BBQ Pit Boys:
Book of Real Guuud Barbeque
Reviewing any book, it is lazy to pinch lines from the jacket blurb, but what the hell. ‘This isn’t just a cookbook. It’s a way of life.’ Just as I certainly couldn’t barbecue better than them, I could not put it better myself.
BBQ Pit Boys Book of Real Guuud Barbecue makes you reach for the beer, bourbon and cigars. It is about the beards too, but for someone who can rarely progress beyond salt and pepper stubble, that is a trait too far.
Even the three Us in guuud are acceptable to the grammarian, because good isn’t a good enough description; real guuud is.
When I interviewed Bob Ahlgren – AKA Bobby Fame – and his son, Jesse, in the last issue of BBQ I was immediately struck by their authenticity; whatever your age, you immediately wanted to be in their gang.
It is some gang. BBQ Pit Boys, based out of Connecticut in the United States, have more than 2.2 million subscribers, over one billion views of their shows on Facebook,
and five million subscribers on YouTube, not to mention around 18,000 registered chapters of fans across more than 100 countries. BBQ Pit Boys, founded in 2007, is quite simply the biggest BBQ community in the world – quite the journey from throwing an old kettle grill from Ahlgren’s local dump in the back of the truck.
Hell burger bacon cheeseburger
Butterscotch bourbon ribs
Pound chicken
Beef 'n' whiskey kebabs
BBQ Pit Boys would be some private army to mobilise, definitely marching on its stomach, although having pitched camp and lit fires, that would be it, until the waft of smoke from the cooked meats had the enemy surrendering the castle in return for a good, sorry real guuud, feast.
With southern drawls and blues the backing tracks, the BBQ Pit Boys describe themselves as Average Joes, clad in jeans, T-shirts and caps gathered round the mother pit – old timers having a great time.
There is nothing average about their cooking, but they keep it simple and fun, teaching millions the art of social grilling, forging friendships over BBQ food, be it beer-can burgers, fireball whiskey meatballs, popcorn chicken or stuffed alligator.
“We’re just guys hanging out, grilling and shooting videos,” says Bob Ahlgren. “We appeal to the everyday griller who loves to be outside but might be intimidated by the process.”
The range of recipes in the book is vast with over 250 pages – burgers and sausages and a mountain of beef of course, as well as chapters on pork, lamb, game, chicken and fish. There are soups, salads and sides – make me candied bacon jalapeno smoked cream cheese before I exit mother earth – and plenty of sauces, rubs, marinades and gravy. There is even a chapter on desserts if you can possibly have any room left, including Grandma’s grilled apple pie.
Every recipe is beautifully illustrated and presented without so much as a tablespoon of pretension or cup of complication – each one accompanied by an exhortation to try it, be it ‘So hot, she’ll blow your mind!’ (the hell bacon cheeseburger, since you ask); ‘Oh lord have mercy!’; ‘Oh, Sweet Martha!’; or ‘Man, I’m hungry!’ – or that last cry might have been me flicking through the pages.
The book ends with the line: ‘Now go ‘n’ get grillin.’ Now go ‘n’ get buying. It’s real guuud barbecue.
Review by Rupert Bates
