Killer Ribs: Nancy Davidson

By JULIETTE ROSSANT If you are a foodie and you are driving across America you'd better take a guide book like New York-based food writer Nancy Davidson's Killer Ribs (Chronicle Books 2006) so you are a safe on the road. The book includes fun reviews of BBQ restaurants and gives a recipe for the home cook and cooking tips for each joint. Killer Ribs covers the North American continent, starting with Vermont, Finkerman's Riverside Bar-B-Q in Montpelier, run by CIA graduate Lee Duberman and husband Richard Fink. The recipe is for Finkerman's Bar-B-Q Sauce (p. 11) which calls for soy sauce and chipotle chile powder. There are plenty of sauce and dry rub recipes and plenty of others for ribs - what else would there be? The Big Apple has good barbeque, so Nancy hits Danny Meyer's Blue Smoke in New York City- the recipe is for Blue Smoke Black Pepper Beef Ribs (p. 21) and Paul Kirk's R.U.B. (which stands for Righteous Urban Barbecue) - the recipe is for Paul Kirk's Dry Rub (p. 23). Nany then moves on down through barbecue places in New Jersey to Emmitsburg, Maryland, home of Chubby's Barbeque, one of Superchefblog's favorites (see Columbus Day Special: Chubby's Barbecue of Emmitsburg, Maryland and Back to Chubby's). Owner Tom Caufield delivers up Hawaiian Ribs (p. 29), a do-at-home recipe. The tips include classic Tom: "Smoke is a condiment," says Caufield. "You want to feature the pork, not suck on a burnt long. It's insane to smoke for eight hurs – after a couple of hours in the smoke, you are maxed out. If it ain't smoked within three and a half hours, it ain't goin' to be smoked." It isn't advice followed by all the restaurants in Killer Ribs If you are anywhere near Cedar Creek, Nebraska, you'll want to drive to Uncle Earnie's Beer, Bait, and BBQ, a roadside joint run by John Earnest. Each restaurant has a photograph - sometimes it's the owner, sometimes its a shot of the joint, sometimes it's a picture of a slab of meat on the grill. Uncle Earnie's shows a cars parked next to a road-side stand with a neon side that reads BBQ. There is plenty of good barbeque in the South, like Cozy Corner Restaurant in Memphis, Tennessee owned by the Robinson family where the ribs are cooked in a pit over charcoal Chicago-style. But if you are heading north, way north, don't forget to stop at the Klondike Rib & Salmon BBQ in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. It's open only from May to September, which is when you can get smoked sockeye salmon, halibut, steaks and vegetables along with Klondike Yukon Ribs (p. 91). Killer Ribs may have good barbeque recipes - but treat it like a guidebook and let it take you to great barbecue where you least expect it. Previous articles: Columbus Day Special: Chubby's Barbecue of Emmitsburg, Maryland Back to Chubby's [Cookbook Reviews - complete] Technorati Tags: superchefblog, Juliette Rossant, super chef, celebrities, chefs, food, restaurants, cooking, branding, cuisine, blogging, food blogging, cookbooks superchefblog --> back to superchefblog