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30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
another great, but slightly flawed, cookbook from ATK, September 22, 2007
This review is from: Test Kitchen Favorites: The 2007 Companion Cookbook to the Hit TV Show (America's Test Kitchen) (Hardcover)
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.
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17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Pick up a copy, slap a 5-star rating on it, and walk away, April 20, 2007
This review is from: Test Kitchen Favorites: The 2007 Companion Cookbook to the Hit TV Show (America's Test Kitchen) (Hardcover)
It's almost superfluous to keep reviewing these books -- they're like collections from the Onion. They come out every year and either you like them or you don't. Fortunately, ATK is far less controversial than the Onion -- it goes without saying that it's one of the best cooking shows on the air, with a solid cast and a dedicated support staff behind it. But I guess I have to say something, right?
Okay, here goes: let's see. Highlights, all-beef meatloaf (the bane of my childhood, apparently made actually edible), Cantonese-style chow mein (aka Stir-fried chicken and bok choy with crispy noodle cake), Chicken Parmesan, Carbonnade a la Flamande, and even what they claim is a foolproof recipe for the notoriously balky Chicken Kiev, and that, of course, is just the beginning. Two new chefs, behind-the-scenes veterans Erika Bruce and Rebecca Hays, bring their voices to the screen on the television and their recipes to the book. If it has any significant flaws, it's that it doesn't seem to have an overarching theme like some of the earlier seasons -- it's just a random shuffle of cool and interesting dishes.
If you're a fan of America's Test Kitchen or a convert to the First Church of Kimball, Brown, and Corriher, you already know you need this book, and this review is pretty much redundant. If you're not an ATK fan but you like finding out how to make interesting and unusual dishes just right, I'm telling you you need this book. These guys do great work.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Test Kitchen Favorites is a great cookbook, May 29, 2007
This review is from: Test Kitchen Favorites: The 2007 Companion Cookbook to the Hit TV Show (America's Test Kitchen) (Hardcover)
I've been a faithful fan of America's Test Kitchen for years and have tried many of their recipes. This particular edition is excellent and I've tried several recipes in it and they've all been great. Instructions are clear, results are fantastic. The recipe for the Key Lime Bars is worth the cost of the book.
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