Saturday, December 15, 2007

Book Review: Peace, Love and Barbecue

Written by Mike & Amy Mills Tunnicliffe, this book touts itself as "Recipe, secrets, tall tales and outright lies from the legends of BARBECUE".

Lets start out by clarifying that Mike Mills is a BBQ legend himself. His resume' is long, but for our interest; he was one of the first "big boys" on the old Memphis In May competition circuit. He won three Memphis In May Grand Championships while competing and has opened (or helped open) several very successful BBQ restaurants.

This book is not an instructional type book, although there are some good ideas, methods, do's and don'ts in the book. He covers various local pittmasters from New England, to Alabama, Memphis and the Carolinas. He interviews and squeezes out recipes from current and past legends such as Big Bob Gibson, Myron Mixon from Jack's Old South and our local BBQ celeb Mr. Willingham.

It gets a little too folk lore' for me at times, but makes good reading if you are interested in the history or background of where true BBQ (not grilling) came from and the pittmasters that perfected it. It is also packed with some really infamous recipes and down right good ole' southern recipes. Overall I would rate it an 8 out of 10, keeping in mind that it is not geared toward the beginner as far as instructional techniques and so forth. Good reading, would buy it again.

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