The Cooks Illustrated Cookbook

Fans of the America’s Test Kitchen empire know that it’s a reliable source, both for recipes that consistently produce good results and for a continuous stream of cookbooks that recycle the content from previous compilations, magazines, and TV episodes. The 2,000 recipes include some fresh flavors in the form of small bites (potstickers; bruschetta with summer squash, bacon and blue cheese); more challenging salads (orange-jicama with sweet and spicy peppers), and technically complicated desserts (French meringue cookies; baklava). With recipes for fried chicken, steak tips with mushroom-onion gravy, and four-cheese lasagna, entrees hew closer to traditional hearty staples. Throughout are the helpful tips and exacting illustrations that make ATK a peerless source for culinary wisdom—from rolling a filled omelet to removing beet stains from a cutting board. With a front-loaded by-the-recipe contents page that makes navigating the sizable book much easier, this volume is a wonderfully comprehensive guide for budding chefs. (Nov.)