This is the first major cookbook from a Black pitmaster, something shamefully overdue. Teaming up with food writer and filmmaker Lolis Eric Elie, the duo have created something inspiring. My favorite part is the huge section on how to build a barbecue pit in your backyard—one that's large enough to cook the book's first recipe, a whole hog. Don't worry, there's still plenty for regular home grills. I also liked to see how if you have a few of Scott's rubs and sauces on hand, they form building blocks that help you make many of the recipes, from smoked prime rib to a lemony tequila cocktail with a bit of vinegary barbecue sauce subbing in magically where honey and simple syrup might have gone. Last summer, I made ribs, pork T-bones, burgers, marinated chicken, and apple hand pies, and for every recipe, I loved Scott's emphasis on technique. Maybe next summer I'll go whole hog.

For more Black barbecue history, which is to say barbecue history, try Arian Miller's book Black Smoke ($30, UNC Press) and keep an eye out for Bludso's BBQ Cookbook coming next spring ($30, Ten Speed Press). For more Black food history, check out Bryant Terry's beautiful new Black Food ($40, 4 Color Books) and the Netflix television series High on the Hog.

My love of cookbooks comes from my mom, so it was good sign when I noticed that her copy of Dinner in French had scores of Post-It Tabs marking recipes she wanted to make when we were together. Clark recently wrote Dinner in an Instant and its follow-up, Comfort in an Instant, for the Instant Pot crowd, but she and her family have a longstanding love of France and French cuisine, and her 2020 cookbook combines sensibilities from both sides of the pond. (Yes, this book is from last year, but I'm including it here because it's my favorite way to “visit” France without actually climbing onto an airplane.)

The book is a clever spin on Gallic cuisine, with a nod to the occasional need to streamline dinner prep, but still ending up with something that you could imagine eating at a Parisian bistro. Recently, Mom and I made Clark's chicken-liver mousse with bourbon, which we smeared over toasted baguette slices. Next to that, we had savory Gruyère bread, peppered with chunks of ham (or olives) and scallion. We could have made a lunch out of just that, perhaps with her endive-parsley salad, but we set them out for family-dinner appetizers, and they were gone in an instant.

If, like me, you've succumbed to the siren call of Yotam Ottolenghi's cookbooks over the past decade, then, like me, you might have ended up with a lot of exotic-to-you ingredients that were new to your spice drawer. Thanks to Ottolenghi and other authors, I've got dried shrimp and dried lime, kombu and bonito flakes, sumac and schmaltz, and well, you get the picture. With all of these ingredients—staples to some, exotic to me—I feel like I'm always two or three good recipes from incorporating them into my regular mix.

In her new cookbook, McKenzie catalogs 58 ingredients like these from around the world and gives them their due, then provides anywhere between one and a couple dozen recipes to help you spread your wings and make them on the regular. (Thanks to the good folks at Eat Your Books for the tip on this one!)