Look it up
There are some great glossaries of cooking terms online. Use them to settle fights non-violently.
The Cook's Thesaurus. Searchable with lots of good pictures. The listings are in sections so if you look up bouillon, you get a page with all the listings related to soups, stocks, and gravies. Best of all, they tell you what you can substitute for an ingredient.
Cooking.com Glossary. Good short definitions with some photos.
The New Food Lover's Companion, 3rd Edition, by Sharon Tyler Herbst. A good formal dictionary with audible pronunciation guide. Searches also return definitons from other useful references such as Wikipedia, WordNet, Houghton Mifflin, Columbia University Press, Britannica, Barron's, Computer Desktop Encyclopedia, and MarketWatch.
Foodreference.com. The layout and design suck, buth there are a lot of good articles in their database if you can find the search button.
Foodnetwork Encyclopedia. A large reference of brief definitions from The New Food Lover's Companion, Second Edition, by Sharon Tyler Herbst
RecipeTips.com Glossary. Excellent detailed definitions. Highly technical. This is one of the first references I turn to.
Wikipedia. This massive encyclopedia has numerous listings on food topics.
Devil's Food Dictionary. A pioneering culinary reference work that consists entirely of lies. Funny, insightful, edgy, and thoroughly misleading, there's nothing else like it out there.
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No Such Thing as
Too Much BBQ
"There Is No Such Thing as Too Much Barbecue" is a wonderful, poetic ode, a short essay, by Jason Sheehan. It was broadcast by National Public Radio's All Things Considered on Memorial Day, May 29, 2006 as part of their "This I Believe" series. You can read it or listen to it by clicking here.
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The web is brimming with sites devoted to barbecue and cooking. My bookmark list is more than 100 urls long. Some are great resources by pros, some are first rate home chefs documenting their backyard culinary adventures, and some are just greasy drippings. Here are my faves, listed alphabetically. Also, make sure to check out my links to the best message boards and podcasts.
About links on this site. The links within the tan areas at the top and right of these pages are paid ads. Within the white, editorial content areas on this site, links and recommendations are absolutely positively not advertisements or paid endorsements. They are products, services, and websites I admire. Your suggestions are always welcome. Click here to send them to me. If you would like me to link to your website, click here to read my links policy first. Most product photographs are provided by the manufacturer, all the rest a made by Meathead.
AllRecipes.com. Probably the largest recipe database in the world with most of them contributed by home cooks. That, of course, means approach with caution. Home cooks often make mistakes in writing recipes. That said, this is a good source for ideas and inspiration as well as regional specialties.
Artisanalcheese.com. Everything you want to know about cheese.
AskTheMeatman.com is the website of a major butcher and it is chock-full of useful info.
Barbecues & Grilling at about.com. Derrick Riches is a self taught cook who has learned a lot and he passes it along in this large and deep reference.
Barbecuen.com. Articles and ideas on everything from grills to cooking elk.
BBQ FAQ. An astonishing compilation of wisdom from scores of serious cue'ers. The only problem is that the mailing list of participants has been dissolved so you can no longer sign up. Also, a lot of the links are broken. Still, the knowledge there is timeless.
Braai 4 Heritage. In South Africa they call it braai, and everyone barbecues. They even have a National Braai Day!
CookingForEngineers.com. Michael Chu is a California-based engineer with an analytical mind, a well-equipped kitchen, a love of food, and a great website. Unwilling to accept the common wisdom, he tests all kitchen assumptions as he wrestles recipes to the ground one at a time.
CooksIllustrated.com. This is the website of my favorite cooking magazine. They have written well on the subject of ribs and their advice has helped me immensely. The outstanding feature of their approach is that they test every assumption and often develop great techniques and dispel myths. They charge a fee for admission, but it is well worth it. So is their magazine.
CuriousCook.com. Run by Harold McGee, food scientist, New York Times columnist, and book author (his book On Food and Cooking: The Science & Lore of the Kitchen is the bible).
DavidRosengarten.com. David Rosengarten is a brilliant chef and teacher and writer, and his free email newsletter is chock full of great advice on where to eat, what to buy, and how to cook. His cookbooks and print newsletter are pretty impressive, too.
Epicurious.com. Home on Bon Apetit and Gourmet magazines, with a massive recipe database, and much much more. Bottomless.
First Press. Nancy Loseke and Tj Robinson teach you everything you need to know about olive oil.
 FoodNetwork.com. Companion website for the TV channel with recipes for the dishes you've seen on the screen. There's a schedule so you can lookup when your favorite show airs, and, of course, educational videos. Two words make it all worthwhile: Alton Brown.
Foodtimeline.org. A history of food.
GamecockCentral.com. Jim Streeter has compiled an impressive list of his favorite barbecue joints in the south.
GrillsInformer.com. Really useful tips on what to look for when shopping for a grill.
HomeBBQ.com. Message boards that discuss just about anything barbecue.
Kitchen Myths by Peter Aitken. Searing meat seals in juices? Myth. Baking soda in the fridge or freezer absorbs odors? Myth. If you put the pit in the bowl, guacamole won't turn brown? Yet another myth. For more kitchen myths, check out this fun site.
LeitesCulinaria.com is a compilation of recipes and articles republished with permission from cookbooks and magazines. Good stuff.
Nakedwhiz.com. This may be the most inappropriate name for a website on the net, but don't let it deter you. This is the go-to site if you have any questions about charcoal, how it is made, and what is the best. Hint: It's not Kingsford.
OtherWhiteMeat.com by The National Pork Board website has tried-and-true recipes.
Porkopolis.org is a wonderful website devoted to swine love. It has a rich library of poetry with pork references, paintings, quotes, a timeline, trivia, and just plain fun.
Recipezaar.com has a ton of interesting recipes from pros and home cooks alike. Some are polished and professional and others are best used for inspiration. But there is a lot of fun stuff there. You can store your own recipes there in a personal cookbook and rate recipes for all to see. They have a handy measurement converter, too, and a very cool feature: You can increase the number of servings or convert measurements for a whole recipe very easily. There is even a nutrition calculator and a shopping list generator.
Restaurant Hospitality Magazine. This is a great mag aimed at restaurant managers and chefs. Lotsa great articles, ideas, and recipes (especially if you are feeding a large crowd). Full disclosure: You will find my byline there occasionally.
Seafoodwatch. From the Monterey Bay Aquarium, this site has a lot of great info about seafood including ocean friendly recipes from rsome first-rate restaurants.
Something Different Country Store & Deli. This is the website of a real old-fashioned country store that happens to be world famous because it is owned by folks that know a lot about barbecue, not to mention food and farming in general. Dad, Dan Gill, is the writer in the family, and his musings, called Dan's Blurbs, are well thought out and researched. Definately something different.
Splendid Table. Lynne Rossetto Kasper's NPR radio show is a favorite of mine, and because my local station doesn't carry it, I subscribe to her podcast. Her website is a great repository of recipes, tips, and ideas. Subscribe to her grilling eletter.
 TheSmokeRing.com is an informal conglomeration of almost 1,000 websites devoted to barbecue. They include sites with recipes, tips on technique, cookers, supplies, sauce for sale (a lot of them have sauce for sale), and more. Best of all, there is a search engine so you can search on keywords such as "ribs."
VirtualWeberBullet.com. This site is dedicated to the use of the Weber Smokey Mountain Smoker (a.k.a. "The Bullet"). There is an amazing amount of really helpful info on barbecue from theory to recipes that can be applied to cookers other than The Bullet. The message boards are visited regularly by lots of knowledgeable people, and I have even seen notices of meat sales at butchers near my house posted there. It is not affiliated with Weber grills.
Wiviott.com. Gary "The Professor" Wiviott is a maestro on the Weber Smokey Mountain, probably the best and most popular inexpensive charcoal smoker on the market. His site gives you excellent step by step guidance to mastering this device.
This page revised 5/14/08
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