Reddit reviews Barbecue! Bible Sauces, Rubs, and Marinades, Bastes, Butters, and Glazes

This book is a pretty good source for sauce recipes that you can do "as is" or use as a starting point. There's also a section on "building your own".

I made a maple bourbon sauce a month or so ago, that started out as a disaster, but ended up as one of the best I've ever done. I used a ketchup base and added some mustard...not paying attention to the fact that it was horseradish mustard. Mix ketchup and horseradish and what do you get? Yeah, cocktail sauce - great on shrimp but would probably taste like ass on ribs. I kept doctoring and doctoring and eventually got something that was really, really good.

Oh god, no.....the Ardbeg is used to lubricate the cook during the making of the sauce! For the above maple bourbon BBQ sauce, I used Cabin Fever Maple Flavored whiskey. It worked well in the sauce, but was kinda' nasty just to drink - the point being "cheap booze will work in BBQ sauce; don't waste the good stuff!"

Oh, lordy...

I'm not knocking you at all. We all have to start somewhere. The fact that you WANT to make BBQ rocks.

But yes, going above 240 degrees just broke the cardinal rule of smoking - low and slow. When you go above 240, you aren't smoking meat anymore, you're cooking it. You need to aim in the range of 220 - 240. And the closer to 220 you are, IMO, the better product you will make.

If you have chips that won't smoke, break them smaller next time and soak the hell out of them (2-24 hours) in a bucket with water.

So what you ended up doing with that brisket is that you cooked the hell out of it for hours. No wonder it ended up tough.

Please, invest some time and read the virtual bullet site I linked above. They are an amazing resource for recipes and techniques.

If you want something else from the "pros", I strongly recommend the following books by Steve Raichlen.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0761131337
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0761119795
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0761149430

Overall I'm glad I bought this book of Steven's "Sauces Rubs & Marinades" . There's a great recipe for injectable Cajun marinade that I'm tired of buying, or not having when I want it, so that one recipe is worth the price I paid for the book.

That said, I was hoping for more seasoning mixes, and hot sauce recipes, but there's only a few hot sauce recipes, and the seasonings are all rubs. It's very barbecue based, so it's nice for those that like to grill. There are nice marinades that are good for cooking inside though, and a lot of the sauces are good for inside or outside cooking.

All kinds of flavors are represented, from Italian to Middle Eastern, Tex-Mex, to Asian. Your imagination is needed to envision the look of the recipes, but experienced cooks will be ok with the lack of pictures, and appreciate the abundance and short & sweet format of the recipes.
https://www.amazon.com/Barbecue-Sauces-Marinades-Bastes-Butters/dp/0761119795 -Topazy