Recipes

This is the cookbook. Not a landfill of forty-ingredient dinner-party recipes — real barbecue you can actually pull off, written so the first one lands as well as the fiftieth. Every cook here has been through the pit, timed, temped and tasted.

New to fire? Don't start with a brisket. Start with a cook that's forgiving, get a clean result under your belt, then climb. Here's how the vault is laid out.

The big smokes

The showpieces — the ones people remember. Long cooks, high reward. Read the whole guide before you light anything.

• How to Smoke a Brisket — trim, rub, injection, the stall and the slice, start to finish.
• Smoked Pulled Pork (Boston Butt) — the most forgiving big cook there is. Start here.
• Competition-Style Ribs — beyond the 3-2-1 crutch, to ribs with real bite.
• Smoked Beef Short Ribs and Pork Belly Burnt Ends — when you want to show off.

Birds & weeknight cooks

Faster, cheaper, and where most people should cut their teeth.

• Spatchcock & Smoked Whole Chicken — crispy skin every time.
• Smoked Chicken Wings and BBQ Chicken Marinades.
• Hot-Smoked Salmon — brine, pellicle, smoke and glaze.
• Jamaican Jerk Chicken and Smoked Tri-Tip.

Sauces, rubs & sides

The stuff that turns good meat into a plate people fight over.

• Build Your Own Dry Rub — one framework, any meat.
• Regional BBQ Sauces — Kansas City, Carolina, Texas, Alabama, Memphis, with recipes.
• The Ultimate Sides Guide — slaw, beans, cornbread, potato salad.
• The 4th of July Cookout Guide — feeding a crowd without losing your mind.

Not sure which fire your recipe wants? Read the two-zone fire setup first — half these cooks live or die on it.

Cooking one of these this weekend? Pin the numbers first — the free cheat sheet has every pull-temp and wood pairing on one page, and the cook-time calculator tells you when to light the fire.