Best Of
Links
Categories
Archives
Search
Subscribe
Shannon over at http://www.rocksinmydryer.com has a themed Works-For-Me-Wednesday this week. We are blogging about what brands or products work for us.
Cook’s Illustrated has changed my life. It definitely works for me. I have always thought of myself as a cook and as a person who liked to cook. Unfortunately, the truth is that after leaving home for college I didn’t have much opportunity to cook. So, when my dissertation was finally finished, and I finally had a husband and children to cook for, and a kitchen to cook in, I didn’t know that much about cooking. Enthusiasm, yes. Knowledge, no. That’s where Cook’s Illustrated comes in. These are the people who do America’s Test Kitchen on PBS (I haven’t seen much of that because we don’t have TV). They publish cookbooks (often available at Costco for a good price), and two magazines, Cook’s Illustrated and Cook’s Country, and also have websites for each of these magazines.
If you are a cook into experimenting and tasting and intuition-style cooking, the “art” of cooking, then this is probably not for you. (I admire you! But I don’t recommend these products.) However, if you want someone to go into great detail and tell you exactly what to do, this is for you. They thoroughly test their recipes (the problem with getting free recipes from the internet (and from cookbooks, for that mattter) is that often they are not thoroughly tested. The problem with getting recipes from friends and family, is that they are often not specific enough to allow you to duplicate their results.
Cook’s Illustrated recipes work. If you are a novice cook, you can make these recipes. They will tell you what to do, how to do it, and why their way is the best way. Their recipes are fabulous. You can make food that is far better than what you order at the restaurant. I have been amazed at what I am capable of when I follow their directions. Two things I particularly like are their taste tests: the best olive oil, the best peanut butter, etc., and their equipment ratings: the best food processor, the best waffle iron.
My favorite Cook’s Illustrated product is The America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. If you are only going to get one item, get that one. It has all the basic recipes you will need, and little sidebars with tasting and equipment advice. My second favorite would be my membership to Cook’s Illustrated.com. Although membership to the website costs money, for me it is totally worth it. I love being able to input my ingredients and get suggestions for recipes (and remember these recipes all work and have that fabulous level of detail in the instructions). The website is also nice becuase it includes all of their tastings and equpment reviews, and will automatically print out a shopping list for whichever recipe you’d like to try.
Comments
7 Responses to “Magazine: Cook’s Illustrated”
Leave a Reply
L-O-V-E Cooks Illustrated any way it comes, magazine, internet, etc.!
Big fan here in NH too! I love their roasted turkey for thanksgiving…soak it in a brine…so yummy! Never liked turkey before my hubby tried it this way. So good! Jodi
Oh yes, I LOVE Cooks Illustrated. My grandmother used to have a subscription to the magazine and, at the end of each year, would buy the book of collected recipes for me. What a treasure.
I’m going to check out that book and see if our library carries it. Their books and magazines are such an amazing resource.
Thanks for sharing!
Duckabush Blog
I love Cooks Illustrated, especially the cool tips. And I love the TV show. Can’t think of the host’s name…something Kimball…but he’s great.
Yes, it’s Christopher Kimball. I don’t know if I’m wild about his PBS persona, but I sure love his magazines and cookbooks. He had a super idea and he’s done great things with it.
Cool, I’ll have to check that out!
[...] is based on the more traditional pumpkin cheesecake recipe in Baking Illustrated (by the editors of Cook’s Illustrated) with the shortcake crust from a cheesecake bar recipe that I found elsewhere. I also included [...]