indeed everything we do at America’s Test Kitchen, is a shared understanding of how frustrating it can be to spend time planning, buying, and cooking just to produce dishes that are mediocre at best. Have you ever been frustrated by the crust shrinking down the sides of the pan once baked? Have you ever spent a fortune on ribs of First quality just to make it dry and hard? Or did he bake a cheesecake that came out of the oven with a crack the size of the San Andreas fault? Most of us don’t have the time or inclination to spend hours and hours finding the answers to these and hundreds of other common kitchen problems. We want recipes that work the first time and every time, and we want clear instructions. With The New Best Recipe in hand, you’ll have access to a wealth of practical information that will make you not only a better cook but also a safer one. No one likes to make mistakes in the kitchen. That’s why we try recipes over and over again (in some cases, more than 50 times), so you don’t have to.
Because good technique is also critical, we’ve included 800 illustrations that show you the best way to do everything from cutting a turkey to beating egg whites correctly, icing a layered cake, and setting up your grill. And because the right equipment always makes a difference, you’ll find valuable information on how and when to splurge on that expensive knife or baking pan and when the basic model will perform well. (In our test, for example, the $4 Baker’s Secret pan outperformed competitors with prices four times higher.)
We also explain the science of
cooking (e.g. how brine works to ensure juicy meat and why butter should be added before dairy for silkier mashed potatoes) because understanding food science can help anyone become a better cook. Complete with recipes ranging from appetizers to desserts, The New Best Recipe promises to be a classic and timeless cooking companion, one that opens the curtain on our testing process so you can learn firsthand what makes even the simplest recipe the best.
Founded in 1980, Cook’s Illustrated is renowned for its almost obsessive dedication to finding the best American home cooking methods. The editors of Cook’s Illustrated are also the authors of a best-selling cookbook series (The Best Recipe Series), as well as a series of companion books to the public television show America’s Test Kitchen (which reaches 2.4 million viewers per episode). Filmed in America’s Test Kitchen (a 2,500-square-foot test kitchen in Brookline, Massachusetts), the show features the magazine’s editors, test cooks, equipment testers, science experts and food tasters.
