The American Craft Beer Cookbook

The American Craft Beer Cookbook

John Holl. Storey Publishing, $19.95 (352p) ISBN 978-1-61212-090-4

The title for this enterprising collection of 150 recipes is a bit misleading. Many of the entries do not contain an ounce of beer. Rather, the purpose of the book is to showcase the transformative cuisine being undertaken by brewpubs across the country. Holl, a self-proclaimed “drinks journalist,” reports back from his visits to literally hundreds of establishments, offering salads, sandwiches, soups, seafood and burgers, while providing eatery profiles and food-beer pairings along the way. The news is good. While it is made clear that the U.S. is currently in a golden age of beer making, the diversity of food offerings, and the level of creativity put forth by brewery chefs, are what stand out. There’s pomegranate trout from the Fort Collins Brewery in Colorado, roasted venison saddle with Samuel Adams chocolate bock mole from Boston, and chopped Reuben salad with a sauerkraut vinaigrette from the Sutter Buttes Brewing Company in Yuba City, CA. And for dessert there is a classic beer float, a hearty pumpkin pie made with Harpoon winter ale or a modernist deconstructed banana meringue pie. Among the handy indices Holl includes are a short list of beer festivals, and a lengthy scroll of must-visit locales to keep in mind when planning the ultimate beer road trip with, as the author suggests, a designated driver in tow. (Sep.)

100 Grilling Recipes You Can’t Live Without

100 Grilling Recipes You Can’t Live Without
Cheryl and Bill Jamison. Harvard Common Press, $16.95 (256p) ISBN 978-1-55832-801-3

The Jamisons have produced over a dozen cookbooks in their quarter century of shared meals and travels, but are showing little sign of fatigue. Never mind the garish title of this latest collection, they still come through with some intriguingly zesty recipes. Just as their 1995 classic, Smoke & Spice, suggested that the only real way to barbecue is with a smoker, here they instruct that the only real way to grill is to cook entirely with direct heat. In other words, use a grill cover and you might just as well be baking. This is not to say that fire alone is the answer. The chefs focus heavily on the intense flavors of various fruits, herbs and spices in entrees such as pomegranate lamb chops, rosemary-scented pork loin, and chicken paillards with hot ginger sauce. But when it comes to classics, like a porterhouse steak, they know not to guild the lily. Salt, pepper and butter are all that’s required. Borrowing a recipe from a Chicago landmark, the Berghoff Chicago beer burger not only has beer in the meat mix, but also features beer braised onions and mushroom-beer ketchup, while an all together different beverage adds sass to their Dr. Pepper’s baby back ribs. If that’s not sweet enough, there are eight dessert options including a variety of grilled fruits as well as a simple batch of s’mores. (June)

The Cocktail Lab

The Cocktail Lab

Tony Conigliaro. Ten Speed, $29.99 (224p) ISBN 978-1-60774-567-9

Conigliaro has thought long and hard about the “little moments of time” we spend sipping cocktails: the flavors, textures and aromas involved, and the art and science of mixology. As part of a UK collective of bartenders and artists known as The Drink Factory (They create and experiment in a building that was once Pink Floyd’s recording studio.), he has invented an entire science fair’s worth of potables and puts them on display here in this exciting collection. First he blows up some classics. There’s a daiquiri  made with dry ice that maintains its constant 21 degree temperature from start to finish, and an aged Manhattan that stays bottled for 6 months up to 6 years, growing ever more complex in flavor. Then there’s a drink called the flintlock made with a gunpowder tincture and ideally served with a flaming ball of flash cotton accompanying the glass. Next, he builds some cocktails around fresh fruit, cleverly employing the juice of a grilled lemon to complement the smoky tequila of a margarita. A chapter entitled “Inspired by Perfume” treats the nose to drinks like the blush, with rose vodka, rhubarb cordial and a twist of grapefruit. And for serious scientists, Conigliaro breaks out the liquid nitrogen to turn a cosmopolitan into frozen bits of “popcorn.” Other useful and frightening lab tools are laid out and explained in a chapter on equipment and techniques and include such obscurities as the rotavapor and the Soxhlet still, both used for extracting flavor from objects hard and soft, from star anise to rose petals. (Jul.)

Where There’s Smoke

Where There’s Smoke

Barton Seaver. Sterling Epicure, $30 (304p) ISBN 978-1-4027-9705-7

Seaver, a chef in D.C. and an expert on sustainability and oceanic ecosystems doesn’t mind releasing a bit of carbon into the air in this collection of recipes for the grill that focuses as much on seafood and vegetables as it does beef and chicken. Gas grill aficionados are asked to kindly step to the side in favor of a charcoal fire seasoned with mesquite, hickory, oak or cherry wood. For, as the title suggests, smoke is at the heart of many of these offerings. Clams, lamb, pork ribs and duck breasts all get the treatment as do several other surprising foodstuffs. There’s a smoky lemonade, a smoky gazpacho, smoky deviled eggs and a smoked mackerel dip. And when wood is just not enough, Seaver gets creative. For his spiced pork tenderloin he advises adding cinnamon and star anise directly to the fire for extra aromatic complexity. Bonus features include a source list for ordering eco-friendly food and a short section on wines for the grill where zinfandel battles it out against chenin blanc. There is also a very clever couple of pages on wine salts, seasoning blends which will “introduce complementary flavors to spark the wines.” Pinot Noir salt, for example, contains cinnamon, fennel seeds, paprika and grated shitake mushrooms. (Apr.)

A History of Food in 100 Recipes

A History of Food in 100 Recipes

William Sitwell. Little, Brown & Co., $35 (360p) ISBN 978-0-316-22997-5

In this U.S. version of British food writer Sitwell’s trek through culinary space and time, fish & chips and toad in the hole are still of major import, but that only adds additional, quirky charm to this entertaining and well-researched compendium. From Egyptian tomb wall paintings and the bible up to the sacred writings of Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver, the author’s timeline covers such foodie milestones as the first written reference to pasta, the first pie, the advent of the fork, a 17th century meditation on salad dressing, and the realization that the Earl of Sandwich was more a discoverer than an inventor. Along the way, meals and the presentation of recipes grow ever more sophisticated. There’s a palatable change in specificity between a 1660s recipe for pea soup calling for “about two quarts of peas...and a little slice of bacon” and a 1900s Scotch barley broth calling for one and a quarter pounds of beef and five ounces of barley. In an intriguing chapter focusing on a butter crawfish recipe written circa 1604 by a Lady Elinore Fettiplace, Sitwell points out how, in her recipe collection, she “separates the sweet from the savory, moving away from the medieval habit of laying everything on the table at once.” With such instances of cultural insight, Sitwell elevates this collection from curious cookbook to an encyclopedia of anthropology. (Jun.)

Michael Chiarello’s Live Fire

Michael Chiarello’s Live Fire

Michael Chiarello. Chronicle, $35 (224p) ISBN 978-1-4521-0181-1

Chiarello, the Napa Valley chef and vintner, thinks big in this oversized and highly enjoyable harbinger of spring. These 125 recipes are not about traditional barbecue, they’re about taking a variety of heat sources and maxing out their potentials. Seven fiery methodologies are explored employing the grill, the hearth, the plancha, the pit, the hot box, the rotisserie, and cooking in embers. The author’s Italian roots show through in dishes like grilled pasta with grilled meatballs, where the spaghetti is lightly oiled and cooked in a grill basket before being sauced. There are a few whole animal bacchanals including baby goat on a spitjack, and lamb on an iron cross, or for white meat lovers, a hot box recipe called chickens for twenty. Sliders are ignored in favor of a three-pound burger which is flipped using a pizza paddle and served on a bun made from an entire loaf of country bread split in half. Slightly smaller but equally playful options include a leg of lamb on a string which hangs and twirls from a hook beneath a fireplace mantel, and “smashing pumpkins with mint pesto and goat cheese,” which calls for the entire gourd to be covered in embers, then slammed into a sharp object. Heat-proof gloves are a necessity, and should liquid courage be required, there is a chapter offering nine cold drinks including a smoked tequila margarita. (May