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: My Favorite All-time Cookbook
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased this book some time ago, but after moving I packed it up and it is still in my storage. I cannot believe how much I missed having it and that I had to join Cooksillustrated.com to get the recipes that I use to make from this book. Everything from their keylime pie, beef stew, Creole gumbo, biscuits, waffles, monkey bread, meatloaf and so many other recipes I have tried are full proof. I have never made any recipe from this book that I had to tweak or that I did not like. I am an experienced cook, but I find myself referring to recipes from this book all the time. I think this is the best gift to give a bride because you really don't need any other cook book. I actually have over 200 cookbooks, but I go to this one for recipes almost all the time because I know it will be good. Trust me, this purchase is well worth it because you learn everything there is to know about cooking and best products to use. Before making any purchase in the kitchen I always go to Cooks Illustrated or The Best Recipe for the best product to purchase. They have saved me a lot of time and money doing all the testing for me. It just doesn't get any better than this especially if you enjoy cooking and or baking like I do. I was a pretty decent cook before this book, but I am an even better cook now. I just simply love this book. Now I have 2 of these books because I couldn't get to my storage soon enough.Book Review: GREAT MONSTROSITY!
Summary: 3 Stars
The recipes are thorough to the point of an extreme and if followed exactly you will have perfect results every time. Even when not followed to the tee they come out great! I have purchased a lot of new equipment for these recipes and the buying tips offered in the book were invaluable! so you may be asking why only 3 stars after all the praise? The problem with the book is it's sheer size. It is a monstrosity! 5 pounds does not sound like a lot of weight but combined with the thickness of the book it makes very hard to read. I have accidentally ripped a lot of the pages just by holding them while the book has slipped between my legs. A better format would have been to break this into smaller pieces each focusing on a certain category like baking, main dishes, equipment corner, ect and offered as a boxed set. There is a set of books called the best recipe series by the same authors and we have purchased the "Baking Illustrated: A Best Recipe Classic (The Best Recipe Series)" volume that covers all of the baking recipes in this book and love it because it fits on the counter! This book does consume a lot of counter space so we have taken pictures right from the monstrosity and they print good enough to use then we just trash them keeping the book nice and clean. All said and done it is a great read! 5 stars for content 1 star for format. definitely worth buying!!Book Review: Amazing All-Around Recipe Book
Summary: 5 Stars
This is really an outstanding source of information, not just recipes, but for pretty much anything involved in cooking in general. A lot of the recipes have some steps that might be difficult and this book does a great job of really breaking them down and explaining them so even the novice cook can get a handle on process.
I bought this book as a pretty novice chef myself with barely any knowledge going into it and have learned quite a lot from the book. The step-by-step procedures for things even as simple as preparing various vegetables and explanations of different meat cuts really helps to build your initial knowledge of cooking in general and helps a great deal when working with any type of recipe. I also really like how the book explains why certain ingredients are in recipes and what they do to the taste, texture, and look of the food. This also helps for the reader to get a better understanding of the ingredients themselves rather then just take the transformation from ingredients to dinner to be magic. I also like how they also talk about some of the other variations they have tried on a lot of generic recipes and why they liked the one they feature better then those.
Overall, this is a must have for anyone that is looking to expand their knowledge in cooking further, especially if you are just getting started.
Book Review: Very comprehensive and innovative, good book
Summary: 5 Stars
To put this review into perspective for you, it is written by a serious student of cooking that has been actively studying food on their own for 25 years. I have been focusing on Italian food for the last 10 years. My favorite cookbook is "The Professional Chef" by the Culinary Institute of America.
If you know someone that needs to know the basic recipes this is an excellent book. Back when I was learning to cook everyone used "The New York Times Cookbook" and then later it was "The Silver Palate Basics". This book is just as thorough and far reaching as the other two books that I referenced. The difference is that the techniques have been streamlined and the directions are more comprehensive.
Of the recipes that I have tried, they have all been good. If you are a beginner cook, their streamlined methods and techniques do work as well as the longer processes. I have tried many of their short cuts and was surprised to get reasonable results. If you are short on time for preparing meals, you might want to give this book a try just to learn their short cut methods.
This is a very nice comprehensive resource for someone looking for a general go to book for a time stretched home cook. This book includes recipes for almost every recipe that a home cook will ever need.
Book Review: It's SCIENTIF-eriffic!
Summary: 5 Stars
My only problem with this cookbook is the awkward and somewhat misleading title: "The New Best Recipe." These are not "new" recipes; rather, they are basic staple recipes with modest variations -- a compilation of the best recipes from the truly excellent "Cooks Illustrated" magazine. "Cooks Illustrated", unlike every other cooking mag out there, takes classic food -- like hamburgers, beef stew, pasta salad, sugar cookies -- and tries to create the absolutely PERFECT version through a rigorous series of trial, error, and taste tests. It's SCIENTIFIC. One of my pet peeves about most cookbooks is: they may have some interesting ideas, but I learned long ago not to follow them to the letter, rather to follow my instincts -- you'd be AMAZED at how many recipes are published in REPUTABLE magazines and by FAMOUS cooks which, for example, call for too little (or NO) salt! OR are over-sugared. Or -- just don't work. Trust me, you will NEVER have this problem with anything in "The New Best Recipe." You can follow it by the letter (and the directions are carefully detailed) and never go wrong. Use this book for the absolute best version of basic staples like biscuits, and also for those times when you are cooking a special dinner and simply can't afford to have anything go wrong! The Pad Thai recipe is particularly good.