Try Recipes from Chef Ben Ford

This month we partnered with Ben Ford, chef and owner of Ford’s Filling Station in Culver City, California, to share recipes made for epic summer gatherings. Ben’s new book Taming the Feast offers complete menus for serious parties — a whole pig roast, paella for 80 — along with DIY instructions for making your own outdoor cooking devices. If your party plans are a little less ambitious, don’t worry: there’s still plenty to enjoy here. He’s also created scaled-down versions of his favorite dishes for smaller groups. Get inspired with a few recipes from the book below, and try them yourself!

8-Hour Smoked Brisket Eight hours might not seem like a short time to prepare a brisket, but in Texas barbecue terms this is fast food. A dry rub and mop sauce add flavor as it cooks, and it’s served with a spicy Texas BBQ sauce to take it over the top.

“Not Too Sweet” Dutch Oven Baked Beans Cooking beans over an open fire is the ultimate cowboy fantasy. Ben’s version of baked beans takes several hours on the stove or grill, but there is no substitute for long, slow cooking. If you cook the beans on a charcoal grill, the smoke from the fire will add a nice touch.

Hill Country Peach Crisp with Orange-Pecan Topping All summer long in Texas, you see peaches in cobblers, crisps, ice cream – you name it. Ben loves the big, juicy peaches from the Texas Hill Country so much that he orders them by mail when he’s in Los Angeles. He developed this recipe to show them off.

Learn more about Ben Ford and Taming the Feast here.