Fire up your summer

Recipes from the season’s new grilling cookbooks.

The food media spotlight seems to shine briefest on the genre I’ll call “grilling cookbooks,” for lack of a better designator. Top 10 lists delivered at year’s end rarely include a title from the annual summer batch, although enough of us grill year-round to warrant sustained interest.

I can understand why the sell is restrictive. Grilling cookbooks must spend considerable real estate laying out basics you either already know or aren’t motivated to learn (i.e., you don’t own a grill of your own): gas vs. charcoal, the outlay for equipment, which woods are best for smoking certain foods, how to start a fire and how to clean up after. Cooking temperatures vary almost from author to author. Recipe boxes must be checked — the burger, the bbq’ed bird, the ribs. And oh, the slaws.

Anything new to report? For that matter do we want new, or just improved? I’m saying yes to both, because the stack of 2019 titles on my desk is decidedly taller, broader in scope and more satisfyingly niche-y and nerdy than in seasons past. We’re being treated to stories of new pitmasters and the preparations that put them on the map. We can geek out on

cold and hot smoking, with diagrams for DIY backyard pits. Heritage techniques are revamped for modern times. We can peruse recipes that are fuel-specific.

From that stack on my desk, I’ve pulled some recipes that promise to enhance your summer eating. Yes sir, things are lookin’ up in this part of the cooking universe.

Grilled Chicken Thighs With Pickled White Barbecue Sauce. If I had to pick a favorite in the group, this might be it. There’s no marinating, and the piquant sauce with comes together while the chicken is on the grill. One more feature of this recipe: It’s built for two!

Potato and Prosciutto Packets. Nothing’s simpler than foilpacket cooking on the grill, and this side dish infuses tender, yellow-fleshed spuds with the aromatics of herbs, cheese and those lovely, salt-cured wisps of Italian ham.

Coca-Cola Smoked Beef Tenderloin. If you are up to the tasks of monitoring time and temperature (because overcooking an expensive piece of meat would be a cryin’ shame), this is a splurge worthy of sharing with your dearest carnivores. The marinade lends the subtlest sweetness and a rich mahogany color to the exterior. You should have enough left over for next-day sandwiches, which would be the envy of your lunchmates.

MIA YAKEL/FILE New grilling recipes promise to enhance your summer eating and all year round, if you keep on grillin’.