The Cook's Bible: The Best of American Home Cooking

Subtitled "The Best of American Home Cooking", this volume presents a series of master recipes within the context of recipe analysis, equipment recommendations and illustrated techniques. Chris Kimball & Co. define what they consider the perfect dish, talk to experts, test dozens of recipe variations and then report back. Like a Consumer Reports for cooking, they name names and tell you what brand or supplier of ingredients and utensils is superior -- and why. And like Harold McGee's classic 'On Food and Cooking', they explain the history, the chemistry, the physics .... whatever interesting facts help explain what goes on in your kitchen. It really enables you to experiment more intelligently. One caveat: if you are a curious cook, give yourself some extra time to read the always informative and entertaining chapters leading up to the recipes.I own about 60 food and cookbooks. Many are useful for a few recipes and a few are regularly useful, but I would rank The Cook's Bible as one of the top three I own. Recipes are consistently, and authoritatively, first rate -- and delicious.Subjects include equipment for the kitchen, using a microwave oven, how to use knives, potatoes, steaming vegetables, roasting vegetables, how to build a salad, dried beans, shellfish, pasta, fish and shellfish, frying or roasting a chicken, turkey, stews, stocks and sauces, barbecue, pizza, stir-fry, yeast breads, eggs, cakes, pies, cookies, brownies, souffle, and baked and poached fruits.Line illustrations and charts augment the text, and there is a comprehensive index.Highest recommendation for curious cooks.

This cookbook is truly a bible to me. I keep a copy in the kitchen and another copy on my nightstand; it's both recipe book and reference book, all in one. I find myself consulting it at least once a day, not just for meal-planning and specific recipes -- and all the recipes I have tried are utterly delectable and fool-proof like all of Christopher Kimball's well-tested and well-reasoned recipes -- but also to help me in devising my own recipes or modifying recipes to my taste. That's the beauty of Kimball's reasoned approach: once you understand how ingredients and techniques work, you are able to amazing things! With what I have learned, I have "perfected" my chocolate-chunk cookies to make them denser and chewier as I like them; my baking powder biscuits by using tenderizing buttermilk and the right proportion of lard to butter; my pizza dough to make it more crispy and chewy by putting the olive oil on, not in, it; etc. Also, my meats are cooked perfectly every time, using Kimball's cooking temperatures and cooking times, for he has tested all the possibilities for you and set forth the results in useful charts. Now my roast loin of pork is always meltingly moist and tender. In short, I couldn't get by without this bible and highly recommend it to anyone who wants to cook better!

I can't say enough good things about this book. Kimball tells you in precise detail what does and does not work. He and his staff do all the necessary research to let the reader know why a recipe turns out well. And his book reads like a conversation.If you are one of those cooks who wants to understand food then this book and the whole Cook's Illustrated volumes are for you. They will tell you how to do their dishes and give you the intellectual background to understand the process. I hate to use such highbrow words for Kimball's downhome style, but this certainly ought to be part of the American gastronomic tradition.By the way, did I mention that the food turns out fabulously?

James Beard brought fine cooking to the American kitchen. Christopher Kimball has continued in this tradition. This book provides not simply near perfect recipes but a guide to both the experienced cook and the novice on how to prepare them. The sections on the selection of kitchen equipment are wonderful. He presents his recommendations on what you need not only in the generic, but the specific. Some of what he advocates, you may disagree with. I know that I can put a finer edge on a knife with a good steel than I can with the recommended electric knife sharpener. However, the knife sharpener is necessary when the edge no longer responds to the steel.In no case will you go wrong with his recommedations (except for the waffle recipe). It does need more oil.For anyone starting to learn to cook or wanting to learn to cook better, this is a priceless resource. I cannot recommend it more strongly. If I had only one cookbook in my kitchen, this would be it. The second would, of course, be James Beard American Cooking.