American Classics

I have tried nearly every recipe in this cookbook. All of them came out well, and the explanations that come with the recipes are excellent.You can find more recipes in the Joy of Cooking, but you won't be as assured the food will taste good. Cooks Illustrated runs through several iterations to create the "perfect" recipe. Most of the ingredients are simple and readily available. The instructions are easy to follow.This is an excellent cookbook for inexperienced and experienced cooks alike.

Did it ever occur to the whiners writing reviews about duplications that these might exist, not because the editors don't "have enough" recipes, but because some recipes BELONG in more than one cookbook? A grilling recipe from the Test Kitchen series might be appropriate in the Best Recipe: Gilling and Barbeque book. In fact, the Grilling and Barbeque cookbook might be lacking a key technique or dish without it. The Best Recipe (1999) was the first of its kind, and since it contained "best" Italian recipes, chicken recipes, and soup recipes, a few of these would be entirely appropriate in cookbooks that claim to cover all the basics in the sub-categories. And I wouldn't want an incomplete Perfect Vegetables cookbook, for instance, just because a recipe had been perfected during the Test Kitchen television series. The 1/3 figure is much too high, by the way.

Some other reviewers have complained that this book seems to have a lot of repeats of recipes or feature things that don't seem very new or original. In this book though, that is the very point. These are the old fashioned recipes with which all Americans are familiar. There is no attempt to dress them up, only to make the best comfort food you ever had -- using ordinary ingredients. Cook's Illustrated continue with their high standards of performance and this is one of my favorite cookbooks ever.

I own The Best Recipe and now own American Classics and I love them both. Is there some duplication? Yes. Do I mind? No, because there is enough new material and the focus is--as the title implies--classic American fare. Having these great themed recipes together in one volume just makes it that much easier to create a meal that reflects American cuisine.As with their other products, the staff at Cook's has done a fabulous job of painstakingly researching their recipes and presenting them with wonderful background information and a transparancy to their thinking process that provides useful insights and understanding that I apply to other cooking endeavors.I have yet to be disappointed by a single recipe in this book, and am looking forward to a long summer of dining with American Classics.

About two years ago I received a copy of THE BEST RECIPE from a dear friend as a gift. An avid baker, I immediately turned to all of the desserts and started baking away. Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies and Cheesecake Brownies are among just a few of my favorites. Since that day, I have expanded my repertoire to SOUPS & STEWS, AMERICAN CLASSICS, and my husband's favorite, GRILLING. I have my favorites in each book including my latest of Blueberry Buckle Cobbler and Chewy Fudgy Triple Chocolate Brownies from AMERICAN CLASSICS. Now, my Williams Sonoma cookbooks are in the attic along with the dozen or so other cookbooks. I keep my Cook's Illustrated cookbooks out at all times and have NEVER ONCE been disappointed. Since that day two years ago when my dear friend gave me the copy of THE BEST RECIPE, I have passed on this same gift experience to my mother, grandmother, aunt and friends. Every single one of them has become hooked on the Cooks Illustrated Series and the quality of our cooking has improved immensely.So, to the complainer in California...why not stop looking for similar recipes and start trying the hundreds of original recipes in each and every Cook's Illustrated book?