20 Must-Have Grilling Guides

We're pulling out the stops to get grill-ready this year ~ and these are the 20 must-have grilling books this Savvy Host has on hand to ensure success.  

For easy reference, and to avoid having any listing priority or favoritism, the list is alphabetical.

200 Barbecue Recipes, Louise Pickford

$7.99 ~ 240p

Everyone loves barbecues - the sun, the smells, the smiles - however most of us would admit that we have a limited range when it comes to producing flame-grilled food. This book gives you over 200 tasty recipes to turn your barbecue into a barbecue banquet!

25 Essentials/Techniques for Smoking, Ardie A. Davis

$10.36 ~ 128p ~ spiral-bound

Here barbecue expert Davis takes a look at cooking low and slow, offering 25 recipes using his smoking techniques-and yes, there are 25 of those, too: rotisseries, wood planks and even paper bags make appearances, used for everything from cipollini onions and shrimp to a Smoke-Baked Barbecue Chile Pie.

300 Big & Bold Barbecue & Grilling Recipes, Karen Adler and Judith Fertig

$18.96 ~ 440p

How to barbecue and grill everything from a steak to an apple.  This superb collection of recipes for the barbecue and grill is not only bold, it shares many grilling secrets from expert chefs. The recipes deliver flavors that will blow away the toughest critic in the family. A special chapter is devoted to rubs, brines, mops, sops, bastes, glazes, BBQ sauces, slathers, vinaigrettes, pestos, flavored butters and dipping sauces. Also included are charts for every type of food and cooking technique as well as an encyclopedia of ingredients.  This is the home chef's ultimate book on barbecue and grilling.

Beer Can Chicken, Steven Raichen

$9.32 ~ 336p

Steven Raichlen's Beer-Can Chicken tells everything one should ever need to know about roasting a chicken upright on top of a can of beer. For those who find that premise strange or silly (Raichlen, in fact, thanks his publisher for being "wacky enough" to produce the book), the author describes beer-can chicken as "the perfect bird, crackly crisp, succulent within ... the most flavorful chicken you've ever tasted."

Big Daddy’s Zubba Bubba BBQ Kit, Remus Powers

$5,73 ~ 144p

Readers will get their fill from the grill with this mouthwatering compendium of some of the best barbecue recipes and techniques, as introduced by Remus Powers, founder of the American International Barbecue Sauce, Rub, & Baste Contest. Packing over 130 flavorful recipes, ranging from award-winning competition-beaters to traditional favorites and exotic inventions, from grillers to marinaters to smokers, Big Daddy gives every potential grillmaster the goods on cooking up the sweetest, hottest, most succulent fire-kissed delicacies from across the board. Includes the inside info on barbecuing anything you can slap on a skillet, from ribs and pork to brisket and seafood.

Bobby Flay’s Boy Gets Grill: 125 Reasons to Light Your Fire

$21.60 ~ 320pp

The irrepressible Flay teams with noted food writer Moskin in another of his cookbooks on the art of grilling. Flay personifies the urban griller. He uses top-quality ingredients from a vast array of ethnic cuisines to produce a panoply of flavors favored by contemporary palates.

Fish Grilled & Smoked: 150 Recipes for Cooking Rich, Flavorful Fish on the Backyard Grill, Streamside or in a Home Smoker, John Manikowski

$11.53 ~ 264p

There are at least 20,000 species of fish in the oceans, rivers, and streams of the world. In Fish Grilled & Smoked, master fisherman and chef John Manikowski teaches seafood lovers 150 succulent ways to cook just about anything that swims. If this book were only a cookbook, it would be a valuable addition to any kitchen library. But Manikowski has nudged Fish Grilled & Smoked into the realm of the truly unique by providing step-by-step instructions for rigging a smoker streamside, operating a smoker at home, and even building a full-size backyard smokehouse. Manikowski then lists which species of fish are best for smoking: bluefish, yellowtail, whitefish, chub, herring, and lake trout.

How to Grill, Steven Raichen

$13.62 ~ 498p

"150 straightforward recipes will appeal to run-of-the-mill grillers as well as those weekend barbecue warriors..." -- Los Angeles Times. The giddy joy that comes with picking up this tribute to outdoor cooking is comparable to the adolescent thrill of sneaking a naughty magazine into the garage. Not only does every conceivable meat, fish and fowl get its turn over the coals, there is a whole Barbecued Cabbage stuffed with bacon and onion and even a grilled Creme Brule. Raichlen focuses on creative techniques, employing everything from butcher's string and bricks wrapped in foil to inserting a half-full can of beer into the cavity of a chicken: when placed on the grill it simultaneously steams the bird and holds it upright, allowing the skin to grow crisp.

Another website we bookmark, The Barbeque Bible is Steven Raichen's home turf for providing all kinds of grilling information and bbq updates.

Incredibly Easy Grilling

$14.98 ~  160p  ~ spiral-bound

Incredibly Easy Grilling Recipes makes cooking outdoors fast, fun, and easy. With more than 60 delicious recipes to choose from, you can fire up the grill for a quick, satisfying meal any day of the week.  This spiral-bound cookbook lies flat when it’s open for easy use in the kitchen or next to the barbecue grill.

Italian Grill, Mario Batali

$21.56 ~ 256p

Easy to use and filled with simple recipes, Mario Batali's new grilling handbook takes the mystery out of making tasty, simple, smoky Italian food. In addition to the eighty recipes and the sixty full-color photographs, Italian Grill includes helpful information on different heat-source options, grilling techniques, and essential equipment.  Italian Grill features appetizers; pizza and flatbreads; fish and shellfish; poultry; meat; and vegetables.

Big fans that we are of Sig. Batali's master cooking style, we've bookmarked his website  to stay current of any new trends. 

Mastering the Grill: The Owner’s Manual for Outdoor Cooking Andrew Schloss, David Joachim, Alison Miksch

$4.75 ~ 416p

Grilling is a science, and it's only when you understand the science of grilling that you can transform it into an art. That's what makes Mastering the Grill a standout on the cookbook shelf. From equipment (grill types and tools) to fire (wood, charcoal, or gas) to ingredients (meat, poultry, fish, and vegetables), the authors have shared their impressive grilling know-how to explain the whys and the hows and guarantee the wows clearly and comprehensively. In addition to hundreds of tips and techniques, this ultimate guide is packed with how-to illustrations and mouthwatering photographs plus 350 surefire recipes everything from rubs and marinades to appetizers, entrees, side dishes, and desserts. Mastering the Grill is a master class in cooking, destined to become a sauce-stained, well-thumbed classic.

Peace, Love and Barbeque, Mike Mills, Amy Mills Tunnicliffe

$14.93 ~ 312p

PEACE, LOVE, and BARBECUE is an extraordinary behind-the-scenes journey into the world of barbecue with Grand World Champion pitmaster Mike Mills as your guide. Join Mike and his barbecue buddies--a veritable Who's Who of Barbecue--as they spin a few tales, spill their secrets, and reluctantly part with their prize-winning recipes.  

We enjoy following Amy Mills Tunnicliffe on Twitter...and frequently visit their website for more updates and grilling info!

Soaked, Slathered and Seasoned: A Complete Guide to Flavoring Food for the Grill, Elizabeth Karmel

$15.99 ~ 352p

Whether you're grilling hot-and-fast or barbecuing low-and-slow, knowing how to match foods with flavors will make you a bona fide backyard BBQ master. In Soaked, Slathered, and Seasoned, Elizabeth Karmel offers hundreds of savory and sweet flavorings to make the most of all your favorite foods—ribs, burgers, steaks, poultry, seafood, vegetables, and fruit—really, anything you can cook with fire and smoke!  Karmel offers 400 fresh, creative recipes for marinades, brines, barbecue sauces, glazes, mops, salsas, jellies, dipping sauces, and even pestos and tapenades that range from classic (Garlicky Lemon Marinade, Irene's Hot Pepper Jelly) to innovative (Fresh Cherry-Horseradish Relish, Roasted Garlic and Shallot Jam) and from sophisticated (Merlot Wine Steak Sauce, Pumpkin Butter Barbecue Sauce) to just plain fun (Elvis Is in the House Sauce, This Swine Is Mine Beer Mop).

The Savvy Host recommended Elizabeth Karmel and her Girls at the Grill website in our post on Grilling Like a Pro: 12 Guides to Have on Hand.  She's also a great Twitter follow!

Simply Backyard Barbecuing From Grilling to Smoking: Tips, Techniques, 200 Flavorful Recipes, Richard W. McPeake

$17.95 ~ 300p

Simply Backyard Barbecuing From Grilling to Smoking Some might wonder if an American Culinary Federation-trained and award-winning professional chef could actually do backyard barbecuing. The answer is yes. Chef Richard W. McPeake is the author of Backyard BBQ: The Art of Smokeology and the creator of the Rib Stars series of BBQ rubs. He is also an avid BBQ competitor, and his rubs have won numerous prestigious contests. McPeake conducts over 90 smoking and grilling seminars a year, and is a certified barbecue judge. He is based in the Kansas City area and I won t dare add the barbecue capital of the world, because no doubt my fellow Texans as well as those from other far-flung regions of the country would have my head.

The Barbeque! Bible, Steven Raichen

$15.61 ~ 556p

Redesigned inside and out for its 10th anniversary, The Barbecue! Bible now includes full-color photographs illustrating food preparation, grilling techniques, ingredients, and of course those irresistible finished dishes. A new section has been added with answers to the most frequently asked grilling questions, plus Steven's proven tips, quick solutions to common mistakes, and more.  And then there's the literal meat of the book: more than 500 of the very best barbecue recipes, inventive, delicious, unexpected, easy-to-make, and guaranteed to capture great grill flavors from around the world. Add in the full-color, and it's a true treasure.

The Complete Fish on the Grill, Phyllis Magida and Barbara Grunes

$67.85 ~ 336p

With scores of succulent recipes for more than 40 of your favorite fish and shellfish, this illustrated step-by-step guide takes the guesswork out of preparing perfectly grilled seafood. You'll find a virtual encyclopedic range of facts on techniques, equipment, and buying and storing fish--tuna, marlin, salmon, and more.

The Cook’s Illustrated Guide to Grilling and Barbecue

$23.10 ~ 432p

The Cook’s Illustrated Guide to Grilling and Barbecue is a comprehensive nuts and bolts volume that thoroughly examines outdoor cooking—starting with the basics. The 12-page introduction to grilling, "Outdoor Cooking 101," walks you step-by-step through the essentials of grilling, grill-roasting, and barbecuing using both charcoal and gas grills. It also contains more than 300 step-by-step illustrations that walk you through the basics of food preparation, such as how to cut beef for kebabs, trim beef tenderloin, and grill-roast a turkey. Whether you’re a novice outdoor cook or aspiring grillmaster, this encyclopedic examination of one of America’s favorite pastimes will be your guide to foolproof grilling and barbecuing.

If you're fans of The Cook's Illustrated approach to cooking, you'll love this grilling and barbeque guide - and, Christopher Kimball is a great follow on Twitter!

The Thrill of the Grill: Techniques, Recipes & Down-Home Barbeque, Chris Schlesinger

$14.00 ~ 400p

In his jacket photo, ace grill chef Chris Schlesinger has the look of Howdy Doody with a stomach full of barbecue. It's a speechless kind of look. Schlesinger, however, is not a speechless kind of guy. Starting with the motto, "Brown food tastes better," Schlesinger and his writing partner, John Willoughby, show the reader exactly why that is. The ride lasts nearly 400 pages. It's hard to imagine a pre-Thrill of the Grill time in American culinary life, so mighty has the impact been. It's a book with a built-in virus of insidious and infecting qualities that will have even the least interested among us out at the grill, getting the fire glass-melting hot, trying a few ideas like Grilled Shrimp with Pineapple-Ancho Chile Salsa, or Grilled Chicken Rubbed with Ethiopian Berbere (hot, hot, hot), or Grilled Swordfish Steaks with Yucatan Orange-Herb Paste, or maybe Beef Heart Grilled and Marinated in the Peruvian Way (or maybe not). Actually, that right there--beef heart--is rather telling. Who else in their right minds would include grilled beef heart in their cookbook? These guys, Schlesinger in the lead, breaking trail, will go anywhere, do anything, and bring it all home to grill and eat.

The Vegetarian Grill: 200 Recipes for Inspired Flame-Kissed Meals, Andrea Chessman

$7.78 ~ 304p

Forget about the word vegetarian in the title, and don't think inspired is just hype. The Vegetarian Grill features a host of unexpected dishes that should interest almost everyone. Have you ever thought, for example, of grilling quesadillas or falafel; of making lasagna laced with grilled, chopped vegetables; or of using grilled vegetables to infuse a meatless split-pea soup with deep flavor? In the chapters on Flame-Kissed Pastas and Grilled Fruit and Desserts, check out the Roasted Garlic and Pepper Linguine, where grilling garlic, tomatoes, and sweet peppers caramelizes their natural sugars and adds smoky savor, and be sure to try the Grilled Pears with Chocolate Sauce, made extra-rich tasting with brown sugar.

Weber's Way to Grill: The Step-by-Step Guide to Expert Grilling, Jamie Purviance

$16.47 ~ 320p

Everything a griller wants to know in the most complete grilling technique book ever:

• Five keys to grilling great steak
• The right way with baby back ribs
• What to do when flare-ups happen
• The way to smoke a turkey
• Five secrets for perfect fish every time
• Simple ways to check for doneness
• Getting great results with your smoker
• The way to handle foods that stick
• Working burger magic every time
• Over 1,000 step-by-step photos
• More than 160 delicious new recipes
• Dozens of rubs, sauces, marinades, and more

The Savvy Host also featured Weber as one of the defacto sources of grilling info our post on Grilling Like a Pro: 12 Guides to Have on Hand. We are just working our way through this amazing step-by-step guide!

Hope you find any or possibly all of these guides useful in your al-fresco entertaining!