is a whole world of flavor beyond just barbecue. Smoke is a primer on the most time-tested culinary technique of all--but one that we have lost touch with. Chef Tim Byres shows how to imbue all kinds of foods--not just meat--with the irresistible flavor of smoke. Here he gives innovative ideas for easy ways to use smoke in your everyday kitchen arsenal of flavors--such as smoking safely on the stovetop with woodchips, putting together relishes and salsas made with smoked peppers and other vegetables, grilling with wood planks, and using smoke-cured meats to add layers of flavor to a dish. For serious cooks, there are how-to sections on building a firepit, smokehouse, and spit roast at home. As a Texan, Byres draws on the regional traditions of Mexico, Louisiana, and the South. He takes down-home foods and gives them brilliant twists. The results are such gutsy recipes as Pork Jowl Bacon with Half Sour Cucumbers, Boudin Balls and Brick Roux Gumbo, Cabrito and Masa Meatpies, and Coffee-Cured Brisket with Rustic Toast. Everything is made from scratch--not just the sausages but also the accompanying sauces, jams, and pickles. This is cooking at its most primal, and delicious.
About the Author
Tim Byres is the chef and owner of the restaurants Smoke and Chicken Scratch in Dallas, Texas.
Food & Wine named him "Best New Chef of the Southwest" in 2011 and "The People's Best New Chef" in 2012. He has been featured in
Southern Living, the
New York Times, and
Garden & Gun. Josh Ozersky, the author of The Hamburger: A History and Meat Me in Manhattan, has written for Time, Newsday, Saveur, and the New York Times.