Cookbook Review: Franklin Barbecue

Franklin Barbecue: A Meat-Smoking Manifesto

By Aaron Franklin and Jordan Mackay

Published by Ten Speed Press

Barbecue is an art form and Aaron Franklin is a superstar pitmaster. He went from cooking brisket for his friends, to opening a food truck, to owning a now world-renowned restaurant that has sold out of meat every single day since it has opened. People travel from all over the world to sample his barbecue. This book is a detailed chronicle of how he produces his spectacular barbecue.

The first chapter explains how Aaron and his wife, Stacy, came to be the owners of a restaurant where people wait for hours to get a taste of the food. It’s a story of humble beginnings, chasing a dream, and dogged determination. Then, the manifesto begins. Everything about the techniques Franklin uses is detailed. If you are handy with a welder, there are instructions on how to build a smoker from scratch, just like the ones they use at the restaurant, but on a smaller scale. Diagrams explain the mechanics of the smoker while photos show the building process. From there the book goes on to what kind of wood to use, how to build fires and how to prepare meats – from the famous brisket to turkey breast.

This is not a cookbook full of recipes, although there are a few for things like beans and espresso barbecue sauce. Instead, this is a step-by-step guide on how to reproduce barbecue similar to what is served at Franklin Barbecue. There is a lot of information, from how to start a proper fire in the smoker to tips on concocting your own rubs. Glimpses of what it’s like to run what is probably the most popular barbecue joint in the world right now are offered in between the barbecue-making wisdom. I love that there is an espresso maker in the kitchen for employees, since there are workers there literally around the clock to prepare the thousands of pounds of meat every day. For anybody that is interested in making truly great barbecue, this is a wonderful resource.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

This post is part of Weekend Cooking at Beth Fish Reads