America's Test Kitchen

What a terrific surprise: this is not just a collection of recipes, it’s also in-depth food writing -- it’s like a 550-page issue of Cook’s Illustrated Magazine!

America’s Test Kitchen is celebrating the 25th anniversary of Cook’s Illustrated by reprinting feature stories that revolutionized cooking techniques, including 180 recipes. They tend to be for standards (from the small, like all sorts of eggs, to big meats and everything in between, plus sides and desserts), but feel show more completely contemporary. And it’s fun to see writers from before they were famous (hello, J. Kenji Lopez-Alt and Mark Bittman!) Their curiosity leads to fascinating science and technique, which combine on smooth, heavy pages with beautiful photos and well-organized recipes to make this fabulous volume. I will re-read and cook from it for years to come.

(Review based on a copy of the book provided by the publisher.) show less

When I subscribed to Cook’s Illustrated magazine, I read each issue cover to cover, enjoying every bit of deconstructing a recipe or technique and evaluating commercial pantry staples and cookery tools. And now I devoured every word of this big volume on the science behind 50 fundamental concepts essential to good cooking.

Each concept is presented as an 8-16 page chapter that begins with the science/theory behind a technique, followed by a cooking experiment that tests the science, and show more then much further exploration of the concept via at least half-a-dozen recipes (for generally familiar, delicious, foods). Note: this is not an “illustrated,” coffee-table book; there are some graphics to help describe the science, and some simple photos of experimental results, but this is a text-heavy book -- lush with information not visuals.

The topics mostly concern meat, eggs, vegetables and baking. All of it feels solid -- the reinforcement of concepts I already knew about, the confidence to try techniques that are new to me, and many “aha” moments about the whys behind the science, some of which come to mind even now:

• when to cut a food with the grain vs. against the grain (answer: onions and tough meats, respectively; cutting across cells breaks them, resulting in a too-pungent onion but a more tender meat);

• the difference between baking soda (which reacts with an acid in the recipe to create CO2 bubbles that leaven) vs. baking powder (which contains baking soda + a powdered acid) vs. double-acting baking powder (which contains a second acid that works later, in the oven’s heat) -- and why you ever even need separate baking soda (it leads to flavorful browning);

• why adding eggs to a batter one at a time, and alternating the addition of wet and dry ingredients, does matter (both cause ingredients to incorporate faster/better and prevent the over-mixing that toughens the batter);

• whether to salt scrambled eggs before or after cooking (before: “Salt affects the electrical charge on the protein molecules in the eggs, reducing the tendency of the proteins to bond with each other. A weaker protein network means eggs are less likely to overcoagulate and will cook up tender, not tough.”)

If you have an opinion about Cook’s Illustrated magazine, that will be your opinion of this book -- multiplied by 50 :) If you’re unfamiliar with the magazine, I highly recommend using e.g. Amazon's “Look Inside” feature to browse the Table of Contents for the concepts/techniques covered, and then read the “First Pages” (which is “Concept 1: Gentle Heat Prevents Overcooking”) and is representative of the book.

Enthusiastically recommended! show less

I have a dozen cookery books from America’s Test Kitchen, all of which I’ve rated highly and yet this is one of my favorites. It’s inspiring and also practical for cooks of all skills, whether one is initially setting up a kitchen or setting up a “refresh” in midlife or retirement.

It’s a beautifully produced book, printed on smooth pages with thousands of full-color photographs showing preparation techniques and finished dishes. It’s trademark-ATK with an opening paragraph show more about the science/background of each dish, followed by ingredients and preparation instructions, and then sidebars that delve into ingredients, equipment and how-to techniques. It feels fresh and contemporary in its nutritional and ethnic diversity (while using quite common ingredients). I want to prepare about a third of the recipes tomorrow or sooner :)

(Review based on a copy of the book provided by the publisher.) show less

I know how to cook, but baking is my specialty, having had professional training in bread and pastry. From this perspective, I highly recommend "The Science of Good Cooking," by Cook's Illustrated. This isn't your grandma's home cooking, but a study of culinary processes and techniques to create better food products.

Rarely would I read from cover to cover a cookbook or a book on cooking, but I did so with "The Science of Good Cooking." That alone is saying a lot since it's 451 pages show more long.

When reviewing a book, the first thing I notice is the quality of construction - the paper, the binding, the cover, the print and the design. This book gets five stars in these categories, despite the sepia illustrations. This isn't a coffee table picture book, but a scientific approach to best practices in cooking. I particularly like the dust jacket, which has a plastic-type coating. This gives it a nice feel and provides some protection against splatter.

The format of "The Science of Good Cooking" is useful. With clear and precise writing, each chapter presents a concept, describes how it works and reviews the test kitchen methods of analysis. Following, you see the results and "The Takeaway." If you wanted to cut to the chase, you could skip to the results and the takeaway and still benefit from the chapter. After the text, Cook's Illustrated gives you the practical application of the science in the form of fail-proof recipes.

Reading this book and practicing the concepts can substitute for some expensive culinary training for the untutored cook. I skimmed the chapters on bread and pastry, having already learned the content. However, the information is solid. I was especially impressed that Cook's Illustrated included a discussion of the autolyse process, developed by Raymond Calvel, to improve the flavor of bread. Autolyse is a professional technique of allowing hydrated flour to develop prior to using it to make bread dough.

"The Science of Good Cooking" includes a section on kitchen tools, with recommendations from Cook's Illustrated tests. This makes the book a real bargain. You're getting cooking fundamentals, recipes and equipment ratings. Cook's Illustrated has a website that contains this information, but it's expensive and annoying. You can search for information and find that some is free, some is available only to subscribers, and some is available only to premium subscribers.

About half the book is on meat, logical considering the importance of animal protein in cooking. Here is where the full color photos and illustrations would, in my opinion, not be an asset. The descriptions of the scientific analysis in cooking meat tend to make the reader consider being a vegetarian. There are extremely detailed discussions of the muscle fiber, connective tissue, fat, fiber and collagen in meat, and how the age and exercise of the animal affect the meat. Then, we learn how different cooking processes affect these animal parts, in more excruciating detail. Yeah, sepia is okay with me.

Some readers might find the Cook's Illustrated recipes complicated and cumbersome but, with experience, many of the steps become routine and painless. However, this criticism could be valid concerning a few of the recipes. I do think that you can make good scrambled eggs without knowing the correct size of the pan for the number of eggs, precisely timing the cooking on medium and low heat, adding half-and-half instead of milk or cream, adding extra egg yolks (leaving you with extra egg whites) and using chilled, unsalted butter instead of salted butter at any temperature. I think the idea is to understand the concepts and follow them, as precisely or generally as you wish, and the outcome will still be improved.

"The Science of Cooking" is a good for cooks of all levels of knowledge and experience - a solid five-star book. show less