Hi,
I use their recipes quite often. They also have television shows on PBS titled "Americas Test Kitchen" and "Cook's Country". There is also a website that you can join free for a two week period. In addition to recipes they have equipment and ingredient reviews with recommendations. I don't always agree with their recommendations (ie Breville vs. Vitamix). Chris Campbell, who heads this up, can be tiresome but he has good people working with him. Check out the TV programs, I find them enjoyable and watch them often. They also have cookbooks that compile the recipes and information in the magazines which you can commonly find in Cosco, BJs and other stores at discount. Gee, do I sound like a groupie?
MJ

Cooks Illustrated is the single most influential source of cooking techniques and recipes today. For each recipe, they independently taste-taste multiple variations over a period that can last for months, looking to evaluate traditional methods and find the single best version of each recipe. They are the primary driver behind cooking trends like brining turkey and low temp roasting.

They accept no advertising, so if you have a subscription you're going to get spammed eight ways from Tuesday to buy more magazines, books, etc. so getting all those magazines for free is a real bonus.

I will say, they are not the source for recipes you just randomly change without even trying them once. I don't think that chicken is even safe to eat.

I've only purchased a few Cook's Illustrated magazines over the years (too dang expensive), but I have six cookbooks because of all the food science in them. And a slight correction, it's Chris (Christopher) Kimball, not Campbell, who does get to be tiresome, especially when he harkens back to his "hippy" days or gets dressed as some garden vegetables. Hubby and I watch the PBS programs weekly (but we only have basic cable and are easy to entertain - LOL).

Alton Brown gave them a run for their money and they started giving cooking/baking science a little more airtime and included actual scientists.

My first book was "The Classic Cookbook" which was two landmark cookbooks together in one (giant) volume of "The Cook's Bible" and "The Dessert Bible".

I gave my 18-year old granddaughter a copy of "The NEW Best Recipe" from the editors of Cook's Illustrated. A great book for anyone wanting to learn how to cook a wide range of dishes. It has 1,000 of the best tested recipes in America.

I've enjoyed some of their recipes, such as brining beans so they remain whole and don't explode during cooking. What was it recently about eggs - they cooked a 1,000 eggs to figure out the best method to "boil" them.

Jack Bishop, the guy who tests different ingredients on America's Test Kitchen, has a number of his own books.

-Grainlady

So it sounds like a good thing. I rarely watch PBS except for an occasional NOVA. Need to search for this show.

Why is the chicken unsafe to eat? It was almost completely cooked and then frozen.

They haven't forwarded their mail yet so I just got a new issue! They moved across the country and told me that everything they left is mine to keep.

They are the primary driver behind cooking trends like brining turkey and low temp roasting - a good example of how they are five years behind. They were among the last to learn the "dry salt" method, which is much more effective, and they were among the last to hear about microplane graters.

They appeal to a certain demographic - I am not part of that, but I do find their shows minimally entertaining and minimally informative. I learn much more from other shows. I would never subscribe to their magazine - I find them very opinionated and heavy-handed - plus they have a very different taste sensibility to mine. Most of what they make is very boring, mainstream, and nothing new to me - plus I prefer my own methods to theirs. They target the middle and ignore the cutting edge, although speaking of which I did learn something from one of their knife reviews.

Lars

Being boring and mainstream and from New England, I have an online subscription and use their recipes quite often. And most of them turn out pretty good.

Nope. They've been dry brining for a while now.

I do agree that Kimball's tone gets really annoying. You'd think no one had ever made a decent pot roast til they came along.

I have a couple of years worth of ATK magazines and find them a great resource. We've got a ton of Cook's Country and ATK shows saved on DVR ready for when the mood strikes us to try something new.

Haven't had a failed attempt yet and discovered many keepers that are in permanent rotation.

We enjoy watching ATK & CC - we find the programs to be the perfect antidote to stressful news shows :)

Yah, certain demographics and such. That's cool but don't discount us: We also enjoy a creating dishes in a range of cuisines - not just delicious, homey, American comfort foods.

I am a pretty decent Japanese foods cook and DH does some cool Australian and British specialities - we also dabble in Filipino, Mexican, Chinese, Cuban and Eastern cuisines.

It's ALL good!

:)

I'm not sure what this unmentioned demographic is, but both I and my adult (and out of the house) kids love Cooks Illustrated. I'm a happy subscriber to the magazine and the online resource.

What I enjoy is that they tell you the whys and why nots behind what to do as and what not to do. What they tried that didn't work. Learning these things has made me a better cook beyond what I do just with their recipes.

Kimball's tone can be a bit annoying on the TV show but it's obvious he's deliberately playing the role of the foil. He's skeptical, he's questioning, he wants an explanation, he warns "when I tried to do xxx at home, it was a disaster." Don't take it too seriously, he honestly couldn't be that much of a jerk. Even if he is, his shtick provides a bit of tension to make the shows more interesting.

One of the things that shows their openmindedness is that that they're not afraid to chase down and recommend an easy (even if off-beat) solution to a missing flavor or appearance component. Like when they sometimes recommend sauteing tomato paste or mushrooms or anchovy paste to give a dish a glutamate (umami) flavor jolt. Not too many have found that bandwagon, it works great.

The Cooks Country routine is a little too Ah Shucks, Ma and Pa Kettle for me, but I do like the other show.

IMO ATK makes an honest attempt at differentiating fact from fiction in the kitchen, and comes up with many solid, approachable recipes. Off-hand I only recall one epic fail - carnitas - but they came out so badly that I can only assume I did something wrong. Overall I give their recipes a higher than average expectation of turning out well. Maybe not crazy gourmet, but good dishes.

On the other hand I'm completely put off by their marketing. I cancelled my subscription to their web site after being increasingly locked out of recipes, only to be prompted to pay more to get better access. Yeah, no thanks. I was ok spending $25 a year for several years. Until half the recipes I clicked on required "premium" membership. Now they get nothing from me.

I sub to CI online and Cook's Country in print, and on my rare Saturdays off I turn on their PBS shows...good kitchen-cleaning background noise. I like the product reviews and taste tests as much as the recipes, which I usually wind up tweaking a bit. I've learned some new techniques and gotten some good hints contributed by readers.

I've tested some recipes for America's Test Kitchen and that's kind of fun. We're not supposed to post or discuss recipes until they're published and I see the latest Cook's Country has a butternut gratin that I tested. It was pretty good but they had the testing during off-season...I paid a fortune for insipid butternut. Worth trying again with decent squash, though.

FOAS, I'm with you...the marketing is getting ridiculous. When I re-up my subscriptions we get bombarded with calls (yay for caller ID). If it gets much worse I may sub through my library. It would probably circulate well....Fine Cooking does.

Katiec, why am I not surprised that you'd be testing recipes for America's Test Kitchen? I always thought working there would be a great job, spending all day in the kitchen, messing up and trying to fix it, LOL.

I seldom watch television, but the one show I tried to always watch was ATK on PBS on Saturday morning. With the new house remodel, we do nothing except work on the house, so I haven't watched in a long time. (sigh)

I always enjoyed it and even liked watching Christopher Kimball be the cynic. Like everything else, some of their recipes I like and some I don't. I seldom agree with them on the taste tests, but watch their recommendations for kitchen equipment. I'm not big on their relatively new "gadget girl", but I'm not so big on gadgets, really.

As with everything, I have some fails and some not. Their vodka pie crust was a huge fail in my kitchen, more than once, but Elery loves their grill method for cooking pork steak in sauce. You win some and lose some, you know?

Their lemon bars are awesome but their pie crust was terrible, so I go to ATK for the things they do well and other sources for other references. I can't imagine trying to get all my recipes, information on equipment, ingredients and techniques all from one place.

Annie

My kids gave me a subscription to CI last year for Christmas. I got maybe half the issues. I emailed them, and they sent me one of the issues I missed, and one I already had received. Unfortunately, the one issue I completely missed was the one about vegetarian cooking, which pertains to me the most. In spite of that, I renewed my subscription because I've been happy with the magazines I have received.

What I haven't been happy with is that since I've subscribed, I've gotten all that spam that someone alluded to. A day doesn't go by that I don't get emails trying to sell me stuff. Even with their tested products and gadgets, which they sometimes include in their emails (some of their emails have information I like, some are just ads), there's a "buy" button link to Amazon. So, to say they don't have advertising may be true for the magazine itself, but not for any other part of their company.

Chris Kimball doesn't bother me at all. I don't know why, but I don't mind him.

I have one of Jack Bishop's books. It's one I received in one of our swaps years ago. It's a Vegetarian Italian cookbook, and I really like it.

Sally

I use to get all their various magazines but found I wasn't even looking them, so I put my subscriptions online and now just go there when I'm looking for a particular recipe... or a new one. I find their recipes dependable. I just wish they didn't require the use of every pot and pan in the kitchen!

I love watching both shows. I have learned so much watching them. Much to my surprise, apparently DH has been paying attention, too. I was playing with a recipe a few weeks ago and he said to try thus-and-so like they did on Cook's County! And it was from one of the product testing episodes that I have found my most favorite kitchen cleaner ever (Method organic). Some of the Cook's Illustrated magazine covers are pretty enough to frame, but I think their website stinks. It shouldn't be that much just to access a few recipes! However, if you try to write down the recipes from the TV shows, be prepared to write fast!!
Edie

DVR is a beautiful thing, Edie. IMO worth the cost just to be able to rewind when you miss something or pause when you need to powder your nose (or write down the recipe.) Beyond that, if you watch commercial television you can recover half of your life lost to TV and never again have to force yourself to stay up late (or put off immediate needs) in order not to miss a show.

Only 2 emails from ATK today.

This post was edited by foodonastump on Mon, Dec 8, 14 at 17:59

I finished the 1st recipe from the magazine. I froze the chicken in between the steps but it came out great. It called for a butter, flour, cornstarch mix brushed on the chicken and fried. While this may be a very simple thing to most of you, I had never heard of doing. I'm looking forward to reading the magazines and really need to try to find the show on TV. We have a dvr so I can record the episodes.

I gave my mom who doesn't cook much anymore some to look at. She loves them as she likes how they explain how the recipe developed. Now she wants to try things.