How to Grill Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Flame-Cooked Food

As with previous works (How to Cook Everything; How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, etc.), Bittman’s broad coverage and clear instructions yield a wealth of reliable, practical dishes well within the range of even novice grillers. Although the book contains 1,000 recipes, Bittman doesn’t overwhelm; he includes only a few variations on main ingredients, such as the grilled chicken breast (in the form of salt-and-pepper boneless chicken, crunchy breaded cutlets, and lemon chicken paillard with asparagus and feta), steak (stuffed flank, carne asada tacos), leg of lamb (butterflied, shawarma style), and tofu (steaks, smoked, and as scallion-sesame sliders). He includes instruction on grilling duck breast, fries, savory bread pudding, and naan. Bittman offers solid grilling tips, and maintains, perhaps controversially, that soaking wood chips is pointless (the hardwoods commonly used are water-resistant, resulting in steam instead of smoke, he asserts); his easy-to-execute recipes and imaginative approach is unassailable. Regardless of one’s grilling experience, fans of outdoor cooking will find this volume to be essential. (May)