Still Smokin': More than 150 New Recipes for Savory Smoked-Cooked Dishes Book

I learned about this book in a Chicago Tribune story/book review about dry rubs when I was a wire editor. I thought it would make a dandy cover story for the food section, but for photos. So, I assembled ingredients for West African Tsire Rub: peanuts, red chili flakes, allspice, cumin seed, nutmeg, cloves, coriander seed, ginger, cayenne and salt. Toast the spices, grind together, rub it on chicken or lamb, leave for an hour or two, then cook. Something was unclear in one of the other recipes, so I headed to my favorite cavernous book store to see if it had a copy of Jim Tarantino's book. It did, and I liked it so much, I bought it. I got to work with one of the newspaper's fine photographers, and we made some beautiful photos in the studio with a mortar and pestle, a rectangular plate I found on the bargain shelf at Target and some spices, whole and blended. It was a beautiful Taste section, for under 20 bucks. One happy ending. But, wait; there's more. My nearest and dearest are all meat enthusiasts. I'd been playing with dry rubs for ribs and pork tenderloins already, so the book came into play at home, too. I've now got my own rib rubs (one hot, one not) in the freezer. I used a coriander-lemon-pepper rub recently on a pork tenderloin, and several of the marinades in this book, most recently the Orange Marinade. I haven't tried the flavored brines, yet, but I brine chicken, turkey and pork when I have the time, so I'll get around to them eventually. I have tried several dry rubs, marinades and glazes, all tasty. The recipes in the book are grouped geographically, an approach I like. It's pretty focused on proteins, but some of the treatments would work for vegetables. (I have a curried cauliflower recipe from an Indian cookbook that never disappoints and I've made oven-roasted potatoes with a spice rub that was also a crowd pleaser.) But it's probably not a good investment for vegetarians. There are helpful pullout boxes on regional ingredients and techniques. This book is so versatile that it makes my Top 10 Cookbook list.