The Best American Recipes 1999: The Year's Top Picks from Books, Magazine, Newspapers and the Internet (Best American Series) [Hardcover]

Fran McCullough (Editor), Suzanne Hamlin (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Best American Series | Publication Date: October 30, 1999

For this ground-breaking collection, two leading food authorities scoured every conceivable printed source for the year's great recipes: cookbooks, magazines of every kind, national and regional newspapers, press releases, newsletters, the Internet -- even the backs of boxes. From literally thousands of possibilities, they narrowed the field to 500 for testing, before choosing 111 of the very best. Many of their discoveries are brilliantly simple, like the delightfully retro meatball appetizer that's making the rounds of Manhattan cocktail parties and the supremely easy Moroccan-inspired weeknight chicken supper that won its creator a million dollars in a cooking contest. The roast chicken recipe that's currently considered by food insiders to be one of the two best in the world is revealed here, as is the recipe for luscious black-bean burgers, a favorite of the food editor of a major women's magazine. And gone public at last is a well-known novelist's provocative spin on linguine with clam sauce, which food lovers have been excitedly e-mailing all over the country, as is the latest update from one of the nation's most talented pastry chefs, a new twist on her definitive hot fudge sauce. You'll find memorable dishes for holidays and other special occasions: a cider-cured turkey, an exceptional wild rice soup from Minnesota that solves the problem of what to do with the leftover bird, a trick to make a cheap supermarket ham taste exceptionally elegant, and the formula for a basic cookie dough that can be easily varied to produce fifty different kinds of cookies. You'll find breakfasts and brunches, starters and drinks (both alcoholic and non-) and salads and side dishes. There's even a recipe for banana biscotti for dogs. Throughout, the editors have added cooking notes, tips, and serving suggestions based on the results of their extensive testing. Whether the source is a virtuoso chef or an obscure home cook, a famous movie star or a fireman in a small town, each dish is perfectly calibrated to produce a single reaction among all those who taste it: "I must have that recipe!"

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If you have a friend who thinks of Ritz crackers and cheese spread as a meal, you aren't likely to go there for unbelievably delicious recipes, are you? But what if you are pals with Fran McCullough and Suzanne Hamlin, two of the mighty among food editors and food writers? Then you'd be on the receiving end of the best recipes they can find and test, recipes annually culled from every source imaginable--newspapers, magazines, books, e-mail, backs of boxes, advertising inserts, Web sites, word-of-mouth, fortune cookies, subway graffiti.

Figure on two recipes a week for a year with two weeks vacation thrown in: that'd be, oh, 100 recipes, wouldn't it? And that is what you get when you dip into The Best American Recipes 1999. Within you'll find starters and drinks, soups and stews, salads, main dishes, side dishes, breads, and desserts. These aren't your common, everyday, what'll-I-feed-the-kids-for-dinner recipes. That's why you get two a week for a year (albeit, all at once; you divvy them up however you want). And as a bonus, you get the authors' choices for the top 10 whatevers of the year. Comeback of the Year? It's cheese. Condiment of the year? Finally, it's salt. Cooking technique of the year? Only fitting that it's brining.

Be sure to try the Salmon in Sweet Red Curry, one of the top 10 dishes of the year that ran in the Los Angeles Times. Or the Brazilian Seafood Stew, a little something from Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger. Nancy Silverton's Definitive Hot Fudge Sauce is here and may be the price-of-admission winner. And so, too, is a delicious Moroccan Tomato Soup from Barbara Kafka's Soup: A Way of Life. But here's the bottom line: any book that publishes a recipe by the Bay Area's fabulous Niloufer Ichaporia King, Parsi Deviled Eggs in this case, is indeed a book you want to use. --Schuyler Ingle

From Publishers Weekly

In order to create this mixed bag of the year's 100 best recipes from books, magazines, newspapers and the Internet, McCullough (Great Food Without Fuss) and Hamlin (New York Times contributor) tested more than 500. The dishes include such intriguing concoctions as Niloufer Ichaporia King's Parsi Deviled Eggs with jalape?o and lime juice, selected from the San Francisco Examiner. Notes in the margin accompany each recipe, listing serving suggestions, beverage recommendations and cross-referenced companion recipes. In an entertaining introduction, McCullough and Hamlin break down their choices (some recipes were chosen because they add a twist to a classic, while others introduce a new ingredient) and offer a clever rundown of the year's top-10 developments in food ("Comeback of the Year: Cheese"). The best recipes reflect one of these categories or trends (Perfect Brownies are an example of a perfected classic, and Dried Fruit and Pomegranate Seed Upside-Down Cake stars pomegranates, nominated "fruit of the year"). Readers may question some of the selections, however. Do home cooks really need two recipes for dog food (including French Country Soup for Dogs)? Meanwhile, old standbys (Frozen Margaritas from KitchenAid and Linguine con Vongole, Fort Hill Style) nicely round out the selection. $100,000 ad/promo; 9-city author tour; BOMC/ Good Cook selection. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 300 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 1999 edition (October 30, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395966477
• ISBN-13: 978-0395966471
• Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 7.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #317,215 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Turkey, November 26, 1999

By 

Deborah Janklow (Riverdale, New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Best American Recipes 1999: The Year's Top Picks from Books, Magazine, Newspapers and the Internet (Best American Series) (Hardcover)

After 26 years of cooking turkeys, I finally cooked one that everyone including myself loved. It's the cider-brined turkey in this book which is as good as the authors say. I also made the great pumpkin and goat cheese gratin which is delicious. Now I'm sorry I didn't make thw whole meal from the book. Everyone at our Thanksgving table wanted this book for Christmas.

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great cookbook!, November 20, 1999

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Best American Recipes 1999: The Year's Top Picks from Books, Magazine, Newspapers and the Internet (Best American Series) (Hardcover)

The polenta recipe alone is worth the price of the book. It is a no-stir recipe, and very easy.

There is also a great chili recipe with lamb and beans. It is a very eclectic collection with some unusual and delicious dishes. It is a cookbook well worth having.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Applause!, January 5, 2000

By 

Scriba "Concerned consumer" (Hudson Valley, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Best American Recipes 1999: The Year's Top Picks from Books, Magazine, Newspapers and the Internet (Best American Series) (Hardcover)

Having gotten this great cookbook for Christmas, I've been cooking from it almost non-stop since. I have a large collection of cookbooks and think of myself as an accomplished cook, but I have never had a bookbook like this one in which all the recipes not only work but are delicious. My only regret is that I can't ask the authors to dinner; they sound delightful.I just had a dinner party for 6 very discerning friends and made the stracotto oflamb with olives and oranges and the oven-baked polenta. For dessert we had the butttermilk panna cotta with lemon jelly. My guests were in heaven! At New Year's I made the strawberries in Champagne Jelly which was quite a hit. And if anyone is still making cookies out there, make sure to include the apricot walnut biscotti. A big thank-you to the talented authors!