New cookbooks written with men in mind
Cookbooks for manly-men, with testosterone-fueled titles, are hitting bookstore shelves faster than you can say “Father’s Day,” aiming to teach everything from how to stock a pantry for after-hours noshing to making breakfast for the entire family.
This season’s standouts include The Eat Like a Man Guide to Feeding a Crowd from Esquire (Chronicle Books, $30), which breaks down recipes by time of day best served (late morning to late night) and level of difficulty (“easy,” “reasonable” and “worth the effort”). Recipes come from such crowd-pleasing chefs as Michael Symon, Edward Lee and Linton Hopkins.
Southern Living’s A Southern Gentleman’s Kitchen (Oxmoor House, $32) is penned by Matt Moore, whose bestselling cookbook debut, Have Her Over for Dinner, helped conquer the culinary fears of many single men who’d never opened an oven. The compilation of 150 Southern recipes includes those for seafood gumbo, venison chili, grilled Georgia peach crisp and a classic Sazerac cocktail.
Man Food, by food blogger and photographer Billy Law (Hardie Grant Books, $30), teases the taste buds of male readers with its glistening bacon weave cover but encourages men to try new things, like making Asian steamed buns or lasagna from scratch.
Most guys we know love to play with fire and eat with their hands, making Law’s lip-smacking maple chipotle BBQ sticky pork ribs a surefire summer hit.
Maple chipotle BBQ sticky pork ribs
Serves 4-6
- 4 pounds, 6 ounces U.S.-style pork spareribs
Dry rub spice mix:
- 1/2 cup (firmly packed) soft brown sugar
- 1/4 cup paprika
- 1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Barbecue sauce:
- 2 chipotle peppers, coarsely chopped
- 1 cup American barbecue sauce, such as
- Sweet Baby Ray’s
- 1/3 cup maple syrup
- 3 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- Pinch of sea salt
1. First, remove the membrane on the back of the ribs. Insert a butter knife between the membrane on the back of the ribs. Work your fingers around under it to loosen the membrane. Once you can get a good grip on it, without ripping it, gently pull the membrane off and discard. Trim any excess fat on the sides and tidy up the ribs.
2. To make the dry rub mix, combine all of the ingredients. Rub the ribs with the spice mix and marinate in the refrigerator for at least an hour but no more than 3 hours.
3. Heat the oven to 300 degrees. Place the ribs in a single layer in a large roasting tin. Cover the tin with two layers of foil and make sure it is fully sealed. Cook for 1 1/2 hours.
4. Meanwhile, to make the barbecue sauce, soak the chipotle peppers in 2 cups of hot water for 30 minutes until softened. Put the peppers together with 1/4 cup of water in a food processor and blend to a puree. Mix the remaining barbecue sauce ingredients in a jug. Set 1/2 cup of the sauce aside and pour the remaining sauce over the ribs. Cover and return to the oven for 1 1/2 hours or until the ribs are fall-off-the-bone tender, turning once at the halfway interval. Transfer to a tray and pour any pan juices into the jug of sauce set aside earlier, then mix well.
5. Heat a barbecue grill to high, place the ribs on the hot grill, brush a thick coat of sauce on each side of the ribs and grill until well caramelized all over. Let them rest for 5 minutes, then serve with the reserved barbecue sauce on the side.
Nutritional analysis per serving, based on 4: 560 calories, 29 grams fat, 46 grams carbohydrates, 30 grams protein, 83 milligrams cholesterol, 1,753 milligrams sodium, 4 grams dietary fiber, 47 percent of calories from fat.
— “Man Food” by Billy Law
This story was originally published June 8, 2015 at 2:25 PM with the headline "New cookbooks written with men in mind."