Big Bob Gibson’s BBQ Book

It’s Alabama Week here at Cookbook Of The Day. This week we are going to feature cookbooks from Alabama. In 2009, Alabama produced cookbooks as fast as they grow kudzu. Not the self-published type but those big, bold, colorful, national cookbooks. 

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 Miss Caroline printed her name on the blackboard and said, "This

says I am Miss Caroline Fisher.  I am from North Alabama, from

Winston, County." The class murmured apprehensively, should she

prove to harbor her share of the peculiarities indigenous to that region.

(When Alabama seceded from the Union on January 11, 1861, Winston 

County seceded from Alabama, and every child in Maycomb County 

knew it.) North Alabama was full of Liquor Interests, Big Mules, steel 

companies, Republicans, professors, and other people of no background.

To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee

Scout might have changed her opinion of North Alabama, surely of Morgan county, if she had ever eaten at Big Bob Gibson’s Barbecue.


At 6’4” and weighing in at nearly 300 pounds, Big Bob Gibson came by his nickname honestly. After working for years on the railroad and building a family with six kids, Big Bob was at a crossroad. He didn’t think he could keep working for the railroad, but he had a family to feed. When he wasn’t working, that is exactly what he was doing, feeding his family. He became an expert at cooking pork for his family. If he could feed a wife and six children, maybe he could feed other people too. In 1925, Big Bob and his wife, Ellen, known as Big Mama, opened up a barbecue joint in Decatur, Alabama. It’s still there.



Actually, it has moved time and time again. And today, under the direction of Big Bob’s great grandson-in-law, Chris Lilly, there are three locations in two states. Chris Lilly has led the Big Bob Gibson barbecue team to ten World BBQ Championships. They have also won a sauce championship. It was a natural progression to a cookbook, Big Bob Gibson’s BBQ Book.

One of Big Bob’s signature sauces is their famous White BBQ sauce. For a long time North Alabama was the only place you could purchase the sauce. The “white sauce” recipe was a closely guarded family secret, but Chris Lilly notes that in the history of the restaurant, there have been hundreds of cooks, so the recipe was hardly as secretive as it once was.

I never went to North Alabama that I didn’t come away bottles of Big Bob Gibson’s White Sauce. When my BFF Beverly sent me “Care “ packages from Alabama there was always a bottle of the white BBQ sauce. Beverly relayed my love of the sauce to her friend Molly, a foodie in her own right, and she told Beverly she might be able to get the recipe. A short time later, I got page torn from a small spiral notebook with Molly’s Big Bob recipe.


I immediately tweaked it, believing it needed to be spicier. (I tend to think EVERYTHING needs to be spicier!) Then I played with the ratio and came up with my own "Big Lucinda's" white sauce. Imagine my extreme joy when this book was published. There at the very back of the book was the white sauce recipe. We had all missed the “secret ingredient” failing to add the horseradish, but other than that, we had gotten pretty close.

Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q White Sauce

2 cups mayonnaise
1 cup distilled white vinegar
1/2 cup apple juice
2 teaspoons prepared horseradish
2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper


In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients and blend well. Use as a marinade, baste or dipping sauce. Store refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

If you have never had White BBQ, are you crazy! Print this recipe, turn off your computer, got to the store, buy the ingredients along with a big chicken and get to work. Seriously, you NEED this sauce. Really. Why are you still reading this? Go.

Big Bob Gibson’s BBQ Book

It’s Alabama Week here at Cookbook Of The Day. This week we are going to feature cookbooks from Alabama. In 2009, Alabama produced cookbooks as fast as they grow kudzu. Not the self-published type but those big, bold, colorful, national cookbooks.

Miss Caroline printed her name on the blackboard and said, "This says I am Miss Caroline Fisher. I am from North Alabama, from Winston County." The class murmured apprehensively, should she prove to harbor her share of the peculiarities indigenous to that region. (When Alabama seceded from the Union on January 11, 1861, Winston County seceded from Alabama,and every child in Maycomb County knew it.) North Alabama was full of Liquor Interests, Big Mules, steel companies, Republicans, professors,and other persons of no background. 

To Kill A Mockingbird,  Harper Lee

Scout might have changed her opinion of North Alabama, surely of Morgan county, if she had ever eaten at Big Bob Gibson’s Barbecue.


At 6’4” and weighing in at nearly 300 pounds, Big Bob Gibson came by his nickname honestly. After working for years on the railroad and building a family with six kids, Big Bob was at a crossroad. He didn’t think he could keep working for the railroad, but he had a family to feed. When he wasn’t working, that is exactly what he was doing, feeding his family. He became an expert at cooking pork for his family. If he could feed a wife and six children, maybe he could feed other people too. In 1925, Big Bob and his wife, Ellen, known as Big Mama, opened up a barbecue joint in Decatur, Alabama. It’s still there.



Actually, it has moved time and time again. And today, under the direction of Big Bob’s great grandson-in-law, Chris Lilly, there are three locations in two states. Chris Lilly has led the Big Bob Gibson barbecue team to ten World BBQ Championships. They have also won a sauce championship. It was a natural progression to a cookbook, Big Bob Gibson’s BBQ Book.

One of Big Bob’s signature sauces is their famous White BBQ sauce. For a long time North Alabama was the only place you could purchase the sauce. The “white sauce” recipe was a closely guarded family secret, but Chris Lilly notes that in the history of the restaurant, there have been hundreds of cooks, so the recipe was hardly as secretive as it once was.

I never went to North Alabama that I didn’t come away bottles of Big Bob Gibson’s White Sauce. When my BFF Beverly sent me “Care “ packages from Alabama there was always a bottle of the white BBQ sauce. Beverly relayed my love of the sauce to her friend Molly, a foodie in her own right, and she told Beverly she might be able to get the recipe. A short time later, I got page torn from a small spiral notebook with Molly’s Big Bob recipe.


I immediately tweaked it, believing it needed to be spicier. (I tend to think EVERYTHING needs to be spicier!) Then I played with the ratio and came up with my own "Big Lucinda's" white sauce. Imagine my extreme joy when this book was published. There at the very back of the book was the white sauce recipe. We had all missed the “secret ingredient” failing to add the horseradish, but other than that, we had gotten pretty close.

Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q White Sauce

2 cups mayonnaise
1 cup distilled white vinegar
1/2 cup apple juice
2 teaspoons prepared horseradish
2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper


In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients and blend well. Use as a marinade, baste or dipping sauce. Store refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

If you have never had White BBQ, are you crazy! Print this recipe, turn off your computer, got to the store, buy the ingredients along with a big chicken and get to work. Seriously, you NEED this sauce. Really. Why are you still reading this? Go.

Cocktail-Supper Cookbook

The 1950’s were big on planning and cooking “ahead.” God forbid one might muss one’s coif worrying over last minute preparations. Marion Flexner offers up a totally new type of meal, the Cocktail-Supper and of course wrote the Cocktail-Supper Cookbook.


What you might ask makes a “cocktail supper” different from other entertaining? Flexner explains it:

"You don’t need a kitchen to cook in. You don’t need a dining room to eat in. With modern know-how, whether your kitchen is the last word in efficiency or a makeshift affair…you can prepare and serve delectable and outstanding meals.

The era of the formal seated dinner party with numerous courses of rich dishes, served perhaps by butlers and maids is drawing to a close. Today you can serve what you want when you want where you want.

And so the cocktail supper, big and comprehensive or small and intimate, has emerged as the most practical and inexpensive way of entertaining a group."

So, if I understand it correctly, a cocktail-supper is a small buffet with drinks, lots of drinks. Themes seem to be popular with the cocktail-supper, Flexner offers up such fun filled events as the Erin Go Baaaa-aa-a, the Hungarian Rhapsody, and the Spanish Fandango.

Here is a truly one of the best meat sauces you will find. It is from the spectacular Kentucky Derby themed cocktail-supper.

Pride-of-the-Bluegrass Mustard

2 tablespoons dry mustard
1 1/2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons sugar
5 tablespoons cider vinegar
9 tablespoons beer
2 tablespoons melted butter

Whip all the ingredients until smooth in a blender. Or make a paste of dry ingredients with vinegar and add beer slowly. Stir in butter. Pour mixture into double boiler and beat with a wooden spoon until the consistency of a thick cream sauce. It takes about 4 minutes of constant beating.

Try it one ham or any pork, corned beef, or even chicken and be sure to make a cocktail!

Bull Cook and Authentic Historical Recipes and Practices

Bull Cook and Authentic Historical Recipes and Practices was written by George and Berthe Herter. George was the heir to the Herter sporting goods chain. While many people remember the sporting goods, everyone who reads this cookbook remembers its unique take on just about everything. It is one of those truly individual cookbooks hearkening back to the turn of the century when you got recipes for food with recipes for cleaners and a few etiquette tips.

There are many weird and wonderful recipes with some long and elaborate stories. For instance, did you know Wyatt Earp was a great cook whose specialities included pickled buffalo tongue (alas there is no recipe for this), buffalo liver and morning doves. He claims that the best shot he ever made was taking out 9 doves with one shot.

We are told to make mayonnaise as it cannot be bought in a grocery store. “That concoction they sell labeled mayonnaise are not even remotely similar to real mayonnaise.”

There is no other cookbook that tells you how to make puff pastry and how to use tomatoes to alleviate skunk order.

We are not told why Blanche Dupont was in Belgium or if there really was a "Blanche Dupont", but the Herters think this is quite marvelous.

Glace Blanche Dupont

This is a recent invention and a great one made in 1942 by Blanche Dupont in Belgium. It is one of the greatest known cooking tricks.

Take one cup of corn syrup, mix with 1/2 cup of water. Put in a pot and bring to a boil. Leave cool until lukewarm.
Brush or pour over the top of fruit cakes. This mixture gives them a rich clear glass like glaze and brings out their color.
Brush or pour over doughnuts. It gives them a beautiful glaze and taste.
Mix 1/8 level teaspoon of ground cloves or a few drops of cherry flavoring and brush over fried or baked ham and fried or cold Spam or brush over similar canned meats. Mix in a few drops of orange flavoring and brush over pieces of tame or wild duck or geese it makes them really delicious. Put in a few drops of peppermint flavorings into the mixture and brush over the tops of brownie cookies. Males them into a great delicacy instead of just another cookie.
Brush over the tops of apple turnovers, horns or lady locks just as it is. Pour over squash and sweet potatoes just as it is.

I am not sure I would agree that a simple syrup is the greatest known cooking trick, but I’m willing to give it a try. Do you think the Krispy Kream people read this cookbook when they developed their glaze?

Finally, the cookbook ends with instruction on what to do in case of an atomic attack. The good news is we have been told that red pepper is good for radiation, in fact, “People that use considerable red pepper in their foods are almost immune to atomic radiation except in sever form.” So, if you are staying awake at night worrying about North Korea and the bomb, stock up on red pepper.

A Return To Cooking

With his French accent and boyish good looks, Eric Ripert is a favorite on television cooking shows. His food is marvelous. In the end, however, his food is “chefy” relying on a multitude of ingredients. For the home cook, these enormously long recipes can be daunting.

A Return to Cooking is not so much a cookbook as a Broadway production of gastro porn. Ripert travels around, cooking in various “vacation” spots: Sag Harbor, Montauk, Vermont, Napa, the Caribbean. He “vacations” with his family… and a writer (Michael Ruhlman), a painter (Valentino Cortazar) and two photographer (Tammar and Shimon Rothstein) and of course, an unseen crew, not to mention as Ruhlman writes, “And, oh yes, a 125-gram tin of the world’s best caviar and two white truffles each the size of a demented egg and weighing about three ounces.” Don’t try this at home.

No doubt, I promise, the book is beautiful and, yes, you would have given anything to be a part of the crew, but at home, you really don’t want to commit to a grilled cheese with 6 ingredients.

There is one recipe in this book that I adore, and it is well worth the time. Pique (pronounced PEE - kay) is a Puerto Rican hot sauce, that adds sweet heat to many a dish. I love the heat, so add a teaspoon to some mayo, add some to tuna salad, or salad dressing or a meat marinade. Most recipes call for vinegar, so Ripert's "ferment your own in pineapple juice" gives it a unique flavor.

Pique

2 1/2 cups water
6 ounces pineapple skin (from one pineapple)
8 tiny green hot peppers, such as Thai chiles
4 tiny red chiles, such as Thai chilies
1 garlic clove, peeled
1 oregano sprig
1 teaspoon peppercorns
1/2 teaspoon sugar
Pinch fine sea salt
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or as needed
Special Equipment
Heatproof narrow-necked bottle

Combine the water and pineapple skin in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Take off the heat and infuse for 5 minutes, then strain. Discard the pineapple skin.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Submerge a heatproof bottle in the water to sterilize it. Remove with tongs and let dry on a rack.

Make 1/2 inch slit near the stem in each of the hot peppers. Add the peppers, garlic, oregano, peppercorns, sugar, and salt to the bottle. Cover with the pineapple-infused water. Slowly add the olive oil. The olive oil should completely cover the pique; if it does not, add more to cover.

Leave the bottle open for 1 week on your countertop, covered loosely with cheesecloth. Throughout the week, bubbles will rise to the top. After a week, the bubbles will have subsided. Seal the bottle and refrigerate. Pique should keep for up to a month.

Put up a bottle of pique and those truffles will be the farthest thing from your mind.

Burning Desires

The El Paso Chile Company is aptly titled. They make chili sauces, salsa, dips, margarita mixes and hot stuff of all kinds. Burning Desires is a cookbook by company founder, W. Park Kerr, that puts all those chili concoctions together to highlight barbecue.

A lot of the recipes are for smoked meat, and if you have never smoked dinner on a barbecue before, the instructions are quite good. As might be expected, this book shines with its recipes for sauces, rubs and even drinks.

I am surprised at how much sauces and rubs cost. A friend of mine paid a premium to get a piece salmon with a special “rub.” The rub consisted of a 1/4 cup of brown sugar and some red pepper. Almost anyone would have had those two ingredients in the larder. The total cost of that rub would have been about 35 cents. The cost it added to the salmon was over $4.

Next time you pick up a jar of rub, give a quick look at the ingredients. You might just be surprised at how many of those ingredients you might have sitting on the shelf.

Kerr tells us that this sauce puts to good use for that “homemade” whiskey you might get from your moonshiner friends.

Moonshine Mop

1 cup hot, thick, smokey tomato-based commercial barbecue sauce
1 cup ketchup
1/2 cup bourbon
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 tablespoon hot pepper sauce, such as Tabasco

In a storage , stir together the barbecue sauce, ketchup, bourbon, vinegar and hot pepper sauce. Cover and refrigerate, keeps indefinitely.

Alas, I have no moonshiner friends. I need to start hanging out with a better crowd.