‘America’s Test Kitchen: The Outdoor Cook’

This encyclopedic volume comes from the experts at America’s Test Kitchen, the respected Boston-based operation that tests and tests recipes, and then tests them again, making it invaluable for folks just getting started with grilling or those moving up from grilling to smoking (or as a summer wedding present).

Appropriately subtitled “How to Cook Anything Outside Using Your Grill, Fire Pit, Flat-Top Grill and More,” the book (ATK, $29.99) covers equipment, fuel, fire and safety before getting into meals to whet your appetite.

A whopping 150 recipes are smartly curated: “10 Unexpected Outdoor Recipes” (grilled French Toast, smoked nachos); “5 Dishes to Feed a Crowd” (hot-smoked whole side of salmon); “5 Must-Cook Open-Fire Dishes” (Fireside Chili); “5 Showstoppers” (rotisserie leg of lamb with cauliflower, grape and arugula salad); “Both Hands Needed” (grilled green chile and chorizo cheeseburgers); and more.

And every recipe starts off with the famously informative America’s Test Kitchen blurb, “Why This Recipe Works.” The charred guacamole recipe, for example, “employs heat strategically by grilling the aromatics until well charred, grilling the avocados lightly, and leaving the lime off the grill entirely so that its fresh juice brightens the smoky flavors.” And if you’re not normally a fan of turkey burgers, consider this: “The smoky, flame-kissed flavor imparted by the grill transforms mild-mannered turkey burgers into a welcome alternative to beef. But for superlative burgers, you’ve got to give the patties a little boost with some flavorful add-ins before they hit the heat.”