Overhauling a popular cookbook like the nine-year-old America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, which has sold close to 900,000 copies, can be dicey. No publisher wants to alienate fans of the earlier iterations. But America’s Test Kitchen—the umbrella for a cookbook publishing program, two ad-free magazines (Cook’s Illustrated and Cook’s Country), and two public broadcasting programs (America’s Test Kitchen and Cook’s Country from America’s Test Kitchen)—is used to pushing boundaries from its 2,500 sq. ft. test kitchen in Brookline Village, Mass. And it has completely revised its first ring-bound cookbook, even removing the rings.
Weighing in at 7.5 pounds, ATK’s new baby will have a slightly different name when it is released this October, The New Family Cookbook. Originally published in 2005 as part of a planned series of ring-bound cookbooks, it went through three editions—a revised edition included a chapter on cooking light; a third “cookware rating” edition contained a 50-page kitchen equipment buying guide—and is now being printed as a $40 hardcover. Two hundred of the original recipes are included along with 1,100 new recipes and hundreds of new four-color photographs.
To date, ATK has published four ring-bound cookbooks. “But we got feedback from retailers that they didn’t want the ring-bound any more,” says Elizabeth Carduff, editorial director of the cookbook program, which has a staff of 19, more than double the cookbook team when the book was first published. ATK decided to go with an unjacketed hardcover with a white background. The book was too thick to go into paperback. The press retained the familiar image of the cast-iron frying pan on the front cover.
Before going ahead with the project, ATK surveyed its customers, including many who own the ring-bound version, about what types of recipes to include. “We wanted to make sure people who bought the first edition would buy this book. We were really happy to see the response was so high,” says Carduff. “It gave us a lot of confidence that this was the right [recipe] mix.”
Although there are many new recipes, Carduff stresses that all the classic recipes can still be found. Those looking for their favorite guacamole or roasted chicken dish will have it in the new cookbook. The test kitchen has continued to refine dishes like beef stew, brownies, and pie crust, and it has added more recipes for grains and new versions of pesto, like one with kale and sunflower seeds.
It took more than a year to choose the recipes put together this new edition. It also required time to reshoot much of the photography. Part of the reason for the new photos was to create a “Learn How” feature. Over the past two years ATK has also changed its photography style. “We’re shooting much closer to the food with less props,” says Carduff, who describes it as a “cleaner” look.
Carduff considers the $40 price a value for a book its size--888 pages.” To promote the cookbook, which is ATK’s lead title, the press will do a publicity campaign that includes a Today Show appearance and other media interviews. It is putting its marketing muscle into getting the book in holiday gift guides and has created digital material for online bookstore promotions.
