The Smoking Bacon & Hog Cookbook

Very few home cooks qualify to use The Smoking Bacon & Hog Cookbook but those who do, will find this book by Bill Gillespie excellent. First you must own at least one good smoker, preferably two: a non-insulated bullet-style and an insulated cabinet smoker. Gillespie uses both plus you also need a good charcoal grill. Gillespie starts with the basics, reviewing what you need and describing the two types of smokers—too bad he did not think of illustrating them. You must have a source of good bacon as one-third of his recipes uses it. He also gives a recipe on how to make your own but the process takes patience and time. In fact nearly all recipes take time—hours in the smoker. He provides you with many different home-smoked sausage recipes too, and some very good thumbnail photo series (eighteen photos on how to cook a whole hog). Many recipes are unusual: bacon-wrapped pineapple mozzarella rings; chocolate bacon bark; pig wings; barbecue parfait. The cookbook is nicely illustrated with large photos, nicely laid-out recipes are well written, ingredients are easy to find—one thing they all have in common: they are rich.