Low & Slow: Master the Art of Barbecue in 5 Easy Lessons Paperback – April 28, 2009

Well, I guess I'm going to have to apologize to Gary Wiviott! When I first got this book, I was turned off by what I perceived as his condescending tone, his know-it-all approach and his waste of charcoal. After going through the first four "lessons" in the book, I now realize that this book flat out WORKS for preparing fantastic BBQ! I prepared spare ribs yesterday following his instructions and recipes and they received rave reviews from my family. A couple of weeks ago, I prepared baby back ribs that were better than anything I've ever had in any restaurant! My chicken BBQ been great too!Sorry Gary Wiviott! I was wrong, you were right!For anyone who is not already aware, the book is organized as a series of 5 lessons in making great BBQ. The lessons were originally created for the fantastic Weber Smokey Mountain smoker and were published for free on his web site. This year, Gary expanded the lessons to include directions for an offset smoker and for a kettle grill. He also added numerous excellent recipes for various rubs, washes, marinades, and sauces as well as side dishes and recipes for using the leftovers. The only thing he doesn;t cover is brisket, but once you master the techniques he teaches, you won't have any trouble with brisket.My next cook will be the pulled pork cooking a Boston butt roast. Based on my experience with the chicken and ribs, the pork butt is going to turn out great!I have a Weber Smokey Mountain smoker, a Weber Kettle grill and a Weber gas grill. I have only followed the instructions for the Smokey Mountain. So, i can't comment on his other instructions, but I woulod bet that they are right on as well!When you get the book, my advice is to ignire all the blustering. Also, know that you don't have to do everything EXACTLY as he says, but you shouldn't stray too far. For example, Wiviott says to ONLY use lump charcoal. I used Kingsford regular charcoal (NOT the Matchlight) and everything has turned out great. The timing he gives is not exact, but is close enough for you to do quite well. He also deliberately has you to use too much charcoal. I realize now, that this is so that you are not changing too many variables from one cook to the next. The main difference between the cooks is the timing and the vent settings. He wants you to learn your Smoker first, and then start trying other things like optimizing your charcoal amount. so go ahead and bu extra charcoal for now. You can adjust later.One thing to definitely follow is to use the Weber Chimney starter to start your charcoal. I have used all available methods of starting charcoal and the Weber Chimney Starter is the best method, bar none. Just follow Wiviott's instructions and use three sheets of newspaper prepared as he tells you and your charcoal starting will be fool proof.By the way, the best price anywhere for the Weber Smokey Mountain Smoker is on Amazon!

If you are new to barbecuing and want someone to teach you how to do it in simple, easy lessons, this is the book for you. Mr. Wiviott takes you step by step on how to use your smoker depending on what kind you have. This is more of a study book than a recipe book although it has a lot of recipes in it. In the beginning of the book, you will learn how to start a clean burning fire and how to maintain it for a good smoke. The rest of the book is a series of lessons which are designed to gradually educate you on the art of bbq. Although Mr. Wiviott is somewhat opinionated, he definitely knows his stuff and is only adamant about doing things his way in order to teach you the right way of doing things. You will learn how to cook chicken, ribs and pork shoulder and how to put together several rubs, sauces and marinades. After you are done with your 5 "lessons" and "graduate" from his program, you will be able to watch bbq shows and understand what they are doing and why. You will also know why they may do things differently than you. The only thing I didn't like about this book is that you don't learn how to make a brisket, but I googled him later and found his instructions for doing one. If you are new to barbecue, this is definitely the book for you. Once you make it through the book, you will feel much more confident using your smoker. P.S. As a side note, whenever you cook something, add at least an hour or two to whatever his timeline says. This info is helpful when you invite people over so they don't have to wait til its almost bedtime to eat!

I've been looking for books online and at bookstores that give good tips about low and slow barbeque. There's a couple that give the odd helpful hint here and there, if you have the time and patience to find it. I've read reviews for almost 50 books here on Amazon, including Gary Wiviott's book right here. I read a couple reviews that say he's condescending and dogmatic about things. I wasn't sure that it would be the book for me until I noticed someone on the Amazon Marketplace was selling one for a price too good to pass up. I bit down and bought it, and I haven't been disappointed for a second.I'm relatively new to smoking meat, but I still knew a thing or two. That said, this book is going to be enormously helpful. There's more gold nuggets in the first thirty pages than I've found on the entire internet. Helpful hints fill almost every page. Mr. Wiviott's plan makes perfect sense if you follow it. Whether or not you are a "Master" after the five lessons is debatable, but who cares. If you do what he says in the lessons, you can do what you want when you're done. It's like taking art classes and studying the master artists- you do it like them until you know how to do it your own way. Why read a book by a teacher and complain about doing what he says?Some of those low reviews are ridiculous, especially the one by the guy who only does one star reviews. These cyber cowboys complain about the way he writes because they're not used to somebody ponying up and saying, "this is the way to do it if you want to follow my program." Wiviott tells you what you need and what you don't need. He also describes, in detail, how to do these cooks on 3 different types of smokers: the Weber Smokey Mountain, the offset smoker (which is what I use), and the kettle grills that so many people already own. Notice there is no instruction for gas grills- something that Wiviott makes a good joke of in the book. I suppose if you don't want to use a wood fire, maybe the gas pipe is exactly what you need.

I'm new to barbecue and borrowed nearly a dozen titles from the library on the subject as well as consulting several websites dedicated to barbecue. This is one of 3 books on the subject I've purchased, and is the one I use the most and I believe includes the most information.The book is targeted at readers who want to make a hobby out of barbecue and want to work from the foundations up. As such it is not laid out like a recipe-book with 1 recipe and 1 color-glossy photo per page.It is laid out in a series of lessons of progressing complexity (really increasing cook time, more than complexity), from chicken, to ribs, to pork shoulder.First, there is detailed information on how to build a clean-burning, low and slow fire in each of 3 cookers, which was absent from other books I have reviewed. Wiviott suggests a low-tech, low-stress method to accomplish this. I do my cooking in a Weber Kettle and had already learned how to build a low-maintenance fire using the "Minion" method, so I didn't pay much heed to Wiviott's specific instructions, which would have had me opening the cooker to add charcoal and refill water pans more often. But, a very important detail I took away was not to obsess and micro-manage temperature. Wiviott states that he allows his fire to vary between 225 and 275. I've since took this approach and have not been disappointed. Meat still turns out tender and delcious, and I spend almost no time fiddling with vents to maintain 225 as suggested many places on the web and in some books.Wiviott provides instructions on how to build rubs, marinades, and brines, and provides "recipes" for representative samples of several styles. I really enjoyed this bottom-up approach, and wish I had this book from the beginning of my barbecuing. Early-on I was using very strong rubs that over-shadowed the meat.Through-out the book there are scattered chunks of wisdom on selecting cuts of meat and ingredients, why some ingredients work together and others don't, pieces of history, etc. that make the book an overall interesting read.Most of the negative reviews of this book seem to focus on the author's alpha-dog, my-way-or-the-highway writing style. I took Wiviott's style and suggestions with a grain of salt and focused on what I could learn from him, which turned out to be very much. Overall, Wiviott's focus on method and learning makes this book fairly unique in a sea of "me-too" barbecue recipe books, which seem to lack in educational value.

Excellent book with great information on methods of slow cooking. It eliminates a lot of anguish and wasted food for the newcomer.

Wer des Englischen halbwegs mächtig ist, sollte sich dieses Buch unbedingt zulegen! Es ist wie die meisten amerikanischen DIY-Bücher sehr verständlich geschrieben und dabei auch noch lustig.Sehr übersichtlich erklärt er alle Schritte jeweils für Kugelgrill, Smoker und Weber Smokey Mountain Smoker (nahezu baugleich: Napoleon Apollo - aber günstiger & auch top - haben wir gekauft) inkl. vieler Zeichnungen.Absolute Kaufempfehlung!!!

Love it!

Bought this after I purchased a weber smoker. Very helpful and informative along with being entertaining. Good recipes and succinct. Simplifies smoking, so great for a good foundation.