Andrews McMeel, 2010, 318 pages, hardcover, more than 200 recipes, many color photos.
Pure fun. Founded in 1986, the Kansas City Barbeque Society (KCBS) is an international association with thousands of members. They sanction and administer more than 400 barbecue competitions.
The intro material is about the history of KCBS and how the judging works. The recipes were all contributed by members, and the photos are all amateur snapshots which give the book a friendly family album feel. There are short bios of the contributors, sidebars with short tips, a glossary in the rear, and only three pages of bullet-pointed cooking tips.
I would give this book a gold medal, but, because the recipes come from so many sources, and many are scaled down from restaurant quantities, there is a lot inconsistency in the recipe presentation. I am sure the cooks have perfected them, but the best cookbooks use recipe testers to double check and polish, and editors to make sure everything is consistent and easy to understand, and that is not the case here.
