Syzygies Posted July 20, 2015 Report Share Posted July 20, 2015 After not buying a BBQ book in over a decade, I thoroughly enjoyed Aaron Franklin's Franklin Barbecue: A Meat-Smoking Manifesto, published in April 2015. http://www.amazon.com/Franklin-Barbecue-Meat-Smoking-Manifesto-Aaron-ebook/dp/B00N6PFBDW/ As everyone's circumstances are different, and our ceramic cookers behave very differently from Webers or offset-fireboxes, the only book I'd found useful back in the day was Robb Walsh's Legends of Texas Barbecue Cookbook, which by describing the history and diversity of techniques in central Texas BBQ, serves more as background philosophy for one's own search than an actual cookbook. http://www.amazon.com/Legends-Texas-Barbecue-Cookbook-Recollections/dp/0811829618/ Aaron Franklin is self-taught, while very much in the central Texas tradition. There's a remarkable similarity with self-taught bread bakers, who have written the most useful tomes in that category. The obligatory restaurant origin-legend is nevertheless an amusing read. Then an equipment chapter that dives headlong into how to make the ideal smoker from a 1,000 gallon propane tank, assuming basic metal-working skills? Ha, reading this is as close as I may come to welding. Franklin's preferred style involves a very contemplative, simple treatment of the best meat available. This was the hook that got me in: I felt like everything I'd learned in a decade was an itty bit of what he had figured out with a compatible philosophy, and that by the end of a day's reading I'd be transported much further along. Then the differences became apparent. His preferred pit temperature is 275 F for everything. Rub goes on by eye (no weighing salt) mere hours before cooking. He manages moisture along with smoke, and foils (or butcher paper for brisket) to close out the cook. Again like running a bakery, there are many schedules that could work, but one needs to figure out a protocol that maximizes production given the logistical contraints of available storage, equipment, and worker schedules. His discovered principles are as much a solution to these constraints as global truths. Our problems are different; my biggest logistical concern is fitting the cook around a night's sleep. Nevertheless I intend to try his protocols as close to verbatim as one can in a ceramic cooker. Once one has hit a plateau in anything, one can only go further by starting again from scratch, and seeing if the "science" one believes is repeatable. If I fear anything from old age, it is the "I already know I am right!" ossification that keeps one from venturing back down these rabbit holes. While I can "place" this book as cooking the highest quality meats in a central Texas tradition, its greatest strength is explaining a system of thought that allows one to adapt to changing circumstances. Mainstream books assume a Weber and cheap meats, teaching how to mask all this with 12 ingredient sauces. Franklin is unapologetic about the chapter on welding, but has dealt with his fair share of hardships trying to produce great BBQ while traveling. There's been much debate in this forum on the best way to cook brisket; Franklin sees a continuum of technique parametrized by the characteristics of the meat, melding the fast and slow approaches debated here into one world view. I nervously read into the section on "dwells" wondering if he'd flub the science, only to realize that he understood dwells better than any author I'd read. He then takes some of the myth out of smoke rings. I'd had the impression that BBQ judges get their tastebuds zonked early from bad smoke, and go by visuals that competitors learn to manipulate. Just as the crema in a good espresso is an easily manipulated artifact orthogonal to actual coffee quality. Franklin doesn't worry about producing smoke rings. The recipes are if anything an afterthought, one learns instead from all these master class side discussions. The recipes serve to consolidate the points in the book, to make it clear there really isn't anything else going on. It was fun reading this after serving pork butt to 60 people for Sunday lunch, and deflecting every "what did you do?" question with "as little as possible". The discussions on trimming and on slicing brisket are alone worth the price of admission. This is a "once every decade" BBQ book for me, highly recommended. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bryan Posted July 20, 2015 Report Share Posted July 20, 2015 Well said. And yes they do serve outstanding meats. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DennisLinkletter Posted July 20, 2015 Report Share Posted July 20, 2015 Sounds great.. and it's on Kindle.. Wish Legends was on Kindle also.. Thanks Dave! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bgrant3406 Posted July 20, 2015 Report Share Posted July 20, 2015 He has a show on PBS this summer, a lot of what you described he has shown. He is a bit of a character and much younger that I would have thought based on your review, since everyone knows it takes years to learn anything . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CeramicChef Posted July 21, 2015 Report Share Posted July 21, 2015 Syzygies - I bought that book and read it cover to cover. I've also eaten at Franklin's place several times. My buddies and I always hire a doctoral student to hold a place in line and then we fix him p with great BBQ. Everyone wins on that deal. I like your assessment of Franklin's book. I lived in South Texas and Franklin's recipes are pretty standar down there. But, he takes mere salt and paper, garlic, etc to a whole new level. Franklin's book gives a really nice set of insights to Texas Hill Country commercial BBQ. I like you, recommend it wholeheartedly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wilburpan Posted July 21, 2015 Report Share Posted July 21, 2015 I also have been poring through Aaron Franklin’s book, and watching his videos online. They are all really outstanding. I very much like his approach to making rubs, to the point that I’m not sure if I’ll ever have to buy a commercial rub ever again. This may seem a bit of a weird comparison, but I think one reason his book really resonated with me is that his approach to food is a lot like a top-notch sushi chef’s: simple ingredients of the highest quality, and obsessive attention to detail and technique. In general, that’s the approach to food that I’ve always gravitated to. If nothing else, I followed his approach when making my very first brisket, and this is how it turned out: Of course, having a KK grill helped a lot, too. The only places where I deviated from Aaron Franklin’s approach was that I cooked this brisket at around 225ºF, going up to 250ºF at the end, and I didn’t bother with wrapping, since I felt that the interior of a KK grill would be more moist than an offset cooker. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacKenzie Posted July 21, 2015 Report Share Posted July 21, 2015 Wilbur, that is an awesome looking brisket Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CeramicChef Posted July 21, 2015 Report Share Posted July 21, 2015 Wilbur - you've hit the nail squarely on the head! High quality ingredients, uncompromising attention to detail, proven technique, that's the way to success! That's why we know our KKs are the perfect kamados. Dennis did the very same things. And welcome to the Never Buy Rub Again club! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tony b Posted July 21, 2015 Report Share Posted July 21, 2015 Stunning, Wilbur! OK, so now I'm off to Amazon to buy the damned book! Good thing I have Prime to save on shipping! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
normstar Posted July 21, 2015 Report Share Posted July 21, 2015 Thanks! Im going to order the book as well. And Wilbur, that is the tastiest looking brisket I've ever seen! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinyfish Posted July 21, 2015 Report Share Posted July 21, 2015 Wilbur that picture belongs in a cook book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoFrogs91 Posted July 22, 2015 Report Share Posted July 22, 2015 Wilbur that picture belongs in a cook book. What he said Wilbur. Beautiful Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poochie Posted July 22, 2015 Report Share Posted July 22, 2015 When Franklin's food was voted best BBQ in America, I preordered the Kindle version. It's a very good book full of what makes Franklin tick. The dude is simply amazing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wilburpan Posted July 23, 2015 Report Share Posted July 23, 2015 Wilbur that picture belongs in a cook book. What he said Wilbur. Beautiful You all are making me blush. Should I mention that I took that photo with my iPhone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoFrogs91 Posted July 23, 2015 Report Share Posted July 23, 2015 Looks like a DSLR to me. Pretty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dstr8 Posted July 23, 2015 Report Share Posted July 23, 2015 Wish the book was available on Audible.com Hopefully it will be...and would be even better with Aaron narrating! Me hopes anyway Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
egmiii Posted July 23, 2015 Report Share Posted July 23, 2015 I picked up a copy at my local library. Figured I'd give it a read before committing to my own copy. I'm 50 pages in and so far it's an interesting read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tony b Posted July 23, 2015 Report Share Posted July 23, 2015 Mailman just dropped off my copy on the doorstep! Guess what I'll be doing for the next few days? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomahawk66 Posted July 26, 2015 Report Share Posted July 26, 2015 Thank goodness for Kindle! Shipping Amazon to China is an expensive nightmare! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookie Posted July 27, 2015 Report Share Posted July 27, 2015 Just came back from America with Franklin's book and some post oak. Also picked up the Southern Living 'Ultimate Book Of BBQ' that looked interesting, but haven't had time to have a look yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
