5 Things We Learned From Hugh Mangum's "Barbecue"

Welcome back to Cookbook Club! Every month or so we feature a new-to-us book we love. (Are you following our HexClad recipes Insta? Find links to new book picks there.) We've traveled to Africa and India and examined some tasty plant-based cuisine. This time, we're taking a peek into the world of open-fire cooking. 

If you hail from a state that claims barbecue as its signature cuisine, you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s an exclusively American tradition. But Hugh Mangum’s Barbecue: Smoked & Grilled Recipes From Across the Globe draws inspiration from every corner of the world. That tracks, since live-fire cooking is an ancient practice that belongs to no single culture.

Hugh's “love letter to fire and smoke” is impressive in both breadth and depth, but for the uninitiated, it also offers plenty of approachable recipes to kickstart your grilling and smoking journey. We checked in with Hugh—chef, pitmaster and co-founder of Mighty Quinn's BBQ and Rise Doughnuts—to learn more about the inspiration for the parts of the book we loved most.

1. Barbecue is about more than just food

Hugh makes it clear that barbecue isn’t just about a well-smoked brisket or the tastiest sausage. For him, it’s a form of meditation, a way to learn about yourself and a way to connect with community and nourish your soul. Initiated into the world of barbecue by a Texan dad who brought his love of homemade barbecue to Los Angeles, Hugh began with a “purist” approach to the cuisine, which he sees as delineated by location.

“Barbecue was not being invited to someone’s house and having a burger,” he says. “Barbecue was low and slow and something I learned from my father.”

Years of running his barbecue empire, Mighty Quinn, helped him shed that “myopic view."

“Barbecue is a celebration," he says now. "There’s a saying that 'there’s no bad barbecue, there’s just good and great barbecue.' It’s true because even if it’s sub-par, if you’re getting together with people, there’s always a celebratory aspect."

2. Barbecue is truly global

While Hugh sees barbecue as America’s national dish, that doesn’t mean he’s blind to its global roots.

“We co-opted the term from barbacoa, which came from the Spanish settlers and the migrant workers coming over the border to Texas. They were cooking the off cuts that the ranch hands were giving them. All these different variations came to the US and became what we know [as barbecue] today," he says.

Regardless of origins, this global food always involved fire, taking time and many hands, whether it was cooking it or eating it.

“I was already relatively familiar with live-fire cooking in, say, Southeast Asia, and I knew that German-Czech immigrants in Texas Hill Country made sausage popular here," Hugh says.

For the book, he asked himself what this meant in 190 countries. You’ll find the answers in dishes like Grilled Beef Hearts from Bolivia, Red Pork from China and Grilled Goat from Kenya.

3. Sticks and skewers are a great place to start

At the beginning of the book, a truly global assortment of sticks and skewers offers a welcome place for beginners to start. Taking inspiration from countries like Cambodia, Congo, Bolivia, Japan and Lebanon, the recipes are generally fast and easy.

“For me, this was the most fun part of the book,” Hugh says. It wasn’t hard to find recipes from different cultures, he says, “because let’s be honest, who doesn’t love meat on a stick? There’s something really cool and primal about it, whether that’s kofta, yakitori or sausage.”

4. Thai grilled chicken may change minds about fish sauce

While you might think you don’t need another recipe for grilled chicken, Hugh swears by this one's “mind-blowing” results. The key is in the marinade, he says, which proves to people put off by fish sauce that they should take this ingredient seriously.

“It tastes so different than how it smells out of the bottle,” he says. “This chicken will [teach] you how transformative fish sauce can be.”

The marinade isn’t only fish sauce, but a heady mixture of garlic, shallots, lemongrass, cilantro and soy sauce. It infuses every bite with rich flavor. Served with sticky rice and a classic Thai dipping sauce, nam jim jaew, it’s a dream dinner that will expand your idea of what great barbecue means.

5. Cheesecake can benefit from a little smoke 

You’d be forgiven for doing a double take at the recipe for Smoked Skyr Cheesecake with Blueberries. Aren’t cheesecakes typically baked? Yes, that may be true, but Hugh suggests opening your mind to the possibilities of smoking or grilling your cheesecake. 

“Cream-based things take on smoke really well,” he says, likening the taste to the sweet tobacco smell from his dad’s pipe. “It’s a kind of oaky, woodsy smoke with a touch of sweetness.”

This handful of highlights only scratches the surface of what you can learn from this incredible book. Hugh hopes readers come away with a call to be fearless when cooking with fire.

“It’s a part of learning,” he says.

Pay as much attention to the wins as to the things that go wrong, since you don’t always have the answers until you make the mistake.

Ready to up your open-flame game? Grab a copy of Barbecue and get cooking.