Why I love and hate -- at the same time -- Tim Byres' new cookbook, Smoke

Filets with Tim Byres' BBQ Beef Coffee Cure (Photo by Gary Jacobson)

My friend, Martha Gooding, says if you get one good recipe out of a cookbook, the book is worth the price.

By that measure, Tim Byres' new cookbook, Smoke, is a tremendous bargain.

I got two great recipes, and if you stay to the end of this post you'll get one of them: Byres' BBQ Beef Coffee Cure. So far I've used it twice, on New York strip steaks and filets. It's wonderful. Hope to try it soon on brisket.

The other great recipe is for homemade sour cream. What an unexpected treat!

So, why am I also down on this new offering from the celebrated chef at Dallas' Smoke restaurant?

It wasn't written for cooks like me. It was written to bolster the culinary cred of Byres.

Dallas BBQ history made at Daniel Vaughn's book party with the first briskets ever cooked in Big D by Aaron Franklin

Aaron Franklin, center, works the serving line while Justin Fourton works his smoker "Lurlene." (Jim Rossman photo)

Friday was an historic night in Dallas barbecue.

The book party for Daniel Vaughn's Prophets of Smoked Meat at the home of Steve and Anne Stodghill brought together four of Texas' best pitmasters: Aaron Franklin of Franklin Barbecue in Austin, Justin Fourton of Pecan Lodge in Dallas, Tim Byres of Smoke in Dallas and Will Fleischman of Lockhart Smokehouse in Dallas.