Fire up your grills for recipes from the season’s best barbecue books

Nearly all barbecue and grilling cookbooks are pretty much the same.

They tell you the differences between cookers, from kettle and ceramic kamado grills to offset and vertical smokers. They explain the types of fire-building, such as direct and indirect. And they give you an overview of the flavors imparted by various woods, such as the sweet and mild apple, the deep and mellow oak, the pungent hickory.

My favorite books this season are different: They succeed primarily because they stretch the boundaries of live-fire cooking, deepen our understanding of it, or both.

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'Praise the Lard,” by Mike Mills and Amy Mills (Rux Martin/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). This father-daughter team is barbecue royalty. Mike has won numerous championships on the competition circuit, operates his own highly regarded restaurants and helped open New York's Blue Smoke, which helped ignite the city's barbecue mania. Amy runs OnCue Consulting, which advises barbecue restaurants, and appears as a judge on cooking shows. In 2005, the pair published the James Beard Award-nominated 'Peace, Love, & Barbecue.”

Where the earlier work drew on secrets from pit masters nationwide, 'Praise the Lard” springs more from the duo's own considerable background. The recipes reflect barbecue's recent trend toward using humanely raised and higher-quality meats. Creative touches abound. Their recipe for Caramelized Midwest Pork Steaks, for example, transforms the 'Midwest classic” from a commonplace grilling to a multistep process involving a dry rub, grilling, smoking and basting.

The play on words of the book's title continues with religious imagery throughout: 'Choirs of angels” sing the praises of the appetizers; their overview on smoking meat is called a 'sermon” with 'a little fire-and-brimstone testimony.” (They say they are Christians who 'intend neither blasphemy nor disrespect with our language and our metaphors.”) As for the lard, it's omnipresent, from the corn bread pudding to the peach hand pies.

One of the delights of the book is Amy's brief recollections of childhood culinary lessons, often learned at the knee of her grandmother. They are little gems of writing, exuding love of family and friends, which she and her dad proclaim is at the heart of their love for barbecue. Their gentle humor, remarkably informed instructions and creative recipes made this reader a believer.

Caramelized Midwest Pork Steaks

4 to 6 servings

The authors prefer a bone-in cut, which you would ask your butcher to do. You'll need 1 to 3 pounds good-quality lump charcoal, one small (8-inch) piece of apple wood or 1 cup of mesquite chips, an instant-read thermometer and a string-type barbecue mop for the sauce; the authors prefer it here because it captures the most sauce and can distribute it evenly over the meat.

MAKE AHEAD: You can dust the steaks with dry rub up to 4 hours prior to cooking, but if the steaks sit any longer than that, the salt in the rub will begin to pull moisture from the meat. The steaks can be smoked a day in advance, wrapped well and refrigerated. You'll have leftover rub; store in an airtight container for up to 6 months.

Adapted from 'Praise the Lard: Recipes and Revelations from a Legendary Life in Barbecue,” by Mike Mills and Amy Mills (Rux Martin/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017)

Ingredients

4 to 6 pork steaks (about 1 pound each; preferably bone-in, see headnote)

About 4 teaspoons Pure Magic Dry Rub, or your favorite brand (see NOTE)

1/2 to 3/4 cup Apple City Barbecue Sauce, or your favorite brand, warmed

Steps

Lightly sprinkle the pork steaks with dry rub on both sides. Set the steaks on a baking sheet, cover them with plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 4 hours (see headnote).

Prepare the grill for indirect-heat smoking: Open the top and bottom vents. Load a charcoal chimney one-quarter full of charcoal and light it. Once the coals in the chimney are glowing, dump them on one side of the grill. Set the apple wood or mesquite chips on top of the coals, replace the grate and put the steaks over the side with no coals (the indirect cooking area). Close the lid.

Don't open the grill for 15 minutes, but keep a close eye on the temperature; once it reaches 200 degrees, which might happen very quickly, close the vents about halfway so that less air comes in to feed the fire and the heat in the cooker rises slowly. Let the temperature climb to between 225 and 250 degrees. Maintain your target temperature; if at any point it climbs above your target, close the top and bottom vents further so that even less air comes in to feed the fire.

After 15 minutes, use an instant-read thermometer to check the internal temperature of the meat: Insert the probe into the center of one of the steaks, not near the bone. You are looking for a slow and steady climb to between 160 and 165 degrees. Do not flip the steaks over at all during the smoking stage.

After you check the meat temperature, reload the chimney halfway with charcoal and light it. You'll soon need these additional hot coals to sear the steaks at the finishing stage, after they're done smoking.

Check the internal temperature of the meat every 10 minutes or so. Once the steaks are between 160 and 165 degrees, transfer them to a baking sheet.

Working quickly, add the hot coals, spreading them out all over the bottom of the grill.

Lightly mop the tops of the steaks with the barbecue sauce (to taste), sprinkle on a light layer of dry rub, and put the steaks back on the cooker, sauce side down, directly over the hot coals. Cook the steaks for 5 to 8 minutes, mopping with the sauce and flipping them several times to caramelize all over. If there are spots of fat that are dark and blackened, sauce them and caramelize them again. When the steaks are sizzling and beautifully glazed on both sides and around the edges, they're done. The internal temperature should be between 170 and 175 degrees.

NOTE: To make the Pure Magic Dry Rub, combine 1/2 cup sweet Hungarian paprika, 1/4 cup kosher salt, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup granulated (powdered) garlic, 1/4 cup chili powder, 1/4 cup ground cumin, 1 tablespoon powdered mustard, 1 tablespoon coarsely ground black pepper and 1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper in a container with a tight-fitting lid. Use a designated spice grinder to blend 1/4 cup at a time to a powder-like consistency. The yield is about 2 cups.

Ingredients are too variable for a meaningful analysis.

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'Buxton Hall BBQ Book of Smoke,” by Elliott Moss (Voyageur Press). A rising star of next-generation barbecue, Moss is the pit master at Buxton Hall BBQ in Asheville, North Carolina. This book, which came out last fall, is as much a worldview as a collection of recipes.

Moss is from the no-rules school of barbecue. That is, an adherence to regionalism serves as a basis to explore local flavors, not a constricting culinary orthodoxy. He has a recipe for smoked fried catfish, a fish common to the area but hardly a staple at barbecue joints.

The Florence, South Carolina, native cooks whole hog using only hardwoods, as his father and grandfather did. But his sides are likely not handed down from his ancestors: Brussels sprouts, a Buxton Hall signature, come in two versions, one roasted with pig drippings and cracklins, the other braised and vegetarian.

The book gets a little wonky, with instructions on how to make something called a tabletop smoker (you'll need a drill) and how to build a burn barrel to process hardwood into charcoal. But you can skip that stuff and go straight to the winning new-old-fangled recipes.

Braised Brussels Sprouts

4 to 5 servings

These hearty little balls are packed with flavor and don't need barbecued meat to make them shine - but they make a great side dish for barbecue. The mixture of vinegar, hot sauce, sugar, onion and spices blends to form a kind of pot likker.

Adapted from 'Buxton Hall BBQ Book of Smoke: Wood-Smoked Meat, Sides and More,” by Elliott Moss (Voyageur Press, 2016).

Ingredients

1 tablespoon canola oil

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1/2 small onion, thinly sliced

12 ounces Brussels sprouts, bottoms trimmed

4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup cider vinegar

1/4 cup Texas Pete hot sauce, or your favorite brand

1/4 cup sugar

1 cup water

Steps

Heat the oil and butter in a saute pan over medium-high heat. Once the butter has melted, stir in the onion; cook for several minutes until golden brown, watching closely so it doesn't burn.

Stir in the Brussels sprouts and cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, then add the garlic, salt and pepper. Cook for about 2 minutes, then add the vinegar, hot sauce, sugar and water, stirring to incorporate. Once the liquids start to boil, reduce the heat to medium-low; cook for about 30 minutes, or until about 1 cup of liquid is left in the pan and the sprouts are tender.

Serve warm or at room temperature. (Upon cooling, the liquid will be absorbed and form a kind of glaze.)

Nutrition | Per serving (based on 5): 130 calories, 3 g protein, 23 g carbohydrates, 5 g fat, 2 g saturated fat, 5 mg cholesterol, 590 mg sodium, 3 g dietary fiber, 12 g sugar

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'Red, White, and ‘Que,” by Karen Adler and Judith Fertig (Running Press). The so-called 'BBQ Queens” from Kansas City have a knack for turning out reliable, interesting grilling books, from the well-received 'The Gardener and the Grill” to 'BBQ Bistro.”

This one feels a little unfocused, an Americana/seasonal/regional blend, but with dashes of international influences (with only sporadic mentions of America as a nation of immigrants). Brief recipe introductions and the occasional sidebar provide the connection to the book's theme, but the idea behind the book would benefit from organizational guidance, such as chapters divided into seasons or regions.

Still, the well-written recipes are solid and color just outside the lines, with the likes of grilled fava beans with pecorino and grilled mahi-mahi with macadamia butter. The planked salmon combines a method credited to Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest with the sweet aioli and bright salsa to create a moist, flavorful and visually stunning piece of fish.

Planked Salmon With Smoky Orange Aioli and Salsa Verde

4 servings

The combination of wild-caught salmon, fragrant aioli and green herbs tastes as great as it looks.

The cedar plank, thick or thin, can be your serving platter. You'll need to soak it in water for at least 1 hour before grilling.

MAKE AHEAD: The aioli and salsa aioli can be refrigerated up to 3 days in advance.

Adapted from 'Red, White and ‘Que: Farm-Fresh Foods for the American Grill,” by Karen Adler and Judith Fertig (Running Press, 2017).

Ingredients

For the aioli

1 cup regular or low-fat mayonnaise

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest and the juice of 1 orange

1 teaspoon smoked Spanish paprika (pimenton)

For the salsa verde

Leaves from 1 bunch flat-leaf parsley

3 cloves garlic, chopped

2 tablespoons drained capers

1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

1 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Kosher salt

For the salmon

One 1 1/2-pound piece skinned salmon fillet

Steps

For the aioli: Whisk together the mayo, garlic, orange zest and juice and smoked paprika in a medium bowl until well incorporated. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

For the salsa verde: Combine the parsley leaves, garlic, capers, lemon zest and oil in a food processor. Puree until smooth. Season lightly with salt; transfer to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap directly on the surface and refrigerate until ready to serve.

For the salmon: Prepare the grill for indirect heat. If using a gas grill, turn the heat to medium-high (450 degrees). Turn off the burners on one side. If using a charcoal grill, light the charcoal or wood briquettes; when the briquettes are ready, distribute them on one side of the grill. For a medium-hot fire, you should be able to hold your hand about 6 inches above the coals for 4 or 5 seconds. Have ready a spray water bottle for taming any flames. Lightly coat the grill rack with oil and place it on the grill.

Cut the fillet to fit the size plank you have; do not let any fillet hang over the edges. Place it skinned side down. Spread the aioli evenly over the top and sides of the fish, then cover with salsa verde.

Place the plank on the indirect-heat side of the grill. Close the lid and cook 20 to 30 minutes, or just until the fish begins to flake in the thickest part when tested with a fork.

Serve warm, on the plank.

Nutrition | Per serving (with low-fat mayonnaise, using half the aioli and salsa verde): 590 calories, 34 g protein, 3 g carbohydrates, 49 g fat, 7 g saturated fat, 115 mg cholesterol, 430 mg sodium, 0 g dietary fiber, 0 g sugar

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'Barbecue Sauces, Rubs and Marinades,” by Steven Raichlen (Workman). If you own Raichlen's 2000 tome, 'Barbecue! Bible Sauces, Rubs and Marinades,” you don't need this one, which is virtually the same but with a few changes and additions.

Both books boast more than 200 recipes, but the recent work tellingly substitutes the word 'righteous” for the previous book's 'all-new.” Most of the sauces in the 'American” chapter, for instance, appeared in the first book, though Raichlen offers a few new ones from the likes of celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson and Hugh Mangum, owner/pit master at New York's Mighty Quinn BBQ. Raichlen goes global with, among others, Argentine chimichurri, Cuban mojo, Mexican mole, Peru's aji amarillo and South Africa's monkey gland sauce (no monkey glands required), all of which appeared in the earlier book.

The Blanched Basil Oil, reprised from the earlier book, is a summer workhorse, providing another layer of flavor when added to meat and fish after cooking, and lending a sophisticated visual when dotted on the plate.

If you don't own the 'Barbecue Bible!” sauces book, then the current offering - which adds a 'board sauce” for steaks, an 'after-marinade” for meat and Austin barbecue savant Aaron Franklin's espresso barbecue sauce - makes for a valuable addition to your grilling library.

Blanched Basil Oil

2 servings cups

Use this emerald oil as a marinade; baste or drizzle it on grilled meats, seafood, vegetables and polenta.

Blanching the basil in salted boiling water makes for a brighter, longer-lasting result here.

MAKE AHEAD: The oil can be refrigerated for up to 1 week; let it come to room temperature before serving or using.

Adapted from 'Barbecue Sauces, Rubs and Marinades: Bastes, Butters and Glazes Too,” by Steven Raichlen (Workman, 2017).

Ingredients

1 tablespoon coarse salt

Leaves from 1 bunch fresh basil (2 packed cups)

1/2 cup packed fresh spinach, stemmed and rinsed

2 cups extra-virgin olive oil

3 cloves garlic, crushed

Steps

Bring a large pot of water (at least 3 quarts) to a boil over high heat. Add the salt. Have a large bowl of ice water at hand.

Add the basil and spinach leaves to the pot; blanch for 15 seconds, then drain in a colander and immediately transfer to the ice-water bath to cool.

Drain well, then use your clean hands to wring all the excess moisture out of the wad of leaves.

Heat 1/4 cup of the oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Once the oil shimmers, stir in the crushed garlic cloves and cook for about 4 minutes, stirring, until golden brown. Do not scorch; adjust the heat as needed.

Transfer the garlic and oil to a blender. Add the drained leaves and the remaining 1 3/4 cups of oil; puree well.

Pour the puree into a bowl and let steep for 4 hours, at room temperature.

Strain the puree through a fine-mesh strainer into a 2-cup jar. Use right away, or cover and refrigerate for up to 1 week.

Nutrition | Per 2-tablespoon serving: 240 calories, 0 g protein, 0 g carbohydrates, 28 g fat, 4 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 15 mg sodium, 0 g dietary fiber, 0 g sugar

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'The South's Best Butts,” by Matt Moore (Oxmoor House). Author Matt Moore journeyed through the South and collected recipes from pit masters along the way. The writing, like the title, is a little corny. (First sentence: 'Opinions are like butts - everyone has one.”) But by widening the focus from pork butts (which are from the pig's shoulder) to include lots of other foods as well, the book chronicles the changing flavors of Southern barbecue.

There's Smoked Pork Belly with Soy-Lime Dipping Sauce, Burnt Ends Mac ‘n' Cheese, BBQ Tortilla Pie. And of course, butts. Moore's compilation of various recipes proves that there are many methods for barbecuing a pork butt. One pit master smears the meat with mustard and cooks over wild cherry wood. Another douses with Italian dressing and cooks over charcoal. Johnson's Boucanière Pork Butt, which Moore says is some of the most juicy he has tried, utilizes a fairly classic rub and oak wood embers.

Johnson's Boucanière Pork Butt

12 to 14 servings

You'll need an instant-read thermometer, plus 2 cups of oak chips for a gas grill and about 12 oak chunks for a charcoal grill. The recipe calls for oak wood, but you can substitute other hardwoods, such as cherry, apple or pecan.

MAKE AHEAD: The seasoned pork butt needs to be refrigerated, uncovered, for 24 hours. You'll have dry rub left over, which can be stored in an airtight container.

Adapted from 'The South's Best Butts: Pitmaster Secrets for Southern Barbecue Perfection,” by Matt Moore (Oxmoor House, 2017).

Ingredients

For the rub

1 cup loosely packed light brown sugar

2 1/2 tablespoons sweet paprika

2 tablespoons kosher salt

1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 tablespoon granulated garlic (powder)

1 tablespoon onion powder

1 tablespoon powdered mustard

For the meat

1 bone-in pork butt (also known as a Boston butt), about 6 pounds

Steps

For the rub: Stir together the brown sugar, paprika, salt, black pepper, crushed red pepper flakes, chili powder, granulated garlic (powder), onion powder and powdered mustard. The yield is 1 1/2 cups; you'll need about 1/3 cup for this recipe.

For the meat: Rinse the pork butt thoroughly and trim away any bone chips or cartilage. Pat the pork dry and season liberally with the dry rub. On a rack set on a baking pan, store the pork in the refrigerator, uncovered, for 24 hours.

Prepare the grill for indirect heat. If using a gas grill, turn the heat to high. Drain the chips and put them in a smoker box or aluminum foil packet poked with a few fork holes to release the smoke; set it between the grate and the briquettes, close to the flame. When you see smoke, reduce the heat to medium (375 to 400 degrees). Turn off the burners on one side.

If using a charcoal grill, distribute the charcoal in a 'C” around the perimeter of a kettle grill or bullet smoker, about three coals wide. Between the start and finish of the 'C,” allow about 2 to 3 inches of space. Add two layers of coals on top. Top with wood chunks every few inches, 10 to 12 total. Light one end of the 'C,” using either about 6 hot coals that you lit in a charcoal chimney or by lighting a couple of paraffin cubes.

Let the pork come to room temperature; this should take about 30 minutes.

Place the meat on the indirect-heat side of the gas grill or in the middle of the charcoal grill. Close the lid. Maintain a temperature of between 250 to 275 degrees and cook for 5 hours or until a meat thermometer inserted in the thicket portion registers 200 degrees.

The bone should pull cleanly from the pork butt. If it doesn't, remove the pork from the grill. Place it in a 9-by-11-inch aluminum pan. Add 1 1/2 cups of water to the pan (do not pour the liquid over the pork butt). Cover with foil. Return to the grill and cook for another hour or two, adding charcoal and wood chunks as needed, or until the bone pulls out cleanly. But if it doesn't, don't let the internal temperature of the meat get higher than 203 degrees. After that, you risk drying it out.

Let the pork butt rest for 15 minutes. Pull by hand. Serve in a sandwich or by itself, either without sauce or with your favorite sauce.

Nutrition | Per serving (based on 14, using 1/3 cup of the rub): 350 calories, 33 g protein, 3 g carbohydrates, 21 g fat, 8 g saturated fat, 125 mg cholesterol, 350 mg sodium, 0 g dietary fiber, 3 g sugar

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'Weber's Greatest Hits,” by Jamie Purviance (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). The guys who make those ubiquitous kettle grills also turn out some pretty good barbecue cookbooks. After all, who better to tell you how to use their grills than the people who built them?

Purviance, a Culinary Institute of America graduate and author of some 15 Weber cookbooks, likens this collection to the 'iconic songs of my favorite artists.” On the hit parade is the equivalent of classic rock tunes, like beer-can chicken, hard rockers like strip steak with horseradish sauce, and ambitious art-rock like ginger porterhouse steaks with roasted sesame salt.

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'Salt Block Grilling,” by Mark Bitterman (Andrews McMeel). The James Beard Award-winning 'salt fanatic” tailors his latest book to live-fire cooking on dense Himalayan salt blocks. Bitterman says the blocks (which don't come from the Himalayas, incidentally; that's just marketing) serve three purposes. They provide more even distribution of heat than grate-cooking, they can generate extreme heat for searing, and they impart a mild saltiness.

The 70 recipes cover the gamut, often with a twist. Burgers are made from pork belly. The flattened Tuscan-style chicken is weighted down with a salt block rather than tinfoil-wrapped bricks. Bitterman, who owns a boutique salt outlet called the Meadow (which sells the blocks, naturally), provides detailed instructions for using the blocks, which can crack if not warmed properly. (Who knew?)

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