America's Test Kitchen

I've always wondered why sometimes you use baking powder and sometimes you use baking soda, and sometimes both. Now I know! This book explains cooking theory in little side articles that are easy to find (and easy to ignore if you don't care about them). It has lots of recommendations, for things like cooking equipment (I bought a new grater & love it) as well as ingredients. And there are a couple of recipes that have become classics at my house. Try the chocolate cream pie; it's to DIE for! The ingredient that they investigated in that one was baking chocolates. You'll be surprised which one ended up being used! One of my favorite cookbooks; it stays on the counter rather than getting filed away.

I've enjoyed the cooking show, America's Test Kitchen, for several years. Their web site ... includes the current season's recipes -- but not the full list. If your local PBS station is running a show from an earlier series, then the recipes are not readily available. Well this book has all of the information. It has the recipes (plus usually one or two that weren't included in the show because of time constraints). It has the product reviews and it has the explanation behind food science involved (why you want to a russet potato for one kind of recipe and a boiling potato for another recipe). Many of the techniques are also discussed -- but the book leaves out Bridget's joy of whanging away at a recalcitrant piece of meat. Personally, I'm waiting for them to do a kitchen tool review on rubber hammers!I still enjoy the show -- but find that I regularly return to the cookbook. My definition of a good cookbook. Now I'm looking for the next season's cookbook.

This companion volume to the PBS series is presented as 26 chapters that correspond to the individual shows and include recipe analysis, equipment recommendations and illustrated techniques. Christopher Kimball and his rigorous cohorts define their goals, talk to experts, test dozens of recipe variations and then let you know what works and what doesn't. For example, Shrimp Classics includes recipes for Herb-Crusted Shrimp, Cocktail Sauce, Shrimp Scampi, Shrimp/Scallops/Monkfish Fra Diavolo with Linguine, five variations of Grilled Shrimp, a comparison of garlic presses, explanations of why shrimp turn pink and garlic's changing flavor, and taste tests for shrimp and dried pasta. This much analysis really helps you experiment more intelligently, though it's dangerous to open the book if you're in a hurry. Give yourself some extra time to peruse the always informative and entertaining text preceding the recipes.Chapters include: pureed vegetable soups; pesto, carbonara & salad; spaghetti & meatballs; pizza night; simple sandwiches; shrimp classics; steak frites; fried chicken & fixin's; chicken cutlets 101; all-american cookout; middle eastern barbecue; fajitas & margaritas; thanksgiving dinner; christmas dinner; winter supper; ham, biscuits and greens; muffins & scones; bacon, eggs & home fires; french toast, waffles & breakfast strata; bar cookies; two french tarts; diner pies; apple pies; peach pie & cherry cobbler; chilled summer puddings; and chocolate desserts. The pan sauce for steak is phenomenal, fajitas and cream biscuits are great, and I will never use another recipe for pie crust again.I own about 60 food and cookbooks and would rank this as one of the top three. Though this Kimball & Co. never do in one step what they can do in three, the recipes are consistently excellent and make the extra work worthwhile.Line illustrations,charts and a passable index augment the text.

I found this book a fascinating read. I can easily spend a couple of hours immersed in this book, learning new techniques and observing the art and science of cooking. It is a plainly written, unpretentious guide to doing things better in the kitchen, and I can't think of another book I own that comes close to the engaging tone of this one. I learn something new every time I pick it up!

This cookbook, and the associated magazine "Cook's Illustrated," try hard to discover the best methods, equipment and ingredients for cooking in the home. And they do so by exhaustive (at least it would be for me!) comparisons. They then explain the results and why they were achieved. If you have a scientific bent at all the explanations will suck you into trying the recipes. Then the tastes will hook you forever. For example, brining almost all poultry is now a staple technique in their repertoire, and after reading why (and going through the drawing of what happens to protein molecules during brining) it's now a staple in my home as well. Some discoveries that they share were serendipitous, too, such as leaving a brined turkey uncovered overnight in the fridge, cooking it anyway, and discovering that the resulting bird had both crisp skin (from drying out in the fridge) and juicy meat (from the brining). If understanding why something does what it does, if being shown why one thing is considered better than another, if comparisons are important to you -- then this cookbook is one you should have.