Recipes for a Father’s Day Cookout

Gather around the grill or fire pit for a fun Father’s Day feast, with this menu inspired by a few favorite Storey books.

Smoked Beef Ribs - Photo © Keller + Keller Photography, excerpted from Smokehouse Handbook
Photo © Keller + Keller Photography, excerpted from Smokehouse Handbook

Father’s Day celebrations call for cookouts! There’s something special about getting the whole family together outside at the beginning of the summer season, playing games in the yard while keeping a lazy eye on the grill. This recipe sampler includes dad-approved starters, mains, and dessert as well as a primer on the perfect afternoon whiskey drink, the highball. Want to make it a really special day? Surprise Dad with one of the books, too!

Smoked Beef Ribs

Dad will get a primal thrill from eating the tender from meat right off the bone in these smoked beef ribs from Jake Levin’s Smokehouse Handbook, done in an aboveground pit, hot-smoke drum smoker, or smokehouse.


Salt Roasted Shrimp - six-recipes-for-a-fathers-day-cookout. Photo © Keller + Keller Photography, excerpted from Cooking with Fire
Photo © Keller + Keller Photography, excerpted from Cooking with Fire

Salt-Roasted Shrimp

A bed of salt diffuses the heat of the iron without overseasoning the shrimp in this recipe from Cooking with Fire.


Photo © Lara Ferroni, excerpted from The American Craft Beer Cookbook
Photo © Lara Ferroni, excerpted from The American Craft Beer Cookbook

Belgian Endive with Gruyère and Prosciutto

This relatively simple dish from The American Craft Beer Cookbook will impress your guests with its harder-than-it-looks presentation. For this recipe, a Belgian-style abbey tripel comes in handy and keeps a theme of national unity.


Grilled Flatbread with Hummus and Veggies- Photo © Johnny Autry, excerpted from The Harvest Baker
Photo © Johnny Autry, excerpted from The Harvest Baker

Grilled Flatbread with Hummus and Veggies

Crispy, colorful, and full of grilled charm, this flatbread from The Harvest Baker is a showpiece appetizer that will put regular old hummus and crackers to shame.


Photo © Keller + Keller Photography, excerpted from Cooking with Fire

Saarländischer Schwenkbraten

Dad have a serious grill addiction? Hook him up with a schwenker (a traditional hanging grill from southern Germany; see our video of how to build one here) and prepare the region’s favorite dish of marinated pork sirloin steaks. Grill and recipe are featured in Cooking with Fire.


Pale Ale Pineapple Brown Sugar Cupcakes
Photo © Lara Ferroni, excerpted from The American Craft Beer Cookbook

Pale Ale Pineapple Brown Sugar Cupcakes

These sweet treats from The American Craft Beer Cookbook get an added boost from a pale ale that’s made with hop varieties that present mango and other tropical fruit flavors.


The whiskey Highball
Photo © Keller + Keller Photography, excerpted from Tasting Whiskey

The Whiskey Highball

A highball is simply liquor, a mixer (juice, water, club soda, or a soft drink), and ice in a tall drink. Lew Bryson gives the whiskey higball roll call in this excerpt from Tasting Whiskey.


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