Customer Reviews

The Best Recipe

5 star:		(168)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Best Recipe offers new insights to common dishes. The emphasis is on technique as much as ingredients. Ever wondered how to get crispy skin on your roast chicken? Rub the skin once with butter and never, ever baste. How do you make the ultimate Bolognese sauce? Two reductions of milk and wine followed by long, slow cooking. How do you get extra-tender ribs? Wrap them in tin-foil and let them rest in a paper bag for a full hour after cooking.

This practical guide to cooking tries to debunk common myths and reduce work in the kitchen, and usually succeeds. The recipes are simple where they can be and complex only where they need to be. The recipe for risotto is pure heresy: add most of the liquid at once, and stir only a little at the end. I've tried the traditional method (a little liquid at a time, constant stirring) and The Best Recipe method, and there's not much difference. Still, I enjoy stirring my risottos and think they're just a little creamier because of the extra effort.

But the point of this book isn't to make cooking easier. The only shortcuts offered are those that don't reduce the quality of the final product. The recipe for chili asks you to roast your own chilies and grind your own chili powder. Why? Chili made with homemade chili powder is "fuller and warmer" than chili made with commercial chili powder. And making your own chili powder is fun, provided you have a respirator handy.

The recipes here are standard classics. You won't find esoteric dishes or beautiful photos showing off elaborate presentations. What you will find is an instruction manual for making better food. It's the science of getting food right that counts here. If you enjoy cooking but sometimes find yourself wondering why you're endlessly stirring the risotto, get this book.

This book has a tendency to throw out tradition for "revisionist" recipes. For example, their lasagne doesn't include ricotta/cottage cheese because it doesn't "look right." As a result, it doesn't "TASTE right"! Sacrificing taste for looks isn't the good sign of a cookbook to me. (Presentation doesn't hurt, but, please, get your priorities straight!). The Beef Stew has a wine & chicken broth-based sauce (like a good portion of the recipes) instead of the more traditional & hearty, gravy-like sauce. The meatloaf is more traditional, but it's not above average. As far as the clam chowder, I've had better with Campbell's Home Cooking canned chowder. It doesn't have much of a clam taste--the potatoes & bacon come through with stronger flavor. It's not that the recipes are bad, I mean, I thought the Beef Goulash was great, but they're not the "best recipes", which in my opinion would have the best tasting traditional recipes. The book also mentions how they tried 70 recipes for gumbo on the inside sleeve, but, guess what?-- no recipe for gumbo in the book! On the plus side, this book is fascinating for it's explanations of how & why things work the way they do when cooking.

Overall, this is just another cookbook with a gimmick to get you to buy it, by saying they've tried 70 times to "get it right." But in the end, they don't "get it right." Like I said before, the recipes aren't bad, but what's lasagne without ricotta cheese?

If ever there was a book that deserved six stars, this is the one. "The Best Recipe" is for people who love cooking enough to want to do it well. Readers of "Cooks Illustrated" magazine will recognize the method. Each recipe is the result of an extensive comparison of various versions, an investigation into the component ingredients to determine those most fundamental to the final result, and the careful assembly of a final version that is optimized for both flavor and ease of preparation. Along the way lessons are learned (and myths dispelled) about food science, cooking tools, techniques, and ingredients. Be advised, however, that the book is directed at the middle American palate. Though there are versions of more exotic dishes, they have been 'Americanized' to take advantage of ingredients most likely to be found at the local supermarket. An occasional trip to the spice boutique might be desired, but it won't be required. Nor will the stocking of 17 different types of flour or any other staple. The editors frequently compare products and end up recommending one that has been on the shelf, right next to the one you've been using for a long time. I really can offer only one criticism, but it's an important one -- flour measures are expressed in terms of volume, not weight. There is a big difference between one person's version of a cup of flour and another's, but an ounce is an ounce in anybody's hands. There really is no excuse for a book that attempts to find the best way to do things not to express flour in ounces or grams. Admittedly, there are casual text references to their version of a cup of bread flour being "about" 130 grams and a cup of cake flour being "about" three ounces. But, if these are the true equivalents used throughout the book, they are much less than the values quoted by others, and the difference would greatly affect the outcome of a recipe.

This is my favorite cooking reference book! The authors explore many different standard recipes, and provide a fascinating discussion of the best way to make those recipes.

For example, if you find that your peanut butter cookies just don't come out like Grandma's did, turn to the "Cookies, Brownies, and Bars" chapter, and find a detailed discussion of what works and what doesn't when making peanut butter cookies--what kind of shortening, what kind of peanut butter, etc. And then, you are presented with the optimum recipe based on their experimentation.

By going through this book, you absorb not just specific recipes, but an understanding of basic cooking principles. I curl up with it on the couch at night and just start reading! It's that interesting!

I'm thinking that beginning cooks wouldn't find this book nearly as interesting as people who have been cooking for a while, because most of the fun of the book is you saying to yourself, "Yes! Exactly! I've seen that too! Is THAT why it came out that way?! NOW I know!"

Even if you aren't that interested in the wheres and whyfors, however, this book contains hundreds (maybe thousands! It's HUGE) of great recipes from Apricot Muffins to Sauteed Zucchini.
When I wanted to know the best recipe for Buttermilk Waffles so I could get the best results out of my new waffle maker, this is the book I turned to.

Every serious cook should have this book on her/his shelf.

The thing that sets The Best Recipe apart from other cookbooks is that you never have to worry about a "failed" recipe. Everything comes out exactly as the book says. It's great, especially for people who are somewhat inept, especially at baking. I rely on the muffin, quick bread, and fruit crisp recipes. They always come out great. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning the science behind cooking and baking, as well as anyone looking for a basic cookbook that's not as overwhelming as Joy of Cooking.

I wouldn't have any qualms about recommending this cookbook to anyone who was looking for 'one cookbook that pulls it all together'. I like how they have done extensive testing to come up with, in their opinion, is the best recipe for a dish. I have had success following their key lime pie recommendations. I ran into problems with their creme brulee recipe. None of the ramekins I found were 'safe for broiler' and their method recommends melting dried brown sugar under a broiler. I found that my usual method, a Home Depot blowtorch doesn't work on brown sugar. So, I went back to granulated sugar and a blowtorch and it worked great. The creme brulee recipe itself was iffy, very eggy and none of us really liked it. I think a better recipe would be based on: 1 pint heavy cream, 8 egg yolks, 1 ounce brown sugar, and 1/2 tablespoon vanilla for the creme brulee custard.

The flan (creme caramel) recipe in this cookbook is very good, however.

Soon, I will begin cooking entrees and vegetables using these recipes. Reading them over, they look like they will prove very successful.

I enjoy reading the book, and plan to use it as my reference cookbook along with Joy of Cooking and The Bread Maker's Apprentice.

I have lots of cookbooks and love to cook, but am a young mother of 4. This is the best. ITs recipes are foolproof. I even have used it to purchase my new waffle machine. Which is awesome. You must have this cookbook and while your at it, get it for someone you know.

I have really enjoyed having this book. It is fascinating just to sit and read the articles. I've learned so much about cooking and baking just doing that. And the recipes are clear and the few I've had a chance to try so far give GREAT results. I've made wonderful roast beef, sauteed chicken breasts, and (let angels sing) delicious homemade bread in less than 2 hours. I'm very much looking forward to trying many more of these recipes, including some I've never tried, like corned beef from scratch, sponge cake, fallen chocolate cake, rice pudding, REAL snickerdoodles.... the list goes on. If you're interested in cooking and/or baking, you will love this book. It's not by any means comprehensive (most noticeably to me, the beans and grains section seems kind of sparse), but what it covers, it covers very well.

I gave this book a positive review in early December of last year, but I couched my thoughts with so many qualifications that I feel it may have given people the impression that this is not a worthy book.

I repent. Since that review, I have made several recipes from it and I find the results to be delightful. They were as good or better than I have seen from recipes in other books.

I would still warn the reader that 'Best' is a very loaded term which means different things to different chefs. See my earlier review for the details. Meanwhile, go buy this book. It is an excellent addition to a cookbook library.

This is the best cookbook around. If I had to choose just one cookbook, this would be it. I would miss my Joy of Cooking, sure, but this book has everything you need. I have tried many recipes from this cookbook and had superb results with each one. Follow the recipes as is, or use as a reference for learning how and why. Amazing Book!