The Cook's Country Cookbook: Regional and Heirloom Favorites Tested and Reimagined for Today's Home Cooks [Hardcover]

The Editors of Cook's Country Magazine (Author), Cook's Country Magazine (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2008

Welcome to Cook's Country - a place where you'll learn what's cooking in kitchens across America. This debut collection from the editors of Cook's Country magazine celebrates the landscape of American home cooking from yesterday and today. In the tradition of great American cookbooks like The Fannie Farmer Cookbook and The Settlement Cookbook, The Cook's Country Cookbook is, at its core, a wide-ranging, comprehensive collection chock-full of beloved classics like roast chicken, beef stew, biscuits, blueberry pie, and more. In addition, the editors of Cook's Country magazine have also reached back in time to revive old favorites to suit modern tastes and lifestyles. Here you'll find Chicken Divan without the soup mix - only tender chicken crisp broccoli blanketed in a velvety cheese sauce. You'll learn that it's possible to serve a from-scratch comfort food classic like meatloaf on a weeknight when time is tight: our mini-meatloaves cook in a fraction of the time of traditional versions.
Discover fresh, new, and sometimes regional recipes that illuminate the depth and personality behind American cooking - recipes such as North Carolina Pulled Pork (a slow-cooker dish with real barbecue flavor); 24-Hour Salad (a make-ahead salad where the vegetables remain crisp and fresh); and King Ranch Casserole (a kid-friendly creamy chicken casserole with toasty corn chips and Southwestern spices, made famous by Lady Bird Johnson).
In addition to foolproof recipes, The Cook's Country Cookbook also pulls back the curtain to reveal the often fascinating origins of classic American favorites, such as the use of breakfast cereal in party snack mixes or how Bundt pans gave rise to the popular cake. Much more than a collection of foolproof recipes, The Cook's Country Cookbook provides a lively, in-depth portrait of the great American table.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 600 pages
• Publisher: Boston Common Press (September 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933615346
• ISBN-13: 978-1933615349
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 8.1 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (78 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #260,794 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

America's Test Kitchen is a 2,500 square foot kitchen located outside of Boston. It is the home of Cook's Illustrated and Cook's Country magazines and is the workday destination for over 3 dozen test cooks, editors and cookware specialists. Our mission is to test recipes until we understand how and why they work and arrive at the best version. We also test kitchen equipment and supermarket ingredients in search of brands that offer the best value and performance. You can watch us work by tuning in to our public television show, America's Test Kitchen.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

105 of 109 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Greatly appreciated August 31, 2008

By Richard W. Miller

Format:Hardcover

I would like to take issue with the previous reviewer concerning the fact that the recipes are taken from previous magazines. I for one am delighted to have these excellent and thoroughly tested recipes and product reviews and commentary finaly assembled into a single well organized cookbook. I greatly value these recipes and use them often, but found it tedious to have to thumb through the magazine issues looking for ideas for cooking pork chops for example. All similar recipes are grouped together. If one uses the monthly magazines and then reads the book description and reviews (above), it should be obvious that the magazine recipes would appear in " Cook's Country's" first ever cookbook! Why wouldn't they? I would be dissapointed if I looked for my favorite recipes from the magazine in the cookbook and couldn't find them. Especially for tried and true classics.
For example, If the people at "Cook's Illustrated/ Cook's Country" test recipes for fried chicken and after much tweeking (as is their custom) offer up a recipe that is the "best recipe", I would expect to see that recipe in any of their cookbooks in which it would be pertinent. How many BEST recipes for a single dish can their be. I assume ONE. Therefore whether I reach for their "American Classics" volume or one of their more comprehensive cookbooks, I would expect to find THE best recipe for fried chicken in all of them, unless of course they've further developed that recipe.
I've repeatedly seen this kind of complaint , that they repeat recipes (as if this was a flaw or a rip off, which it's not) and/or they never add new recipes. Cook's Illustrated is constantly testing and publishing new recipes and sometimes updating older ones.
I've been an avid professional and home cook for about 40 years now and own thousands of cookbooks and nothing comes close to the cookbooks offered by "Cook's Illustrated'" (I own them all). I'm not alone in this opinion. Read the reviews for their other cookbooks.
I would highly recommend any thing they publish to any one who enjoys cooking and wants thoroughly tested, fool-proof, and delicious recipes with one caveat. Read the descriptions and reviews of the book(s) you intend to purchase and make certain it's something you want.

37 of 37 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Cook's is a name to trust September 25, 2008

By Cowboy Bill VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

I'll admit upfront that I'm a big Cook's Illustrated fan. I watch the magazine's "America's Test Kitchen: Season 8" show on PBS and subscribe to Cook's Country, Cook's Illustrated's magazine aimed at presenting convenient versions of classic American recipes. Most of the recipes in this book are taken from that very fine magazine.

First of all, the big reason I'm such a fan is that the folks at Cook's really test, test and test again before presenting their recipes either in print or on their various broadcasts. I've tried many of their recipes -- everything from pulled pork and "jucy lucy" [sic] hamburgers to chicken biryani and coq au vin -- and they've always turned out great. This test-kitchen approach is what's behind Cook's Country's recipes.

Second, the editors often take pains to explain just how tough a particular recipe was to crack, sometimes taking the reader step-by-step through their trial-and-error processes. These explanations as to how they ended up making certain decisions for the final recipes are educational. (An example: The recipe here for firecracker chicken was a real challenge for the test kitchen, it seems. The big issue was getting a crust with a good texture that wouldn't slide off of slippery chicken breasts before frying or get blown off by escaping moisture while frying. How they ended up with the solution they did is edifying, in that it's a breading technique I can now apply to other recipes, too.)

Third, Cook's does a great job of working with ingredients you can easily find in your local supermarket, which is a big plus for those of us not living in the hippest of metros or who don't want to buy four different types of pricey imported cheese for a single lasagna recipe. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

Fourth, while many of the recipes are classic, these recipes are not old. They are modern versions that deliver the taste of the past but are engineered with an eye toward a modern kitchen and a modern pantry. The folks at Cook's are not snobs; if a particular recipe works best using a microwave oven at some point, they'll tell you. If canned diced tomatoes will work as well in a specific recipe as fresh tomatoes, they'll tell you that, too. And while you'll find many retro dishes here -- casseroles, stews, roast chicken, desserts and the like -- you'll also find things that you haven't run across before but seem like you should have, like their Guinness beef pot pie with bacon, skillet pizza or "unstuffed" chicken breasts.

Lastly, the tone of The Cook's Country Cookbook is just right. I honestly don't remember ever reading one of these recipes and feeling I needed more info. I also never felt overwhelmed with info or with chef jargon, either. The editorial voice is competent but friendly and the text is easy on the brain.

If you want one classic American recipe book that you can trust, this is the one. I don't normally give out five stars in my reviews; I reserve that rating for stuff I think is truly first rate. I really think The Cook's Country Cookbook is at that level.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A classic comfort food cookbook October 12, 2008

By Colleen M. Schneider TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

If you are searching for fancy-schmancy, this will not be the book for you. However, if you are looking for a cookbook that covers the basics of comfort cooking with good pictures of finished recipes and "how-to" pictures with text this is an excellent cookbook for the beginner and beyond.

America's Test kitchen goes through many variations of a recipe in order to get to the one that they believe is the best of the best, and that is what they bring to you in this book. I tried the beer bread and used the smoked gouda cheese variation (sans the bacon, but that would have been good too). The bread came out great and I liked the explanation before the recipe of some of the other variations that they tried before coming to the final recipe-why they suggest a lighter beer, how much butter they thought should be used and why it seemed to work better.

As you thumb through the book there are old favorites, chicken soup, macaroni and cheese, snickerdoodles, red velvet cake and regional cooking from the South etc.

I think this cookbook will make a great addition to my kitchen library that I will turn to again and again for their clear, concise instruction and reliable recipes.

This would be a nice cookbook for a beginner to have as many of the recipes are basic and the instruction on technique is very good.
It would also make a nice gift for a newlywed, along with some of the kitchen basics.