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another great, but slightly flawed, cookbook from ATK:
America's Test Kitchen is similar to Consumer Reports, but for food. They will try a recipe 100 times, with every variation possible, experimenting with ingredients and techniques, until they can give you an informative article and a winning recipe. I have tried about 14 recipes from this book and every one has been terrific. The carbonnade has a more complex flavor than carbonnade I ate in Belgium! We've also enjoyed the chicken parmesan, fish and chips, , chicken kiev, the pepper-crusted filet mignon (with a fantastic cherry-Port reduction), , stir fried chicken, hot and sour soup, potstickers and buttermilk coleslaw. And the strawberry cream cake is gorgeous and delicious. I am so confident in ATK's recipes that I've made a recipe for the first time when company was coming over, and it was wonderful. Articles are supplemented with terrific sidebars that typically rate ingredient brands, compare kitchen tools or show a technique. My only complaint about the whole series of ATK books is that they are organized idiosyncratically (sorry, but that is anathema to a librarian!) and have extremely poor indexes. For example, I knew the recipe for carbonnade was in the 2007 book. I looked in the index -- nothing under "carbonnade", nothing under "beef"! So I went to the table of contents. Nothing about carbonnade, but a chapter called "Best Beef Stew" -- could that be it? Luckily, yes, but that is no way to run a cookbook! You cannot go wrong with these great books -- consistently reliable and delicious recipes.
another delicious hit....:
Another delicious hit...but then I do have most of their publications and love them all...
New Cook:
I absolutely LOVE this series! I am brand new at learning how to cook and I have somewhat been scared at trying to learn recipes. This series has taught me everything I know, and fixed any fears I have of trying new foods to cook. Every recipe in this book comes out perfect the first time I try it. They put cooking into simple terms - and test each recipe until it is perfect. Their recipes make me look like a professional chef! They have taught me everything I know about spices and herbs as well; they don't use strange ingredients that are hard to find in small-town grocery stores. I've tried several recipes from this book, and I love them all. For instance, the Sunday roast chicken and stuffing was to die for! The cream biscuits were as easy as making biscuits from a "box" - but MUCH better. They have a light and fluffy texture. I am looking forward to trying their "lighter chicken parmesian", "lighter macaroni and cheese", and their potsticker (wonton) recipes. I got this book along with the DVD set for the 2007 TV series, and I watch the episode before I try the recipe from the book. That way, I know what to expect before I make it. That has proven to be an effective teaching tool for me. I highly recommend this along with the boxed DVD set!
A great book:
For amateur cooks like me this is a wonderful and informative book that has resulted in many great meals with a minimum of work.
12 qt Kitchen Aid food processor:
This is a Christmas present and has not been used yet. We have a smaller model and like it very much.
| Binding: | Hardcover | | Dewey Decimal Number: | 641.5 | | EAN: | 9781933615042 | | ISBN: | 1933615044 | | Number Of Pages: | 339 | | Publication Date: | 2006-11-30 |
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