The America's Test Kitchen Cookbook

by Cook's Illustrated

The Barnes & Noble Review
The editors of Cook's Illustrated want to make your Tuesday night supper taste better. They want you to serve the best fried chicken and the fudgiest brownies, and they test recipes, equipment, and methods toward that goal on their PBS television show. This companion book to the show illustrates what can happen when cooking experts look under the hood and start to tinker productively with the most basic, everyday recipes.

Each recipe starts out with a small introduction on what the cooks want to achieve, then details the various steps -- and missteps -- taken en route to developing the perfect recipe. Of course, the missteps are fun to read about, and the whole process has a food-science/science-fair aspect that is quite engrossing.

With Home Fries, for example, the cooks wanted "cubes of potatoes that would be deep golden brown and crisp on the outside and tender on the inside." Fair enough. First they dabbled with different kinds of potatoes, then experimented with cooking methods, kinds of cuts, and cooking oils. Their final recipe uses Yukon Golds, diced and briefly parboiled, then drained and fried in a mixture of butter and oil (peanut or corn).

This same exhaustive approach is applied to pizza, hamburgers, fajitas, spaghetti and meatballs, tuna fish sandwiches, margaritas, roast turkey, mashed potatoes, apple pie, and Key lime pie. When you think about it, there are plenty of ordinary dishes that often come out tasting, well, ordinary, so you really welcome experts taking a long look at them. Sometimes, though, you just want to tell them: Hey, guys, lighten up, it's just a grilled cheese sandwich. But, I have to say, their approach -- grated cheese; butter on the bread, not in the skillet; medium-low heat -- makes a really good grilled cheese sandwich!

Interspersed through the thematic chapters (Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas dinner, pizza night) are very useful tests of kitchen equipment -- blenders, vegetable peelers, etc. -- and canned goods. I loved finding out that the $40 basic blender beat the $120 classic I've been eyeing, and all the fancy new zillion-speed blenders too.
(Ginger Curwen)

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction, Reference

352 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2001

Reviews

[Dray]

This is a great cookbook to read if you are learning to cook. There is so much basic info on kitchen skills and how to cook specific items it can be daunting but great. I was (am) trying to upgrade my cooking skills and this book filled in a lot of holes in my knowledge. Worthwhile.

[Karen]

Making the waffles this weekend. Great tips and notes in here, too.

[Joelen]

: The ATK series have never failed me. Each recipe comes out perfect each and every time! I also appreciate the addition of cooking/baking tips, equipment ratings and overall summary of what they were trying to achieve with each recipe, what worked, what didn't and why. These books do far more than slap a recipe on a page. They provide you the reasoning as to why the recipe is written, why it works and what to avoid.

[Marta]

It's weird that a book that includes recipes for things like grilled cheese sandwiches would be useful. Every recipe is thoroughly researched so you can be sure that you really are getting the best way to cook standard items. For example, did you know the secret to the perfect French toast is putting flour in the egg mix? It turns out great each time I make it!

[Alisa]

For those of you who enjoy cookbooks, these are my new favorites. They test every variable of a recipe before deciding which is best. Each recipe also has a 1-2 page description of what was tested and what the results were. I feel confident that each recipe will give me great results. They also do product testing - free from advertising - so it is like a consumer reports for kitchen gadgets.

[Jenne]

The best-researched recipes ever.

[Eric]

More than a cookbook, this series is an instruction manual and science book on the art of cooking.

[Jackie]

Cooks Illustrated is one of my favorite magazines of all time, so how could I resist their cookbook? Great stuff, nicely explained.

[ஐ Katya (Book Queen)ஐ]

Good cookbook. Love anything by America's Test Kitchen. This one included a bit about how they make the show at the beginning of every chapter.

[Camille]

The spaghetti and meatballs are to die for!! Yum!

[Heather]

I liked the science behind things. That's about it.

[Michael Mark]

Great book for all amateur cooking buffs!

[Miriam]

i liked the tips and the recommendations for purchasing kitchen equipment more than i liked the recipes. i'd buy the book just for those two things if i were setting up a kitchen today.

[Alex]

Everything I've made from this book is excellent. ATK never goes wrong.

[Ryann Uden]

Hopefully - how to make a thin-crust pizza!

[Beka]

Lots of foolproof recipes with all the science behind them explained.