The New Best Recipe: All-New Edition
by Cook's Illustrated Magazine
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Book Reviews of The New Best Recipe: All-New Edition
Book Review: Be the most amazing cook ever, right now!
Summary: 5 Stars
Would you like to be a fabulous cook? Can't afford a ritzy cooking school? Ever wondered if the mortals in your kitchen could learn to cook like GODS??!!Wonder no more...this cookbook comes to us courtesy of the team at Cook's Illustrated magazine, which while not widely known, is the single best source of cooking information and recipes on the planet.
Cook's takes classic recipes, deconstructs them and puts them back together, streamlined for the home kitchen but sacrificing nothing in terms of knock-your-socks-off flavour. Bonus: these recipes don't fail, unlike those in most other cookbooks.
I was always a decent cook, but after finding Cook's Illustrated I became an amazing cook...this book will make you one too. I didn't know food could taste this good; you will produce dishes that rival 4 star restaurants, I kid you not. The directions are crystal clear, and you get lots of expert advice on how to choose ingredients and equipment. Most recipes show you master-chef level tips and tricks that are easy to learn.
I can personally recommend the Coq au Vin p. 341 (my family literally begs for it), and if you cook the steak and Madeira pan sauce p. 389, they will probably name a religion after you. Other highlights, French Onion Soup p. 43, various pastas with garlic and oil pan sauces p. 238, Fresh Tomato Sauce for pasta (INCREDIBLE!!!) p. 241, Molasses Spice Cookies p. 785, Lemon Pie p. 907, Key Lime Pie p. 908, Creme Caramel p. 958. Well, you get the idea...I could go on and on, the recipes are so utterly delicious.
This cookbook is kick-ass, world class. Everyone you cook for will wonder where you learned to cook like that. I have lots of cookbooks and almost never look at any of my old ones any more. This one is just that good!
Get it, get it now, you will be so very happy you did, and so will any cook you get it for. The Best Recipe rocks.
Book Review: Way better than my mom's cookbooks.
Summary: 5 Stars
I have never been a fan of white meat on chicken, even at restaurants breasts always seem overcooked and unenjoyable. But after preparing the Chicken Parmesan recipe in the book, I was able to taste the best chicken meat to ever grace my tongue, all prepared by my own hands. Really... I'm not exaggerating.
About Ingredients;
Although this book requires a well stocked kitchen, it does not frequently require exotic ingredients like many other gourmet cookbooks do. I have found that when I buy ingredients for the dishes in this book, I can usually use them again in other recipes.
About Meals;
This book does a good job at helping you prepare whole meals. Many of the directions include instructions for the main dish and a side dish, leaving only a salad for you to come up with on your own. Proportions are usually on the hearty side, and I have fed five people with a recipe for four a couple times.
About Instructions:
I find the instructions to be a bit wordy for my tastes, but they are never unclear. Just be prepared to read a paragraph for an instruction that could just as easily have been stated in one or two lines.
About Extras:
This book is chalked full of kitchen advice. For a new cook like myself there are things in here that have opened my eyes. It's section on grilling taught me more in one hour that I learned from my father during my whole life.
Give the gift of a helper;
This was my Christmas gift for my girlfriend who enjoys cooking but, like myself, is still new to it. It is difficult to match the satisfaction I receive from working with her for an hour in the kitchen and preparing meals that outdo those of both of our parents. If you give this as a gift, expect to spend many hours in the kitchen with the recipient, and expect to enjoy them.
Book Review: Interesting take on recipes, but realization philosophies will seem alien to New Zealanders
Summary: 4 Stars
The New Best Recipe is a compendium of more than 1,000 recipes from America's Test Kitchen. The philosophy is to preserve as much flavour as possible using the best cost-effective and time-saving way of cooking, with scientifically proven replicable methodologies. The range of cooking is vast: from Chinese stir-fries to Parker's roll, from chowder to Burgundy stews, the most commonly eaten dishes in modern Western homes are all inside.
There are a few quibbles with this book though. There is no metric equivalent for measurements. In New Zealand we never see such thing as "half and half" - it is either full cream milk or fresh cream, and the authors don't explain possible replacements when you can't find it. Many of the buyer's tips are useless in this country because of different brands (for example, Hellmann's is unheard of here, but only Watties or ETA) and different electrical applicances (fully automated ice-cream makers aren't available for domestic markets in NZ). We also don't have meatloaf mixes sold in supermarkets. The tastes are also a little different: while New Zealand has a preference of sweeter seasoning than Australia, it is nowhere as sweet as the average American palates in dishes such as using sweet white wine in making the bolognese sauce, so many of the food require less sugar. The idea of saving time using substitutes also runs contrary to Kiwi philosophy of "good things take time" - if you make it, use the full recipes. All of these make the book largely limited in appeal to New Zealand audiences.
All in all, it is a good introduction to home dishes, perhaps for American audiences, but I would strongly advise against New Zealand readers to consult this as the primary cookbook. Use The Australian Woman's Weekly series cookbooks or read Julie Le Clerc instead.
Book Review: There's a reason why there's a mountain of used books available!!!
Summary: 2 Stars
This book is big on hand waving and pretense of knowledge,
but it falls short on authenticity, and worse yet, fails to
deliver on taste. There's a reason why certain recipes are
timeless, and handed down from generation to generation:
they work and taste good within the cultural context of the
people that originated the recipe.
Case in point: Osso Buco. The "New Best Recipe" produces an
Osso Buco that's marginal at best. The delicate flavor of
veal is obliterated by the 14 ounce can of tomatoes that
this recipe called for. Yes, the result is edible, and
can be served to guests, but it should be called "braised
veal swimming in tomato pulp" instead of Osso Buco.
Another great "New Best Recipe" is the Beef Burgundy, which,
if cooked with a wine from Burgundy could technically be
called "Beef Burgundy." However, it tastes nothing like the
Boeuf a la Bourguignonne that it pretends to be.
Yet another "New Best Recipe" is the one for Baguettes.
Besides being wrong on key points of the preparation method,
the final part of the recipe -- the BAKING part -- specifies
a baking temperature of 500 degrees!!! This produced a
"baguette" that was wrong in just about every respect: uneven
color and crust, undeveloped crumb, poor texture, and bland taste.
At least the lump of baked dough was edible enough to make into
breadcrumbs. The "New Best Recipe" for Italian bread produced
similar results. Thus, the bread recipes will produce a
consistent bread quality -- bad.
The title of this book should be "The new best recipe for
bad cooks, or cooks who don't know better." I can keep on
going, but I think I've made my point.
Book Review: One of my very favorite cookbooks
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm now a fan of the America's Test Kitchen and Cook's Illustrated Magazine, and it was this book that did it! I'm the type of person that likes to know *why* to do things a certain way, and not just read a set of instructions and this cookbook is just so full of great information on how and why to cook things they way they are instructing, along with various illustrated tidbits all the way through, like how to section a chicken or butterfly it, etc. But of course the real test is the recipes...and so far, my results with the ones in this book have been excellent. I can't say everything turned out perfectly (some burned potatoes in the pan when I did the high roast chicken come to mind) but none have been a total disaster or a recipe I wouldn't try again. Even better, I find that the ingredients used are usually not ones that are hard to find and in many cases, ones I already have on hand. I get frustrated with books that use all these crazy ingredients that I will use once for that meal and then have to throw out the rest eventually. That is not the case with Best Recipe.
This is not the book for everyone. If you are a really busy person and not interested in reading several pages of information that go along with the recipe, but just want something quick and fast, there are probably better books for you. Also keep in mind that Cook's Illustrated and ATK do tend to use the same recipes over and over a lot, so if you have any number of their other books, or the magazines, you may find many recipes in here that you've seen before. But for someone who really loves to understand the how and why of cooking, and was fairly new to the Cook's Illustrated family of products, this was one of my favorite cookbooks purchased.