Dr. BBQ's Big-Time Barbecue Road Trip!

In this wildly uneven tome, veteran barbecue fiend Lampe, aka Dr. BBQ (Barbecue All Year Long, Big-Time Barbecue) crosses the country to explore local variations in low-and-slow cooking. Divided by region (Kansas City, Texas, the East, etc), Lampe offers reviews of and recipes for local specialties like Smoked Bologna and Barbecue Spaghetti, both from Memphis, as well as a Wisconsin cream soda-based barbecue sauce and Massachusetts Franken-Chicken. These culinary curiosities carry the book, along with anecdotes that provide tips and dispel myths (like common notions about sauceless 'que in Texas). Though more scrapbook than guide, there are enough recipes for dry rubs and sauces to get most barbecuers through a season. Other dishes, however, vary in their appeal; North Carolina Cheesy Cabbage is a gag-inducing smoked concoction of cheese, sausage, cabbage and half a squeeze bottle of Parkay margarine; Lampe's own Alamo Pie, a cross between a quesadilla and a s'more, makes one pause. Still, Lampe's method of smoking two pork butts simultaneously is a winner, and there is more than enough variation in these pages to stave off boredom. Though far from definitive, this book serves up regional quirks and curiosities will appeal to BBQ completists and culinary historians.