GRILLED LAMB WITH HERBES DE PROVENCE | PAGE 213
It’s hard to believe ten years have passed since the initial publication of The Barbecue! Bible. Your enthusiasm for the first edition has been gratifying and amazing, and helped spark a veritable revolution in live-fire cooking. Americans are grilling more than ever before on an awe-inspiring array of new charcoal, gas, and wood-burning grills and smokers. Multiple grill–ownership is on the rise and what was once an activity for weekends in the summer has become for many people—even in the Frost Belt—the preferred method of cooking all year round.
What we grill has changed, too. Grilled dishes that once seemed exotic—churrasco, tandoori, saté—have become part of America’s grilling repertory. Ingredients that once required a trip to a specialty market—tomatillos, coconut milk, lemongrass—now turn up at the supermarket—and, of course, on barbecue shopping lists. So do exotic fuels, like olive wood, grapevine trimmings, and Japanese bincho tan charcoal. Techniques that once seemed unfamiliar—rubbing and brining, for example, or indirect grilling and smoking—are now practiced comfortably by novices and experts alike. As the world grows smaller, our grilling repertory has grown and grown more global.
Which brings me with great pleasure to this edition of The Barbecue! Bible. I’ve completely updated the book from beginning to end. I’ve revised the techniques chapter based on the latest grills and accessories. I’ve recalibrated the recipes based on new ingredients. (In the last ten years, a baby back rib at your typical supermarket has nearly doubled in weight.) And because we eat with our eyes as well as our palates, I’ve added dozens of full-color photographs. Some are step-by-step technique sequences to show you how to prepare the food for the grill. Others are gorgeous full-page photographs to show you what the finished dishes should look like.
I look forward to many more decades of great grilling to come. As always, let me know your questions and comments, and especially what you’re grilling, on my website: