Book Review
These are some of my favourite books and probably in the order I have displayed them.
While they’re not all strictly BBQ, there are some great sections on BBQ in them.
Fire and Food by Marcus Bawdon has some lovely recipes that can easily be adapted to the Big Green Egg. I love his simplicity. Food DIY is awesome, Tim Hayward inspired me to get into charcuterie far more than the books from River Cottage. He’s also local to me so I get to chat with him every so often. I’m still working on him to get an Egg!
Curry Compendium
Misty Ricardo (AKA Richard Sayce), has a series of books looking at British Indian Restaurant cooking. These are recipes taken from curry houses from all over the UK. We’ve made a few of these recipes, and they are all crackers.
There is another series of books by The Curry Guy, Dam Toomes which are also good, but I prefer the base sauce from Misty Ricardo and have had better results with his recipes.
While these aren’t BBQ books, the results of cooking these recipes on the Big Green Egg are better than cooking them on the hob. We make them in balti bowls from The Birmingham Balti Bowl Company, they’re brilliant. A wok or a Tefal Ingenio pan would work as well.
You can buy the Curry Compendium here.Â
Food and Fire
Launched in 2019, this has to be one of the best BBQ books for simple but super tasty recipes. I personally love that nothing is complicated, it's just showing off techniques and taste combinations and letting the food and BBQ talk for itself.
While the book doesn't focus of cooking on a ceramic BBQ like the Big Green Egg, all of the recipes could be cooked on the Egg.
It's by Marcus Bawdon who runs the forum CountryWoodsmoke on Facebook. Buy it today, you wont regret it.
Foolproof BBQ
Following on from her superb book Charred, this book from Genevieve Taylor is another cracker. The recipes are easy to follow, contain ingredients that you probably already have or can get very easily, and can all be done on your Big Green Egg.
Genevieve isn’t a trained chef but she knows her stuff. She’ll look at cooking from a slightly scientific point of view, and I like that.
You can buy Foolproof BBQ here.
Skewered
This is the second cookbook from Marcus Bawdon and it’s another cracker. Launched in April 2020, this is going to take the BBQ scene by storm.
There are some simple ideas and some really clever ones. We’ve only just dipped our toe in the water on this one but we will be cooking loads more from it.
Food DIY
Tim Hayward is a Cambridge based food writer, restauranteur and chef.
Tim judged at one of the original Grillstock festivals in Bristol. The series of Tweets he put out during that event, describing all his experiences during the weekend was truly commical, I wish I'd saved the timeline.
His book contains loads of great curing recipes as well as BBQ stuff. I really love it and use the recipes all the time. It's available on Amazon from this link.
Cooking on the Big Green Egg
This is the first Big Green Egg cook book I would recommend, including all those from Ray Lampe. I’m not just saying it because I met with James when he was planning it, and got to feed in my ideas.Â
The first bit is way too waffly for me but the recipes are great. It’s laid out really well and most recipes are achievable.Â
If you want a Big Green Egg book, this is it.Â
Fire Food
Written by DJ BBQ (Christian Stevenson). DJ BBQ does a lot of cooking with Jamie Oliver. There are some fabulous and easy recipes in here.
There is a whole section on dirty cooking (cooking directly on the charcoal). I have done the dirty carrots and can highly recommend them.
The Burger Book
I've just bought this book. I was sceptical about how good a book could be on just burgers, how wrong I was. There are tonnes of ideas in here. It's by Christian Stevenson, A.K.A. DJ BBQ. He's done a lot of work with Jamie Oliver and can often be seen on the TV in a full stars and stripes spandex outfit, odd but funny.
Meathead
This is by Meathead Goldwyn, the man behind the AmazingRibs.com website.
What I love about this book is the way science is used to explain how the cooks work. His website is awesome and a constant reference for me. If you've been on one of my classes, I will have tought you techniques I have learned from Meathead.
Low and Slow
Neil's book and his restaurant Temper are worth a look. Neil will often do things very differently, like take meat out of the fridge and cook directly without bringing to room temp.
Orexi
Not a BBQ book but there are some really inpiring recipes in here and a lot of them could be done on your Big Green Egg. It's something a little different and it's clear a lot of time and effort went into writing and photographing the recieps.Â
