America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook
January 26, 2006 by Andrea 
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I am totally addicted to the America’s Test Kitchen cooking show on PBS. They are all about the food and the gear. While they are selective about ingredients and methods, they remain unpretentious. They’ll tackle the most daunting chunks of meat for a festive celebration or the most basic weeknight dinners. Even when they are preparing something that I wouldn’t under normal circumstances (such as lamb or veal), I will still watch just to try and pick up any bits of cooking wisdom that I can.
The America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook is reminiscent of the familiar cookbooks designed to provide basic every day recipes. So in that sense the book isn’t a revolution among cookbooks, but it has the teaching approach and helpful asides that make an ATK cookbook. All the basic food categories are covered with nice color photographs. It’s in a D-ring binder so the book lays flat when in use, but you’ll have to assemble the pages and dividers in the rings yourself. There are over 800 pages of recipes, product reviews, and cooking wisdom in here. In addition, there is a section titled “How to Use This Book” at the beginning, and it does a good job of prepping the cook for using the recipes. For example, it has a helpful section called “Assumptions We Make About Ingredients” which tells you what to expect when they list common items such as flour as an ingredient.
The first thing I do when I get my hands on a cookbook is sit down with a pile of Post-It Flags. Then I go page by page and put a flag on anything that catches my eye. As I’m going through the book now I’m flagging recipes such as:
- Tomato and Mozzarella Tart
- Corn Chowder
- Pasta Alla Amatriciana
- Chicken Marsala
- Chicken and Dumplings
- Steak Au Poivre with Brandied Cream Sauce
- Dry Rubs
- Wet Rubs
- Barbecued Beef Brisket
- Slow-Cooker Beef and Barley Soup
- Oatmeal Scones
- Hot Fudge Pudding Cake
- Summer Berry Gratin
- Flan
- the entire section on ice creams and sorbets
- Compound Butters
Too many to list here. I need to restock my Post-It Flags. I have my eye on that Slow-Cooker Beef and Barley Soup. I think that is going to be on the menu very soon!
The photographs are good and functional, just as I would expect from ATK. I love the section that demonstrates how to roll out pasta dough. The photos take you step-by-step through the process, and then the troubleshooting section shows how to deal with pasta making snafus, such as when the dough sticks to the rollers.
This one is definitely a worthy addition to my cookbook collection, and I predict that it will quickly rise to the top shelf. Oh heck, it’s already sitting there!
