Cleveland-style barbecue

Barbecue Bros Book Club: “Michael Symon’s Playing With Fire” by Michael Symon

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Not that we’re anywhere close to being qualified enough to evaluate books but more so as a public service announcement we will periodically discuss barbecue and barbecue-related books.

Monk: Michael Symon’s Playing with Fire: BBQ and More from the Grill, Smoker, and Fireplace: A Cookbook is part of a recent trend of cookbooks from barbecue personalities. See: Rodney Scott (2021), Aaron Franklin (2015), Matthew Register (2019), Christopher Prieto (2019), Ed Randolph (2019), Sam Jones (2019), and Elliott Moss (2016). Not that I mind, as it has clearly given me lots of content over the years.

As for Michael Symon’s contribution to the barbecue cookbook world (which came out in 2018), he starts off with a short “love letter to live-fire cooking” and that sets the tone for the rest of the book. Not strictly a barbecue book, Symon includes a lot of grilling recipes informed by his love of Cleveland.

Symon makes his case for “Cleveland-style barbecue,” which is “a style and menu that draw upon Cleveland’s rich cultural heritage, much of which is firmly rooted in eastern Europe.” He goes on “We season meats with Jewish deli-style pastrami spices, our kielbasa is made by a sixty-year-old Ukrainian butcher at the West Side Market, we smoke over locally sourced apple- and cherrywoods; we serve Hungarian-based sides like spaetzle and cabbage; our tangy mustard-based sauce is designed around the legendary local stadium-style mustard Bertman Ball Park.”

Outside of the typical barbecue recipes, that is what sets this book apart. I was disappointed that we only really get Symon’s perspective in the introductory letter and some of the short intros to the recipes. Contrasted with Rodney Scott’s recent book that bared so much of his barbecue soul and history, it seems like a missed opportunity.

All in all, Michael Symon’s “Playing with Fire” features nice food photography and a slightly different point of view, but is far from an essential barbecue book. I’d recommend checking out the books from Sam Jones, Elliott Moss, Rodney Scott, or Aaron Franklin first and then preview this book at your library to see if Cleveland-style barbecue and live-fire cooking with ingredients native to that region is of interest to you.

Linkdown: 6/15/16

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– Is Athens, GA one of the great barbecue capitals in the US? Grant sure thinks so

– Daniel Vaughn heads back to Ohio in search of “Cleveland-style” barbecue

– Speaking of which, Robert Moss recently traveled down to Miami (tough job) in search of South Florida-style barbecue

– Congrats to Stamey’s Barbecue in Greensboro for winning 10Best’s Best BBQ Pork Sandwich in NC contest (B’s Barbecue in Greenville took the runner up spot); also thanks to 10Best for allowing us to masquerade as experts for a few weeks

– Destination BBQ’s latest roadtrip covers the first 100 exits of I-26

– Charlotte Business Journal has an interview with Amanda and Paul from EDIA Maps, who you may remember created maps for NC barbecue as well as beer

– Relevant for the newly relocated Speedy: 18 Must-Try OTP Barbecue Spots in Atlanta

– Get to know your regional styles of barbecue, according to JC Reid of the Houston Chronicle, though I might nitpick that Lexington-style barbecue is what NC is best known for; my experience has been most folks know about eastern-style whole hog more

– CAUTION, HOT TAKES ABOUND: Although, according to this, anything from a cow shouldn’t be called “barbecue”

– Where to find barbecue in 21 Eater cities

– Ed Mitchell’s upcoming barbecue restaurant (winter 2016) and food truck (!) has a new website

 

Linkdown: 4/13/16

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– Grant continues his barbecue tour of the NC Piedmont (that neither Speedy nor Monk were unable to join him on any part of, sadly): Smiley’s in Lexington, Fuzzy’s in Madison, Stamey’s in Greensboro, and Little Richard’s in Winston-Salem

– On his book blog, Grant also reviews a new barbecue book, “The One True Barbecue” by Rien Fertels, who along with photographer Denny Culbert was behind The Barbecue Bus

– The book is also included in this rundown along with John Shelton Reed’s upcoming book Barbecue

– Robert Moss posits that wood v gas is perhaps the wrong question when it comes to barbecue

– Shots fired from Alton Brown at unnamed southern barbecue restaurants

“It’s funny with barbecue, because the most beloved barbecue places in the South, by and large, serve the shittiest barbecue. I will stand by that. Places that people will drive hours to get to, barbecue’s not that great, but it’s still there. It’s been there. My mom brought me here. My grandparents are from here.?

– In case you were wondering what “Cleveland-style barbecue” was again…

You’re calling the food at Mabel’s “Cleveland-style barbecue.” What does that mean, exactly?
We’re inspired more by Eastern Europe than the South in our flavor profile. Cleveland is a big Eastern European melting pot, so I wanted to offer a menu that reflected the cuisine. For instance, instead of hot links, we serve kielbasa. Our spice blends, our sides… they’re very reminiscent of what you’d find in Cleveland, like smoked beets with horseradish, sauerkraut and Cleveland brown mustard. We’re also smoking with apple and cherry woods, which are native to the region.

Linkdown: 7/8/15

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– Michael W Twitty with a thought-provoking piece: Barbecue is an American Tradition – of enslaved Africans and Native Americans

– How the word barbecue has “divided the coalition of the grilling”

– Friend of the blog Johnny Fugit also weighs in on how words matter when it comes to the word “barbecue”

– We linked to this article a few weeks back, but its worth another link: Tyson Ho (among others) gets a profile in Garden & Gun Magazine

– A guide to barbecue in the San Francisco bay area includes the Lexington-style joint Rusty’s Southern

Sarah Fritsche: “When I first visited Lexington Barbecue in North Carolina about a decade ago, I knew I’d met my ideal kind of ‘cue. Slow-smoked pork shoulder is finely chopped, not pulled, and served with a tangy vinegar sauce and all the fixings, which include a tomato-based red slaw and cornmeal hush puppies. Happily, thanks to Rusty’s Southern, I don’t have to book a flight to N.C. to get my fix. Prior to opening their Tenderloin restaurant earlier this spring, owner Rusty Olson and chef Francis Rubio spent time with Lexington Barbecue owner Wayne Monk to learn how to re-create the unique barbecue.”

– The 10 best barbecue restaurants in Britain, for what thats worth

– There is a South Carolina Barbecue Association judging class this Saturday in Cheraw

– Grant’s latest joints on Marie, Let’s Eat!: Center Point Pit Barbecue in Hendersonville, TN and Bill’s Bar-B-Q in Hull, GA

– In a follow-up on Michael Symon and his quest to create “Cleveland-style” barbecue, Thrillist asks just exactly what it is (via)

– Smoking tips from a man who knows what he is talking about, Steve Raichlen