The Recipe Derek Wolf Loves From His New Cookbook Flavor By Fire - Exclusive

Everyone has that phase, the one where you fall in love with a recipe that you make over and over again. Homemade sourdough was on everyone's mind back in 2020, when the pandemic forced many to stay indoors, giving them a chance to spend more time than ever experimenting in the kitchen and learning new tricks. Of course, pushing culinary boundaries is nothing new to food content creators, and for Derek Wolf, his inspiration never wavers. A food influencer with over 2 million followers on Instagram, here enters his new cookbook "Flavor by Fire."

Wolf's social media brand, Over the Fire Cooking, takes grilling and smoking meat to the next level with a constant stream of creative recipes. The upcoming cookbook is Wolf's second (his first was similarly named "Food by Fire") and shows the ins and outs of, well, cooking with fire. From beer-marinated bavette steak to baked lobster with buffalo chive butter, every recipe is sure to be mouth-watering.

In an exclusive interview, Wolf told Tasting Table which of these recipes he thinks takes the cake ... or steak.

Meat lovers are going to adore the recipes featured in Derek Wolf's new cookbook, "Flavor by Fire," and in an exclusive interview with Tasting Table Wolf named his favorite of the bunch.

Wolf explained that he really enjoyed experimenting with bone marrow and found a way to upgrade his classic steak recipe. A play-off of the iconic salt, pepper, and garlic seasoning, Wolf created a black garlic New York strip with bone marrow. He told us the black garlic delivers, "this subtly funky flavor, almost similar to dry-aged steak. And then the bone marrow. ... it's just like beef butter, so it just makes the beef flavor even more intense."

In addition to his New York strip recipe, Wolf mentioned he is "proud of [the] pork chapter." The cocoa molasses-glazed spiral ham (which sounds like a holiday dinner dream) is paired with less sweet flavors than one might expect. Wolf said, "I went a little darker, and honestly, it's probably one of the best recipes out of the whole cookbook." He continued, "Dark chocolate is actually very bitter. So we're amplifying that bitterness with a slight hint of sweet, but toning it back." The grilling expert explained that the salty and sweet flavor combination of the cocoa and molasses takes the ham from good to great.

Now you know exactly which recipes to try out first, according to Derek Wolf himself.

Derek Wolf's new cookbook, "Flavor by Fire," is available on Amazon. You can find recipe videos for the Big Mac Dog and Wolf's numerous other out-of-the-box eats on the Over The Fire Cooking YouTube channel.