The Everyday Gourmet: How to Master Outdoor Cooking

Start with the basics of grilling: choosing wood, cleaning the grill, tools of the trade, and a few lessons in food safety. Then try your hand at three simple recipes - two types of steak and a grilled salad - to get a feel for cooking over live fire. This first lesson offers a wealth of rules of thumb.

Now that you're up to speed on all things grilling, take a closer look at preparing different types of salads, from pancetta-wrapped endive to Bartlett pears and greens. In addition to branching away from the traditional main course meat, this look at fruits and vegetables shows you how the grill can enhance your homemade salad dressings.

Delve deeper into cooking with different types of charcoal. Here, you'll find out how to make different types of bread recipes on the grill, including a delicious bruschetta and a savory crostini. Then turn to homemade pizza dough and various sauces and toppings. Plus, see how to use leftover breads to make a sweet treat with the coal embers.

Fish can be a tricky meat and requires close attention. Discover some common mistakes with grilling seafood and find out how best to prepare salmon, tuna, halibut, and more. Along the way, you'll learn crucial lessons about making marinades and vinaigrettes. End with a pair of recipes for grilled oysters and marinated shrimp.

Enjoy a wealth of multicultural dishes with this tour of the Mediterranean, from Italy and Greece to Turkey and Tunisia. Here, you'll explore several popular outdoor cooking recipes. Highlights include lessons in sauces such as muhammara and tzatziki, ember-roasted vegetable dishes, sandwiches and pitas, and lamb kabobs.

Take a deep dive into chicken on the grill. After reviewing the different parts of the chicken, learn how to make a classic American barbeque chicken dish, a unique marinated quail mixed grill, and a non-traditional smoke-roasted turkey with a complementary three-grain salad - sure to spice up your next holiday gathering.