Franklin Barbecue: A Meat-Smoking Manifesto [A Cookbook]

As big fans of Franklin's barbecue, my family and I were thrilled to get our hands on Franklin's Barbecue cookbook. The hardcover is gorgeous, filled with beautiful visuals that help capture the essence of Franklin's barbecue. From the moment we flipped thru the pages, we could almost smell the savory aroma.While we haven't had the chance to try any of his specific tips or receipts we're eagerly anticipating firing up the grill and diving into Aaron Franklin's expertly crafted dishes. With detailed instructions and insider tips, this BBQ manifesto promises to elevate our grilling game to new heights.In summary, Franklin's Barbecue cookbook is a journey into the heart and soul of Texas barbecue culture. Whether you're a seasoned pit master or a novice griller, this cookbook is a must-have addition to your kitchen. Highly recommended for anyone who appreciates the art of barbecue!

Really good and practical book. A welcomed addition to any cookbook library.

Franklin Barbecue by Aaron Franklin and Jordan MackayI thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. If you want a barbecue cookbook that has lots of unique, creative recipes, this is not your book. This book is for people who enjoy smoking and eating meat and who enjoy reading about the experiences of someone who learned how to smoke meat and soon opened an extremely popular restaurant. There are four barbecue recipes, and they don’t start until page 147. The recipes are for brisket, pork spare ribs, beef (plate) short ribs, and turkey breast. At page 174, he’s on to other topics. There are also recipes for four sauces and three sides. He winds up with recommendations for beer to drink with your barbecue.Chapter One is Aaron’s life story – how he learned how to build and adapt things, including barbecue smokers, how he bought used equipment and started his restaurant on a shoestring budget. And he reviews some of the great BBQ restaurants in Central Texas.Chapter Two gives a brief description of several types of smokers – the original pits, the offset smokers, and the upright drum smoker. He does not mention the Weber Smokey Mountain or any similar vertical types that have a fire chamber in the bottom, a water pan above that, and food grates above that. I suppose I could consider these to be variations of the upright drum smoker. All of Aaron’s smokers are offset. He started on a very cheap, flimsy New Braunfels Hondo. After that all of his smokers were offsets homemade from 500 gallon or 1000 gallon propane tanks. He briefly mentions the Big Green Egg and similar kamado style cookers. Not surprisingly, his cookers have names – Number One, Number Two, Muchacho, Rusty Shackleford, MC5, Nikki Six, and Bethesda. Then he tells quite a bit about how to build your own offset smoker – how to procure a used 1000 gallon propane tank, add doors, grates, legs, chimney, and fire chamber, including the necessary welding and cutting equipment. Not many readers of this book are going to take this on, I’ll bet. The most useful information here is his recommendation for a thermometer – the Tel-Tru Barbecue Thermometer BQ300. (p 62)Chapter Three is Wood. All of Aaron’s smokers are made to burn wood, not charcoal. He likes all kinds of hardwoods but mostly uses post oak, because he likes it and it is plentiful around Austin. He started out shopping for wood in Craig’s List, and found that a lot of sellers were dishonest. They would stack wood in such a way to make to look like a cord when it was much less. Then he found a seller who was honest and dependable and stayed with him. There is a glut of oak available in central Texas because the drought is causing trees to die. It is best to cut down a live tree, cut and slit it into smaller pieces, and let it dry for 6-12 months, until it is about 20% water. But sometimes you go with trees that died from drought. Mesquite is pretty strong. Hickory is strong, but not as strong as mesquite. Fruit tree wood is milder. Wood should be dried for a few months, or it will be too green, it will have too much water in it, and won’t burn well. Green wood is heavier and you can feel that it is heavier.Chapter Four is Fire + Smoke – how to start the fire and keep it going with good smoke. Aaron lights a few charcoal briquettes in a chimney starter, puts them in the fire chamber, and puts some wood on top of them, and they light. He only uses wood for cooking. You don’t get smoke from charcoal, gas, or electricity. You need wood for smoke. Most other books say to use charcoal plus a few chunks of wood to get the smoke. I do that with my Weber Smokey Mountain and I think it works fine. Smoke contains solids, liquids, and gases. The gases are invisible, but they do the most to penetrate into the meat and give it flavor.Chapter Five is Meat. Aaron always gets Angus, grade prime, which is ethically raised, with no growth hormones or antibiotics, not frozen and never been frozen. Freezing breaks down fibers and makes the meat floppy and mushy. The lesser grades, in order, are choice and select, and they have less marbling fat. Aaron keeps his briskets 14 to 21 days after the packing date before he cooks them. Dry aging means hanging it or putting it on a rack to dry. Wet aging is done in a vacuum-sealed package. You don’t want dry aged for barbecue. Aaron doesn’t want a lot of rock-hard fat on the outside of the brisket – it is a sign of growth hormones and antibiotics. Yellowish, not white, fat indicates grass-fed beef. There are three cuts of beef ribs: chuck, rib, and plate. Ribs 1-5 are chuck, 6-12 are rib. He says “We go for the plate ribs 6, 7, 8 – right in the middle of the rib cage, which have the longest, widest, meatiest bones, like brontosaurus ribs.” Aaron really doesn’t like pork ribs that have been “enhanced” – injected with water and salt. He likes pork from a hybrid heritage breed – a mix of Chester White and Duroc.Six is the cook. This pretty much puts it together and gives specific instructions for pork ribs, beef ribs, brisket, and turkey breast. He likes to cook at 275 degrees, hotter than some pitmasters that use 225 degrees. He uses a lot of rub – mostly just pepper (16 mesh) and Morton kosher salt at a 1:1 or 2:1 ratio. He doesn’t like fresh ground pepper. He wants it ground a few days or a few weeks before using, because he doesn’t want the flavor to be strong, but he wants to use a lot of pepper because it helps the smoke to stick to the meat. Before applying rub, you can optionally apply slather – mustard, water, oil, or vinegar. He uses an offset smoker, but always uses a water pan to add humidity. He explains the smoke ring on brisket. He gets slightly technical here, but don’t worry, he is always clear.Chapter 7 is Serving + Eating, and mostly from the restaurant point of view, but helpful when you are serving friends and family.I have read several books on barbecue and smoking, mostly borrowed from the library, and this is far and away my favorite. I liked it so much I bought it after reading a library e-book. It seems odd that I like it so much, since Aaron exclusively uses offset smokers fired with wood, and I use a Weber fired with charcoal, but so much of the information here is going to be useful with any equipment. Another thing that adds to the enjoyment of the book is that you can google Aaron Franklin and find lots of barbecue information on the web, and you can find his TV show on Public Broadcasting – so after a while you feel like you know him personally.

I felt so compelled to write this review after reading some of the negative reviews. I think the chief complaint is the lack of recipes in this book or that Aaron left out some of his “secrets.” While the latter may be true, he’s very clear that it’s mostly salt and pepper. It’s also all about meat selection according to him. I truly believe this is a very integral part. I doubt many of us have the meat suppliers he has.Now on to the reason I bought this book. A friend of mine helped me build my first side-by-side wood smoker. I am new to this and had no clue on how to move forward with cooking a brisket. This book has great reviews and I’ve heard a lot about his BBQ place. I don’t live in Texas, New Mexico to be exact, but I do have family in Austin. I hope to try that some day, but I really don’t think I’ll wait 3 hours of more. What this book gives me is a very detailed step-by-step process in getting started. I have cooked 3 briskets following his instructions.My first attempt was edible, which is about all I can say. It wasn’t that great at all. I figured out that I cooked it about an hour longer than I should have before wrapping it. The bark had formed about as well as it was going to. It was hard to judge, because the pepper I used was too course. The book calls for 16 MEH pepper. I had no idea what that was. I also used hickory to cook this first one. One day at Costco I found a pepper that was slightly less course, but not fine. I’m pretty sure its 16. I used that pepper in my rub (salt/pepper) on my second brisket. I also used oak like he mentions for smoking briskets. Following his instructions, my second brisket was PERFECT. I was very impressed that I could cook something that great. My wife loved it as well. I only cooked it for me and her, as I wanted to get this somewhat perfected before inviting family and friends. Dinner and leftovers for a week were amazing. My third and most recent brisket I cooked for New Years. I did all of the same stuff, invited family and friends over, and all but 5 pieces of the brisket was left. My meat selection was just “select.” I didn’t want to spend too much money in case I messed it up. My next brisket will definitely be a prime grade.I definitely rate this book 5 stars, because without it I would not be anywhere near where I am today in cooking briskets. As for making dry rubs for your brisket, there are plenty other books on the market to help you accomplish that. This is definitely a book worth buying if you are starting out like I am.

Amantes de la parrilla y el ahumado lo deben tener. No solo es un libro con bonitas fotos. Tiene un gran diseño editorial y la información es extraordinaria. Detalla paso a paso las preparaciones.

The Bible for all BBQ enthusiasts,I'm looking forward to the day I get to Austin TX and get in line early in the morning. Then I can compare whether the recipes in the book reflect reality.Great book with instructions and recipes.!!! Clear purchase recommendation!!! Five stars *****

Este libro es una compra excelente. Lo compré como regalo para mi novio, que es muy aficionado a hacer churrasco, y le encantó. Me dijo que el libro tiene muchas recetas interesantes y técnicas útiles para hacer churrasco de manera perfecta. Además, el diseño es atractivo y el libro está bien hecho. Sin duda, recomendaría este libro como regalo a cualquiera que le guste hacer churrasco y quiera aprender más sobre la técnica.

Paketen var öppnad och boken saknades!

If you want to buy the best Smoking BBQ booking ever, with lots of tricks and knowledge, not only receipts....This is the one! Congratulations Frank, nice book, nice job!I defenetly recomend this one!o Melhor livro de Smoking BBQ que ja vi ate hoje. Super bem explicado, e um dos pouco com poucas receitas e muito conteudo.Recomendo Muito!!!