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When the barbecue calls, get serious with Adam Lang

By Kim Davaz

Chef Adam Perry Lang’s first cookbook is “Serious Barbecue: Smoke, Char, Baste & Brush Your Way to Great Outdoor Cooking” written with JJ Goode and Amy Vogler. This Culinary Institute of America-trained chef began his restaurant work in fancy French restaurants, but decided that barbecue is his true calling.

Lang does not limit his barbecue. He includes both indirect, low-heat, long-cooking barbecue - what purists may argue is the only barbecue - and direct, high-heat grilling. It’s all about the flavor, and Lang uses whichever method works best for a particular cut of meat.

Recipes are arranged by type of meat, with an introduction to each section on what to look for when selecting the meats, because what to cook is as important as how to cook it.

“Serious Barbecue” begins with 33 pages on the basics. The recipes themselves are on the longer side, but that’s because this is serious stuff. You want to get it right. The photos by David Loftus will make any lover of barbecue itch to heat up a grill: You can almost smell the smoke and hear the sizzles.

Some recipes need specialized equipment, requiring a big commitment of time, money and space. Roasting a whole 100-plus-pound pig takes a lot of planning and a whole list of items: a spit, a 240-quart cooler, ice to fill the cooler, up to 150 pounds of charcoal, a fire extinguisher, a rake, fireproof gloves, a huge roll of food-sage plastic wrap and a six-foot table that you aren’t afraid to get dirty, not to mention a spot big enough to accommodate all that equipment plus the pig.

If you cook and baste a whole pig for up to 14 hours, you’ll have every nonvegetarian within smelling distance knocking at your door. They may even show up with side dishes.

Lang’s sides include all the usual suspects: baked beans, potato salad and coleslaw because, as Lang says in the introduction to that recipe, “What’s barbecue without coleslaw?” It’s one of the rules of the game. His coleslaw is tangy, sweet, crunchy and colorful.

Other sides include Texas toast, corn cakes, grilled vegetables and, because one must serve fruit with pork, apple sauce, apricot compote and grilled peach halves with a brandy, peach Jell-O, sugar and cayenne crust.

The book ends with a conversation between Lang and Dave Arnold (who created and runs the culinary technology program at the French Culinary Institute) on the science of barbecue. Topics include the subject of meat sticking to the grill, which gets Arnold talking about “hydrogen bonds and van der Waals interactions happening between the proteins and the cooking surface.”

This is indeed a cookbook for serious barbecuers, covering every food that can be put on the ‘cue, from the smallest smoked chicken livers to that enormous spit-roasted pig, from quick-cooking pounded lamb chops to “Get a Book Brisket” (it takes more than seven hours to cook, so you’ll need something to read while tending the roast).

Grilled Sweet Onions from “Sides” are a favorite of Lang’s, especially on burgers. Serve them with just about anything.

Grilled Sweet Onions

• 3 to 4 sweet white onions, peeled
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon finely ground fresh black pepper
• 2 tablespoons (1 ounce) unsalted butter
• 6 garlic cloves, peeled and grated on a Microplane grater
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

Cut the onions through the root end and lay, cut side down, on a work surface. Cut across each half, following the natural lines to make perfectly even 1/8-inch slices. You will need about 6 cups of onion slices.

Place a cast-iron griddle on a well-oiled charcoal or gas grill. Preheat all areas to high.

Toss the onions with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, thyme, sugar, salt and pepper.

Pour the remaining 1 tablespoon of the oil on the griddle and let heat for about 1 minute.

Spread the onions on the griddle and decrease the heat to medium.

Close the lid and cook the onions, without stirring, for 10 minutes.

Move the onions to one side of the griddle.

Melt the butter on the cleared space, add the garlic and stir to coat in the butter.

Cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.

Stir the onions and garlic together and cook with the lid open until the onions are completely tender, about 3 minutes.

Pour the vinegar right onto the griddle and mix into the onions.

Serve directly from the grill or transfer to a bowl.

Kim Davaz writes a biweekly cookbook review column for The Register-Guard.